Doors, paint and food

I never know what to title my blogs. That is confusing. This should really have a caption of "dinner." We have 11 rabbits that will be ready to butcher in a few wks. They were raised by their mamas for awhile, then moved to a roving coop. I move them twice a day and they subsist on about 85% foliage. We give them free choice rabbit food, grain, pellets etc. They prefer the foliage. We had 12, but they all broke out (twice) and the 2nd time,we didnt find the 12th running about the yard.

They want out very badly, see my shoe? This was the only way to get a photo of them. We hold them a lot, they are gentle but have horrible back claws that can do some serious damage. This meat is good, it tastes a lot like chicken honestly and works the same. Fried, soups, stews, stir fries, even a roast if you bone it and roll it up some Italian chef style. It also replaces ground meat which is good, because we are used to ground turkey which is nearly 8$ a lb up here.

More dinner! We have turkeys, 4 of them, and some roosters in this pen to eat. Some hens too, those will lay eggs and THEN be eaten. We ordered these and had some serious losses in the chicken department, so many died from shipment. Only lost 2 turkeys so that wasnt too bad.

They live together in a small building that the neighbor gave us, we insulated it, hung a heat lamp and some perches and the birdies are happy in there.

During the day they are allowed out, they play in this kennel. The kennel has a 2 ft high mesh all around it, even in the door way of the kennel. We step over, this prevents the birds from darting out or something from getting in under the wire as easily. They are locked up at night.

Our new shed with doors! Frank and Tad did most of the door work, I helped with hinges on the 2nd set. I dont remember where I was, but I was not home. Our homemade scaffolding has been fabulous, we will keep this for further use. Makes life much easier. I think these doors are a 2x4 frame, the barn doors (just finished yest not pictured yet) are a 2x3 frame because they are so huge and heavy already. So 2x4 frame, cross pieces at 2 points and siding outside.

Oh you want to paint? and its sunny? Yeah sure, you see that tiny patch of blue? That was our whole sky, all day while we prepped. Naturally because we started painting, it started raining. We use a sprayer, the whole building took under 30 min. We didnt want to stop once started.

Enter sterile drape... This did the trick, mostly. Only a few streaks that have to be mended with a roller. He sprays the paint on, I roll, the kids watch, help, hold, run for stuff etc.

The nearly finished product! needs trim, touch up and we have to clean off the top hinges. Nathalie cleaned off the bottom 4, I coated them with vaseline so we did not have to take them off. The paint/vaseline scrapes right off with your finger or Nathalie learned, a little wooden shim did the job leaving her hands clean. This is a good looking shed!

You can see on the side, the white streaks. That is from rain, not too bad though. Just a few spots. The neighbor asked us was this a kit shed, no it was just us and we spent 2/3 less at a minimum by not using a kit. The whole shed was under 1000$ and that is with Alaska prices on building supplies. Granted, the floor was there but the roof is the high dollar part.

You can see the white streaks better here. The loft is not complete in here yet, but we are already using the space well. We need to hang garden tools on the wall. This shed has already helped us clean up our property.

I dont think I have posted a pic of the barn far enough away to show the green contrast, the roof/red walls look good though I showed that with the shed. We have now finished the barn doors so I will get a picture of that today. They look great! now we have trim, a chicken door (inside) and would love to get the 2nd window in. Then we are ready for winter, which has officially begun. We have hard freezes every night now. I guess that is still fall though, because the days warm up.

More meat! These came with the turkeys and chickens but grow 4 x faster. I dont know if we like duck, N is keeping 1 as a pet, and we will eat one. See what we think and if not, sell the rest for thanksgiving duck. Many people around here eat duck and goose. These guys grow like fire! Its amazing really. they rove, so they move twice daily on average. They are 6 wks old now.

The eggs in fridge yesterday after selling 4.5 dozen. These are the smaller ones that we kept. I will start freezing ice cube eggs soon, freeze them and then drop them in ziplock bags for winter baking. Our chickens laid in winter in Ks with a heat lamp but it is colder and darker here. I think we will still get eggs, but probably less.

Our garden was kinda pitiful this yr. Colder than avg for this area summer, late start on summer and just not enough sun. Even our greenhouse foods didnt get enough warmth. These are the rest of my onions, we ate some!

My cabbages, we pulled them early. Even covering them was not saving them, their outer leaves were getting frozen. So here you go, not a log for a summer but next yr will plant earlier inside, set out later just transplant into bigger pots in greenhouse and then hopefully get more sun. Cabbages keep well for around 6 months so worth growing a lot of them.

And proof that my kitchen is ever clean...Wow this is an amazing picture. I even cleaned the floors! We are so busy, often our cleaning is done at night, all 4 of us tired and we divide up the necessary jobs and work fast. bathrooms and mopping get done one time a wk, sheets are washed 1x a wk. Everything else is as time can be found. we clean the kitchen at least 1x a day, we try to pick up clutter from life. School and farm come first, and whatever else we can fit in comes next. Laundry gets done, as often as its needed but often we live out of a huge unfolded laundry pile. I love folding laundry but I do not always have time. I try to get it all put away once a wk, but the pile starts the next day. No one complains, of this I am thankful. We are almost ready for winter, when winter is upon us then we will just be working out the kinks of having animals in Ak in the winter. I am excited about the next season!