Farm News 12-03-06
Sunday morning, after chores, 21°
Suzette's Nine
The temperature has to go a long way below 20° before baby bunnies start shivering. The nest box is made of lumber and is covered with an opening in the top half of one end. It is nice and warm in there above the fur nest. Down in their nest, the little bunnies are quite cozy.
At one week old they are looking more like rabbits. Their ears are still flat down the backs of their heads and their heads still look overly large for their bodies. But, they're growing and doing well. By Tuesday they will be moving around more in the box, even, if the day is warm, adventuring out. They should have their eyes open by Thursday. Next weekend they will be cute, playful little bunnies.
Suzette is doing well. She is slightly grumpy, which is normal for her, and as round and plump as ever. She doesn't show pregnancy to any extent, and she looks about the same the day before she has bunnies as she looks the day after.
On Wednesday I'll put Brownie, a young doe who has never had babies, in with Buck to see if they will mate. If they do, then Brownie will be due around January 6, the day Suzette's are to be weaned.
Domestic rabbits seem to be superbly suited for their place in the world. Their feed is easy to store and easy to handle. They are generally calm, placid, and docile, characteristics which make caring for them quite simple. And, they produce hordes of cute little round bunnies.
Eating the surplus is a good way to recover part of the cost of raising them. Rabbit, even that raised at home, is not an inexpensive meat. I can sell them, usually for $4 or more each, at the auction center in Perry. Calvin has a friend who simply turns them loose in the fenced-in back yard. They look real cute in the yard, but they don't do well there at all.
A few bunnies can be given away to become pets in someone's house. Rabbits make fine house pets, usually. They have been domesticated for at least 2,000 generations, and probably longer, and most of their capacity for anti-social behavior has long ago been bred out. Most rabbits learn quickly where to find the litter box, and use it faithfully. They do like to chew on exposed electrical cords, though, and occasional pieces of furniture.
Anyway, if anyone would like a pet bunny, Suzette's nine will be ready to wean in four more weeks.
Tapioca!
Wednesday afternoon it cooled down considerably and we had what a neighbor called tapioca weather: showers of little pellets of ice. Thursday morning the temperature was 20° and the ground had a thin tapioca coating.
Thursday was cold compared to what we've been experiencing. The Lawrence paper had a front page photo of two postal delivery persons, one on Wednesday in shorts and the other on Thursday in fur-lined hat. It would have been another dull, boring day, except that the water lines in the barn froze, presenting an interesting set of problems. Also, Tessie found another possum in the barn, this one hiding behind the freezer where it might be hazardous to shooting.
At 8:00 pm I went out to the barn, as is usual on cold nights, to feed the stove and help keep part of the place above freezing. Mostly, the fire is pandering to the cats. Tessie started growling and barking in the northeast corner of the barn, the location of the freezer and refrigerator, so I went over to see what was bothering her. It was, as I suspected, another possum.
Is pandering to cats somehow improper or craven? I doubt it. The cats expect pandering, it seems. Pandering to cats does not seem to change their opinions or their behaviors; a cat is a cat is a cat. I once asked Dumb Brother, an older and wiser tom cat, if he really enjoyed sex, with all the screaming, screeching, and growling. He answered, “Yes, 'but I can't get no satisfaction.'” So? A cat is a cat is a human, too.
Meanwhile, back in the barn, the possum is resting safely, it may think, under the refrigerator. The refrigerator is an ordinary thing in harvest brown and probably manufactured between 1950 and 1970. It does a good job of storing cold drinks in the summer and colostrum year-round. I could tip the refrigerator partially to one side, Tessie could dart in and grab the possum, pull it out, and I could stand the refrigerator upright again. Right? Probably not.
Tessie is old; she won't drag that possum out, she'll stand there and growl at it as soon as it quits trying to escape or fight back. That would leave me standing in the barn on a cold night, holding a refrigerator at a 45° angle, hoping that the dog will get out of the way soon so I can stand the refrigerator back at the vertical and go to bed. No, that didn't seem like a good way to spend the evening.
I did not tilt the refrigerator. Instead, I told Tessie that the main battle had been postponed by headquarters, went back to a warm spot by the stove, and thought. Tessie, carrying the honor of Terriers upon her small shoulders, barked a few more times and then joined me.
The temperature dropped even more that night and the cold north wind blew. When I went out to do chores Friday morning I found that the water faucet in the barn was frozen, as was the hydrant in the back yard, near the barn. Grumbling and growling, I went to the house with two buckets and brought back to the barn enough water to give everyone a good morning drink. Then I started to begin to set about planning to repair the plumbing.
When repairing plumbing, an important early step is to hire someone to do all the work. I will be 70 years old in a few weeks, definitely past the age of active plumbing. Jeannette is in her 50's but she is a lot more ambitious than me and is still in good shape, so I hired her to do the work.
It turns out that a rat had tried to set up housekeeping under the floor of the milking area. As part of it's household duties it had chewed out a foot long piece of the heat tape that kept the barn water pipe from freezing. When you take a foot out of the middle of a heat tape both ends quit working, also. Then, when the temperature drops into the teens and the wind blows, the water pipe freezes.
Jeannette and I spent almost all day Friday trying to repair the frozen pipe. We thawed it out and couldn't find any breaks, but it did leak at two fittings. Five times we tried to re-solder those fittings, and five times they leaked. We finally capped the pipe and vowed to return another day.
