Sunny Days Hereon Out

9:52 PM, Saturday, 6 March 2010
Temperature: 39 F, clear & calm

It dipped to below freezing at some point during the night; at 8 in the morning, there was still a layer of ice on shallow water containers. The temperature rapidly climbed, however, to somewhere in the 60s during the day, with plenty of sun. The animals enjoyed it, but eventually decided, actually, that they had had enough, and started seeking shade.

We picked up our first batch of trees today - 20 Kingston Black apple trees on Dolgo rootstock. Fortunately, we had enough holes already dug that planting them could be done right away, along with applying tree shields. Pruning was done on the three which were slightly damaged, and all were watered. Throughout this the farmer doing the planting was followed around by a lonely goose who's formed an attachment.

Rabbit cages were cleaned today, which led to some difficulties.

While cleaning the sable rabbit's cage, Wimsey, who had been napping on the deck, decided that naptime was over and started meandering towards the garage - in the direction of one of the barn kittens, Tink. At the same time, one of Minnow's kits discovered 'I'm small and fuzzy enough to squeeze through the gap between the grazing ark's door and its frame!' - and bounced off towards the pond. The farmer was left scrambling to get the sable rabbit into a cleaned ark and dashing after the escaped baby bunny, leaving Wimsey and Tink to settle any scores unsupervised.

Fortunately, the baby bunny was fairly cooperative once it reached the pond. Either it decided 'oh please mighty predator, just make it quick' or 'oh nice farmer who feeds me, save me from the great outdoors'; either way, it made little attempt to escape at that stage and was safely carried back to the ark as a temporary measure. The farmer quickly dragged one of the cages over, and after some fast preparations and scattering of straw, the baby bunnies were transferred.

During this, Wimsey informed Tink in no uncertain but distinctly growling terms who exactly is dominant around here, chasing her off; he was summarily grabbed and put inside, just in time for Minnow to make a break for freedom. It took both farmers to get her back under wraps.

It's been decided that if we are to continue raising rabbits, the arks are not a winning solution. We are testing out crocks for their feed as well as water, and are considering moving to a meat-only, cage-only method of raising them. Pricing will take place for a while, because we are too stubborn to give up without a solid fight.

Meanwhile, Wimsey had earlier (prior to naps) met Nibs on the porch; Nibs did not receive the same treatment Tink had later on received, probably because he very quickly acknowledged who was in charge. With the air of a benign old don, Wimsey permitted Nibs to run off without a growl.

Minnow's new cage habitat has an old duvet cover for the time being as a cover for the cage, to help them feel less exposed to the elements. This shall be replaced in due course with something more waterproof.

Due to the heat, the animals' watering troughs needed refilling quite badly today. The trough in the pasture with the pregnant ewes, lambs, rams, and now most of the ducks was bone dry this morning, and the trough for the other sheep not only was close to dry, it needed refilling by sundown. The ducks have the sandbox/wading pool to themselves now (although the lambs like to drink from it, it being just their height) as the geese are permitted to wander during the day and have access to the pond. The ducks are loving it, although don't seem interested in the ants in the pasture so far; the geese are enjoying access to the pond and the lack of sheep bowling them over. More goose mating has been occurring, fairly steadily, but if the ducks don't show interest in the ants soon, we'll likely move them back to the other pasture or to roam during the day as well; it isn't as if they don't get out with great frequency anyway.

Tomorrow more holes will be dug; soon we expect more lambs as well. We are discussing mating Minnow again in another month or two if we keep the rabbits, as while we don't want angoras particularly, she is an excellent mother and her personality is very good; when she isn't deciding to go runabout, at least.