Craigslist can be pretty awesome. I picked up two of these hutches for $30! They were in a little bit rough shape, but I cleaned them up, repaired them, and painted them just in time for our rabbit babies to be sexed and separated. We have 5 girls and 4 boys.
Then, our new to us barn arrived! Our church gave us their old shed and even paid for delivery! Completely FREE! Praise God! So, my oldest and I got to work and built this:
For these:
And then I had to learn how to milk the one with the blue collar! I'd never milked anything before in my life and I've never been shown how, but we figured it out pretty quickly. I'm considering taking on another milker, but I'm not quite sure, yet.
Last, but not least, we have chickens. From left to right in this picture, we have Lauren (Bacall), Bogie (the rooster), and Marilyn (the white hen). Hiding is Myrna (Loy). I'm hoping to get a light brown/tan/cream/blond hen and name her Betty (Grable). All in all, we want 8 laying hens and we will build a larger coop.
I really feel like I have finally found my niche. I hope I have. Maybe it's just the honeymoon period in the fine weather of summer, but I'm loving the sights, sounds and even the smells of having the animals around. I am so busy, especially with harvest rolling in and homeschooling having started. I've dealt with escapees and poop....so much poop. I have more laundry to do, but I feel so happy, like it all fits together and just works. I hope I can expand on this and while I am so overwhelmingly happy with what we have right now, I hope that someday soon we can expand. I would be in seventh heaven if we could actually have a profitable, working farm.
Glad to hear you are happy with all the new critters. I find my time working in the "farm yard" to be the most relaxing part of my day, almost like meditation. Focusing on the animals and their needs removes all thoughts of the daily grind from my mind.
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