Almost coming of age

We are almost farmers! We have been busy building rabbit cages and they are now hanging in the barn ready and waiting for the occupants to arrive. I have a couple of extra jobs to do before we go and buy any stock. I have an idea to hang some hardware cloth under the cages to catch the manure. The urine will drop through to the floor which will have straw. The manure will stay on the hardware cloth until it is swept off the end into a worm box. The straw on the floor will be changed regularly and the soiled stuff will go on the compost heap.
I have also got to build a rabbit tractor that the young rabbits will be grown out in. I intend to use some of the pallets I have been given to make the frame and the shelter for the tractor. It will be heavier than most but I want it to be. That way any predators will have trouble getting under the cage.
We have an old storm shelter that was built in the cold war era. In fact I think it is as old as the house, which is over fifty years old. Apart from the obvious use of being a haven when the tornado warnings go off, it sits idle. I had the idea of using it for the majority of our food processing. The rabbits can be processed in there and when we eventually get broiler chickens, I intend to set up the plucker and such in there. I can take a water supply from the well-house which is just above the Hobbit House as we refer to it. The inside has to be repainted as the damp has got into it and the lime wash or whatever they used has begun to peel off badly. I will repaint it with latex paint which should help seal the stonework.
We intend to grow grain crops this year to offset some of the feed bill for the rabbits and eventually chickens. That will be my next major task, to prepare the ground for oats, red clover and sunflowers. We will be trying seed balls for some of this. They are a mixture of seeds, compost and clay, which is mixed together to form small balls which are hardened in the sun. You broadcast them and wait for it to rain. The rain dissolves the clay and hopefully the seed has been in contact with the compost and has germinated. They then send their roots down into the soils and away they go. This is all a ploy to get away with not tilling the ground. The vegetables patch it being switched over to no till as well. I will be trying to grow potatoes and the like under mulch, rather than dig into the ground.