Suzette's Nine
The temperature has to go a long way below 20° before baby bunnies start shivering. The nest box is made of lumber and is covered with an opening in the top half of one end. It is nice and warm in there above the fur nest. Down in their nest, the little bunnies are quite cozy.
At one week old they are looking more like rabbits. Their ears are still flat down the backs of their heads and their heads still look overly large for their bodies. But, they're growing and doing well. By Tuesday they will be moving around more in the box, even, if the day is warm, adventuring out. They should have their eyes open by Thursday. Next weekend they will be cute, playful little bunnies.
Suzette is doing well. She is slightly grumpy, which is normal for her, and as round and plump as ever. She doesn't show pregnancy to any extent, and she looks about the same the day before she has bunnies as she looks the day after.
On Wednesday I'll put Brownie, a young doe who has never had babies, in with Buck to see if they will mate. If they do, then Brownie will be due around January 6, the day Suzette's are to be weaned.
Domestic rabbits seem to be superbly suited for their place in the world. Their feed is easy to store and easy to handle. They are generally calm, placid, and docile, characteristics which make caring for them quite simple. And, they produce hordes of cute little round bunnies.
Eating the surplus is a good way to recover part of the cost of raising them. Rabbit, even that raised at home, is not an inexpensive meat. I can sell them, usually for $4 or more each, at the auction center in Perry. Calvin has a friend who simply turns them loose in the fenced-in back yard. They look real cute in the yard, but they don't do well there at all.
A few bunnies can be given away to become pets in someone's house. Rabbits make fine house pets, usually. They have been domesticated for at least 2,000 generations, and probably longer, and most of their capacity for anti-social behavior has long ago been bred out. Most rabbits learn quickly where to find the litter box, and use it faithfully. They do like to chew on exposed electrical cords, though, and occasional pieces of furniture.
Anyway, if anyone would like a pet bunny, Suzette's nine will be ready to wean in four more weeks.
Tapioca!
Wednesday afternoon it cooled down considerably and we had what a neighbor called tapioca weather: showers of little pellets of ice. Thursday morning the temperature was 20° and the ground had a thin tapioca coating.
Thursday was cold compared to what we've been experiencing. The Lawrence paper had a front page photo of two postal delivery persons, one on Wednesday in shorts and the other on Thursday in fur-lined hat. It would have been another dull, boring day, except that the water lines in the barn froze, presenting an interesting set of problems. Also, Tessie found another possum in the barn, this one hiding behind the freezer where it might be hazardous to shooting.
At 8:00 pm I went out to the barn, as is usual on cold nights, to feed the stove and help keep part of the place above freezing. Mostly, the fire is pandering to the cats. Tessie started growling and barking in the northeast corner of the barn, the location of the freezer and refrigerator, so I went over to see what was bothering her. It was, as I suspected, another possum.
Is pandering to cats somehow improper or craven? I doubt it. The cats expect pandering, it seems. Pandering to cats does not seem to change their opinions or their behaviors; a cat is a cat is a cat. I once asked Dumb Brother, an older and wiser tom cat, if he really enjoyed sex, with all the screaming, screeching, and growling. He answered, “Yes, 'but I can't get no satisfaction.'” So? A cat is a cat is a human, too.
Meanwhile, back in the barn, the possum is resting safely, it may think, under the refrigerator. The refrigerator is an ordinary thing in harvest brown and probably manufactured between 1950 and 1970. It does a good job of storing cold drinks in the summer and colostrum year-round. I could tip the refrigerator partially to one side, Tessie could dart in and grab the possum, pull it out, and I could stand the refrigerator upright again. Right? Probably not.
Tessie is old; she won't drag that possum out, she'll stand there and growl at it as soon as it quits trying to escape or fight back. That would leave me standing in the barn on a cold night, holding a refrigerator at a 45° angle, hoping that the dog will get out of the way soon so I can stand the refrigerator back at the vertical and go to bed. No, that didn't seem like a good way to spend the evening.
I did not tilt the refrigerator. Instead, I told Tessie that the main battle had been postponed by headquarters, went back to a warm spot by the stove, and thought. Tessie, carrying the honor of Terriers upon her small shoulders, barked a few more times and then joined me.
The temperature dropped even more that night and the cold north wind blew. When I went out to do chores Friday morning I found that the water faucet in the barn was frozen, as was the hydrant in the back yard, near the barn. Grumbling and growling, I went to the house with two buckets and brought back to the barn enough water to give everyone a good morning drink. Then I started to begin to set about planning to repair the plumbing.
When repairing plumbing, an important early step is to hire someone to do all the work. I will be 70 years old in a few weeks, definitely past the age of active plumbing. Jeannette is in her 50's but she is a lot more ambitious than me and is still in good shape, so I hired her to do the work.
It turns out that a rat had tried to set up housekeeping under the floor of the milking area. As part of it's household duties it had chewed out a foot long piece of the heat tape that kept the barn water pipe from freezing. When you take a foot out of the middle of a heat tape both ends quit working, also. Then, when the temperature drops into the teens and the wind blows, the water pipe freezes.
Jeannette and I spent almost all day Friday trying to repair the frozen pipe. We thawed it out and couldn't find any breaks, but it did leak at two fittings. Five times we tried to re-solder those fittings, and five times they leaked. We finally capped the pipe and vowed to return another day.
posted by The Geezer at 9:20 AM
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