Farm Fresh: Pets

 As soon as the weather turns chilly Tiger starts waiting by the door, ready to sneak in.  He's an outdoor cat who loves the indoors. Sometimes we fail to notice that he has snuck in and find him making himself at home.A good friend of ours has a bearded dragon named Silly.  All the kids love petting him and seeing him clinging to our friend's shirt while he walks around. Our friend told us that Silly is his best pet ever.  We started watching videos of bearded dragons online and researching them.  Brother M especially really wanted one for his own pet. We found a baby bearded dragon in need of a new home (craigslist) and took a long drive to pick him up. Brother M is in charge of all Baby Beardie's care and habitat bills.He is our only official indoor pet.

He is much smaller than Silly-- only about 3 months old. 

Big sister A has been talking non-stop about getting a smaller cuddly breed of rabbit.  When you have 35 rabbits, what's one more? My only stipulation, which is the same that we apply to all our rabbits, is that it has to be of good quality, showable, with pedigree.  That way we can breed it and show it for 4H and show or sell its offspring. After almost 5 years of rabbit raising and attending a couple of shows and 4H events, we finally joined our county's rabbit 4H club officially.  We attended our first club meeting this week. Big Sister A and Brother M are joining.  Hopefully, we will be able to attend a show sometime in the next calendar year. I could use another review of my "best" rabbits to see whether we are making any improvements. 

Big sister A thought that she wanted a Dwarf Hotot, a Netherland Dwarf, or a Lionhead.  Luckily, I was able to check with some folks who breed and show those breeds before we bought one. Apparently, they are fairly snarky and can be a bit scary for young rabbit handlers. The breeders recommended Polish as the sweetest of small bunnies and even knew a reputable breeder only a few hours away.  One thing led to another and we've put a hold on this sweet little buck. The breeder said that she would have kept him for herself, but he has an almost identical brother who did slightly better at his first ARBA show. Big Sister A is so excited to go pick him up the day before her birthday! He is only about 3 lbs compared to our Silver Foxes that weigh in around 10 lbs. 

We had some friends (my old roommates) visiting last weekend. We stayed outside and wore our masks. The weather was nice and we had a great time showing them around the latest farm updates. 

They still live inside the beltway and their daughter was both ecstatic and a little scared around all the farm animals. We helped them learn and practice picking up chickens. 

A couple weeks ago I finally shoveled out and dragged the chicks' brooder box into the main garden. I used the nitrogen rich mulch around my asparagus patch. 

I also finally got around to pruning and tying up the 10 raspberry bushes that we currently have. More are coming in March for the high tunnel. Yay!

I managed to partly mulch and manure the strawberries, but was out of wood chips.  I told my tree guy that I was all out and he brought 2 loads this weekend and said he'll bring more next week.  Such a blessing that he shares with us!

These chickens love our compost bucket table scraps and garden rejects. Our free range chickens were much more picky. 

My faithful assistant "helping" hold down the boxes (previously the XL chick brooder pen). I am about half done with our usual winter garden sheet mulching. I lay cardboard and then dump wheelbarrows full of rabbit manure over it. 

If I have enough mulch, I will put that on top of the manure as well. Rabbit manure is fantastic for nourishing the soil.