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With ingenuity, with preparation, with creativity, with determination, with inventiveness, and with faith, we will overcome!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

GMO - NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just watched two anti-GMO videos from this fellow and decided to share this on my blog.  Check them out, please, and then implement what is suggested.


IT'S TIME FOR A FOOD FIGHT from NO GMO on Vimeo.


Here's the second one:  DOUBLE DIPPING DANGER


DOUBLE DIPPING DANGER from NO GMO on Vimeo.


I think it's critical to our future that we become completely anti-GMO, and shut these criminal companies down, now! IT'S TIME FOR A FOOD FIGHT!

Get busy!  Get serious!  They are poisoning us, and doing it with impunity.  Most probably, they are supplying the cancer industry with fodder.  Raise a stink, for your own sake, and your progeny's sake!

Ciao,

Panchito

Friday, October 21, 2011

Rabbit Factory Revisited

It’s high time I made another entry regarding this subject, don’t you think?  Well, of course you can’t really answer me, but hey, I tried.

Rabbits, they are what makes the world go round, eh?  Of course they are.

Our herd has grown somewhat since the last post, and we’ve harvested some of those little morsels, as well.  The night before last one of the young does gave birth.  I noticed that she was scratching at the mesh I had secured over the opening to the nest box of her mother, who is about to say “Sianara”.  For some reason, I immediately thought, “She’s going to have babies,” and opened it up for her.  Sure enough, there they were the next morning, seven in all.  That is a pretty good litter.

I had not gotten around to repairing a hole that some “teenagers” had chewed through into her cage, and sure enough, she got pregnant from her cousins.  Slacker!  I need to create a better system whereby I can keep track of everything more effectively.  At this point, I don’t know who nailed her, except to say it was a cousin.  I think I’ve a couple more pregnant ones as well, but nowhere to put them.

The manure has been an issue of late, and surprisingly, my younger son jumped on it out of the blue, digging quite a lot out from the area and depositing it on our potato patch (possibly killing most of the plants in the process).  If the potato plants die, I don’t care, since it was possibly a miracle that the boy took the initiative to do it in the first place!

We have managed to build, fill and plant three nice raised beds so far.  Way fewer than I wanted to, but it’s something at least.  We had torn out 6 huge honeysuckle “bushes” last year, at the insistence of our young neighbors, and transformed the area into a combination flower garden and veggie garden.  It is really becoming quite beautiful at this point.  I’ll try to include some good photos in this post.

I’m really swamped with preparations to expand our marketing business, McAvinchey Marketing Consultants llc, as well as our lawn care business, and haven’t been able to put the time and effort into gardening that I had hoped to.  My writing has suffered as well.  The marketing company is coming along, though.  Check out our new website at www.mcavincheymarketingconsultants.com if you get a chance.

Bunny Power!

The time comes in every rabbits' life, meat rabbit that is, when TSHTF. What? What does that mean? Well, avoiding the literal explanation like the plague, it's time for Mr. Fluffy bottom to meet his Maker. Think Hasenpfeffer. In the morn, I will be proceeding with Plan A, prepare raw materials for the aforementioned delicacy, or perhaps another dish.

The funk is building at an astounding rate, adding its' particular essence to the autumn chill.  With their demise will come a really good scrubbing of their premises, and some much needed repairs. My garden beds will love me for it!  We'll be eating good come next Spring.

I've been holding the frisky little vermin back in the reproductive department largely, since my family is still a bit squeamish about lapin consumption. I need to find a good, profitable outlet for them. Word is that each little bunny, if raised on standard fare, is worth something in the neighborhood of $30, while if the critter is raised on organic fare, it is worth around $60!  Jumpin' Jehoshaphat, that's a bunch a dough if you consider that each female can pump out around 50 offspring per year!  That's $300 minus expenses per female per year.  But, rabbits are ready to mate at about 6 months of age, so once you reach that 6 month mark, having kept all the females, you are going to suddenly have an explosion, if you let them...

We would be happy to sell the little dears to restaurants as organic rabbit meat, organically-raised rabbit meat, or to individuals as meat rabbit breeding stock.  I'll have to work on that more.

Notice the buildup of funk on the bottom!
It grows at a astonishing rate.

This is my setup.  I need to enlarge the doors,
and change the poop-slide to a tray.



