Obviously I'm SO behind on my posts...we are having computer/internet difficulties up here in farm - ville! But when I DO get it up and running, these are some highlights since my last post:
1. Meat rabbits breeding. HILARIOUS. Have to post a video. The male gets on top of the female, goes nuts for about 4 seconds, then freezes and falls off sideways...
2. Female bunny having the babies. The miracle of mother nature. The soon to be momma pulls off lots of her soft hair from her belly and lines the nesting box with it. Soon she is a big balding pregnant bunny who has made a super fluffy soft nest for her babies. When she does have her babies, you don't even see them for about a month. All you see is a big wad of fur moving around in there. The little babies get nursed once a day then the momma just sits on the side waiting for the next time she needs to nurse. The bunnies are cute, but we're not too attached, after all, they are MEAT rabbits.
3. Three cows. Did I blog about our steer yet? Well we have a female cow now. We are raising the 2 steer for beef and the female will be our family cow. She will have a baby who we will either sell or raise for beef. And we will milk her for a good year after she gives birth. OH! And we LOVE our cows. LOVE cows. They are calm, peaceful animals. My favorite thing to do is sit on the trunk of my car with the boys when the sun is setting. Colt and Charley count down the sun going behind the mountains. The cows are peacefully grazing, big green tractors are harvesting across the way in the huge spinach feilds, the sprinkler is quietly watering our fresh new garden, the world is just quiet. And there's always a slight breeze in the air.
4. OUR GARDEN. We spent SO much time and energy getting the ground tilled and ready to plant. We have a 25' by 50' garden and we are growing 18 different crops. After SO much work to just get the ground ready to plant, I squeeled with excitement when I saw the very first tiny green bean sprout coming up! Happy day. We now have green beans, corn, cucumbers, watermelons, squash, onions and pumpkins coming up! It is so fun watching it all come in. Although we planted so late, we'll probably have watermelons for Christmas! And anybody who is reading this (all 2 of you) can come up and pick your own watermelons and pumpkins!
5. T-Ball. Out here, the only sport they have is T-Ball. I know, its surprising they even have a leage, right? And its a big deal! They had opening ceremonies, and closing ceremonies. Trophies and professional team pictures. Several T-Ball and Baseball teams for a 2 month long season. I was the team mom so I was in the dug out with the little uniformed 5 year olds. It was SO fun. We met good people, and nobody was too competetive. It was just pure fun watching these boys and girls cluelessly run around the feild, play in the dirt, run into each other while they all rush to catch the same ball, run the wrong way all the time...I loved it! And people out here are just normal people, not trying to impress anybody, easy to talk to, its great.
6. Colt and Charley are more buds than ever before. They just play together all day. And the question, "mom can I play in the mud?" always gets a "yes" from me, because hello! We're in Anza. Yes, get dirty from head to toe, then go rinse off in the sprinkler.
7. Growing our own hay. So here's our plan: starting this winter we are going to grow our own hay. This will be great because the cows, horses, and goats eat hay as well as free graze. But hay up here is expensive. Luckily, we really don't go through too much of it. So in the next year we may be able to sell our hay, sell our eggs, and sell milk. That would be cool. What if we did have a few loyal customers that bought eggs, hay and milk from us? Thats not our main goal, but it is definately a part of what we want up here: having the animals work for us. Oh, we are storing 2 Colts on our property for this lady. Long story. She is providing the hay and expenses for them. Although she says if we fall in love with them, they are ours. We'll see. It was not something we wanted, so we are glad she is paying for them. BUT it would be neat to take the time to train them and make them our own horses that we can ride. Maybe when the world is in the depths of disasters, Nathans HAM radio and horses as transportation will come in handy!?
8. I'm sure this has been super boring post without pics. But over all, we are really falling in love with small town Anza. There are things to do in this town, you just have to find them. Its a tight knit community with a festive spirit. Like the 4th of July Anza days celebration. Booths, games, and a super hillbilly parade full of good times and rednecks coming out of the woodwork. People are suprised to know that we have schools and our own church building out here. Because I spend so much time just being with my boys and my animals, and my property, I definately feel more in tune with my family. And I love the quiteness of life. I love not having neighbors constantly up in our biz. We have met our neighbors here, they are kind and to themselves. There are definately downsides and yes, this town has its own share of bad people who are up to no good. Church is tough, the members are hard headed and judgemental. And the numbers are few. But you get what you put into it and so far its been a great learning experience. I'm glad to have just jumped in with both feet and I think we plan on staying here for a while to see what the future holds.
