January 12
I learned something new about rabbits. I’ve always been surprised that I never was able to witness the does nursing their babies. I’ve popped in and out of the barn at various times of the day and night, and seldom, if ever, seen the mamas in the nest boxes nursing their babies. I learned that the babies nurse only twice a day, early in the morning and late at night. I was surprised to learn this fact. The babies are so small, I assumed they would eat multiple times a day. This knowledge explains why the mama who spilled the water in the nest box did not want to nurse her babies when they were returned to her. It also arms me with the knowledge for bottle feeding baby rabbits, should the need ever arise. I love it when I learn new things that prepare me to better be able to care for and manage the animals that we raise for food for our family. I’ve been around pigs and cows all my life, but the smaller animals are sometimes very different to care for. In this regard, however, they are much the same as the larger ones. We have always bottle fed our calves only twice a day. I had just assumed that because rabbits are smaller, they ate more frequently.
While working the last 24 hours, I have been working on the new garden design and planning the raised beds. I am leaning toward the galvanized beds. Even with that decision made, I need to decided what material to use for the framework. My research is showing me that the more durable and long term the material will be, the more expensive it will be. With the number of beds I am planning I may have to sacrifice some durability for less expense. Either that, or decrease the number of beds I build this year, and continue to plant in the ground, adding more beds each year until I get the number I want in the garden. This may become a 3-5 year plan, rather than a goal to be completed this year. At this point, my choices seem to be a frame of square metal tubing, which would run around $300 per bed; composite boards, which would run around $160 per bed; or pressure treated lumber, which would run just over $75 per bed. Considering I would really like to do no less than 14 beds, I may go with the pressure treated lumber. I will still have the cost of filling the beds, so I can not use the whole budget just to build the beds. I haven’t figured the cost for beds inside the greenhouse. So, again, this may become a step by step project over the next few years, rather than a completed goal for 2021. Flexibility…..I MUST remember that flexibility is the key to accomplishing our goals.
I’ve been playing with the new garden layout. I think I want the greenhouse oriented East to West to extend the growing season. One of the goals will be to grow lettuce, spinach, and other greens for fresh salad through most of the winter. Another goal will be to grow the brassicas, broccoli and cauliflower into the winter. I’m also considering some of the other cool weather crops such as onions and peas. The greenhouse may also allow for a few warm weather plants that would continue to produce past the first frost. It will be an experimental year. For that reason, I’m torn on what to put inside the greenhouse as far as beds. I could put 2 foot deep beds the full 50 foot length on each side, which would still leave room for a three foot bed down the center with walkways wide enough for my wagon and/or wheelbarrow between the rows. I could also plant directly into the ground the first year. The concern with that would be the difficulty of filling the beds once the greenhouse is put up. I think the easiest thing to do would be to build the beds, then erect the greenhouse over them. With careful planning, I think this would be possible. Being flexible, and willing to change may be necessary, but I feel like the more definitive the plan, the less work will have to be re-done. We have enough projects and work to be done that I would like to avoid re-doing anything that doesn’t have to be done. I am only beginning to realize just how much planning should be done before a major project is begun.
How exciting! I look forward to seeing your plans come to life!