Here's a shot of a nestbox I built.  All 3/4 plywood.
The bottom has 1/2 inch holes drilled through
to aid in drainage.  I'd add more holes still to make it good.

Look at the cute little things!  This is a typical litter, 5-6.
I've had as many as 9 in a litter, but the same doe's next litter
had just 3.  Kind of weird.

The home rabbitry in action.  Eliminating the wood,
and using 14-gauge, 1/2 by 1 inch mesh for the entire thing
would be much better.  I used what I had on hand
to keep costs down, they destroy 1/2" hardware cloth!

Notice the corrugated plastic roofing I used as a poop-shoot.
Having tried this, I say make them into removable trays.
That would really save on work.  The shoots don't work well.

Meet George, the cause of most of this.  George is half Californian,
half New Zealand, and huge!  He has sired ALL of the herd.
I have another couple bucks that aren't related to him to take over
after four generations of George-dom.  Then he'll get a rest.


 So I'm cutting back on our herd tomorrow to get ready for the winter.  Since I haven't found a profitable outlet for the bunbuns, and I don't want to discontinue them, and since my family isn't crazy about eating them, I need to cut back for the winter and wait for the Spring, when I can build more mobile pens and pasture them, saving much $$ on feed, while still cranking out the bunnies.

That's the scoop.

Ciao,

Panchito




Sunday, October 9, 2011

Rabbit Factory - The Latest News

So, I'm at a party, you see, and this guy comes walking along who I was sure I've seen before.  You know how it is.  If you're like me, you never forget a face, but the names... not so much.  But this guy was not usual fare for my part of the country.  He was obviously of Chinese extraction, and they must have extracted him recently, because he looked 100% Chinese, not Vietnamese, not Korean - Chinese.  So I'm thinking about it, and finally realize that the guy is from this communal Christian group that spun off of a church I know of.

It turns out that he's a chef, and that the commune started a catering business.  I was in the process of devouring the exceptional food that these folks had created.  I struck up a conversation with the fellow, and eventually got around to asking him whether he'd ever cooked rabbit.  He says, "Funny you should mention that.  I was just talking with one of the guys from the community, and he said he wants to look into raising meat rabbits."  We talked some more, and he ended up wanting to connect the two of us over that topic.

I happen to have a few does and two bucks that I could sell them to help get them started with their own rabbit factory.  I figure the guy might call during this week ahead.  I think this may turn into an ongoing cooperative effort on many different projects.  T'would be good!

I have NOT yet perfected my technique of either feeding my rabbits greenery from the yard, nor grazing rabbits, in regards to their nutritional needs.  I have tried it several time, and it seems that the mix of plants in my yard is not a sufficient one.  To that end, I will be planting alfalfa in part of our property.

I REALLY want to sell our place and purchase a farm.  That is one of the goals I have for my family.  My clan HAD a farm/orchard, but my grandfather sold it many years back. He had 80 acres back in the day, and it was beautiful!  I've got to get back there!

Ciao,

Panchito

Der Krameterhof

Sepp Holzer, an Austrian farmer, has become a source of inspiration to me of late.  30 years back he inherited his father's farm, which amounted to around 111 acres, or 45 hectares, of rugged, Austrian Alps land.  You'd think that something at that altitude would NOT be a good place to farm, but as they say, "Necessity is the mother of invention".  His is a radical departure from the norm, alternative farming, alternative agriculture, natural farming, and back-to-the-land, are all good descriptions of what he has been up to for most of his life.  These descriptions fall short however.

Take a look at this video about Sepp Holzer and his farm, the Krameterhof.  If this doesn't inspire you, you probably should look for some other blog to read.



I am planning on purchasing a hilly tract of land and creating something like the Krameterhof, only in the Cincinnati, Ohio area.  I am thinking of an intentional Christian community, with a common purse, and a good work ethic.  We will produce most of our own food, electricity, various products, music, and much more, while working toward fulfilling the Great Commission, to the extent that we can.  We'll see what my wife has to say about it????

At any rate, I hope you enjoyed the video.  Sepp Holzer and his Krameterhof are a great example of permaculture in a temperate climate, or even in an semi-arctic climate, since he actually has plantings above the natural tree-line on his mountain.  We stand to learn a great deal from innovative people like him.  America really needs this kind of thinking.  Here in the USA we have spent the last 30 years screwing everything up,, while teaching the rest of the world to do the same.  Let's undo what we've done!

Ciao,

Panchito