In The Weeds

   Several days ago I wrote about the challenges we have been facing on our little farm and it appears we are not out of the weeds yet. Most people say they aren't out of the woods yet but weeds seems more appropriate to our situation. We have recently been battling a major incursion of weeds and pests in our garden plots. We are determined not to go to Monsanto for help by using Round Up or other pest controls but have been looking for more organic means of pest and weed control. The most organic method and the most tedious is, of course doing this all by hand. This means hours spent on hands and knees pulling weeds both big and small from the ground. It also means almost as much time picking caterpillars and other creeping pests off of leaves while bent over at the waist, think sore back. While some plants are growing well our cucumber vine seeds seem to have been decimated by squirrels, which we have declared war on and at a total sixteen removed felt we winning the war. It would appear they have won this round.
   I had also written about our buck having issues and although he seems to be on the mend I'm still not sure if he'll ever be in the condition he was before. This again leaves me somewhat in the weeds as I'm conflicted as to what I should do. You see a friend who is going out of the rabbit business has a good producing doe which I will likely take in a week or two but this is not my dilemma. The dilemma is that he also has a beautiful buck that I would love to add to my herd but I don't have room for two bucks at the moment and I'm not so sure I want to give up on Chase just yet.
   We are still learning this farming thing and I know in the midst of farming and ranching hard choices have to be made but I'm just not there yet. I am attached to this buck which we have raised from ten weeks old and that has been a good sire, yet I must do what's best for the future of my rabbit herd. I thought that we would be in a better place with the gardens and the rabbits at this stage and I would be able to concentrate my efforts on learning new skills. I had hoped to be building a root cellar and learning to make cheese at this  point but it seems I am still learning the basics like how to get out of the weeds.

Challenges

   I almost didn't write this week, after all who wants to write about their failures. That was my mind set as I mulled over the past week but even as my heart was sinking I realized that I could quit or learn. There has been a series of events that have led up to this point which I will talk about just a little so that you may understand where I'm coming from. Last weekend we planted just about our entire garden as you may have read this was followed by a hailstorm, which in and of itself isn't a deal breaker, but Monday morning as I made my rounds in the garden plots I noticed a lot of digging where we had planted corn and cucumber seeds. I investigated further and found that gray squirrels had dug up nearly every seed we had planted along with some uprooted plants in containers. I was unsure about a course of action but being a trapper I decided the bast thing to do would be to set some cage traps and round up as many of these little tree rats as I could. This again wasn't enough to get me down as I was still excited about our upcoming litters of rabbits to be born in the next few days and I had a plan for dealing with our garden pests so I felt a little better. Tuesday arrived, which was the day I expected our doe Isis to kindle and kindle she did. Yet she pulled almost nor fur to cover the kits in the nest box and the temperature had dipped to a cold thirty-eight degrees; ridiculous for the end of May but enough to doom to new born kits to a frozen fate. Isis is a great mother and generally pulls enough fur for two nests so this again lent a somber tone to the week. The expected day for Iris and Sissy to kindle came and went and I slowly determined to Iris had not been pregnant. Sissy on the other hand went two extra days and had a very small litter of three, she normally has seven or eight kits and the week seemed more gloomy. My buck Chase also had been losing weight and not looking so good and I was struggling to find answers for his condition with little result. All of these things were beginning to add up to a feeling of failure and disappointment.
     As I reviewed the week I decided I could give up or accept the challenge of farming. We have decided to tell you about our experiences with this urban farm project and that included for good and bad, successes and failures or as many motivational speakers call them opportunities for improvement. We had began an all out war on the squirrels and after catching two skunks we were on the squirrels and after catching several of them we noticed a drop in the squirrel activity. I replanted some of the seeds and also added some cayenne pepper for good measure. Kathy and I also attended a rabbit show on Sunday and it was a really good experience. I was also fortunate to find a judge who listened to the symptoms Chase was having and he suggested a fur ball was the cause, he also suggested some remedies. This at least pointed me in the right direction and as I researched on the internet I found better information and more treatment suggestions. I have bought the items suggested and started treatment, Chase is very weak now and I hope he will respond. There is a chance, a good chance he won't, but we have accepted the challenge.