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.