New Meat Rabbits

Today I bought two rabbits to raise and breed for meat. One is 3 weeks old and the other is about 4 1/2 weeks old. They are both females, which I know isn't the most biologically dependable formula for breeding, but the reason I bought two females is that if I had a male and a female, I would have had to keep them in separate cages to prevent them from breeding too early. But I didn't want to have just one rabbit because I believe the health and well-being of animals benefit from sociality just as humans do. And while I do plan to kill and eat these rabbits in the future, I also believe quality humane treatment of animals during their lives is the right thing to do not only morally but also to improve the quality of the finished product. So the minimum for me was two rabbits, but I didn't want to have to buy a second cage and equipment. The plan at this point is to let these two does grow, and when breeding age draws closer, I will invest in the cage and a male rabbit. That way I can spread out my initial investment while gaining knowledge and experience in keeping rabbits.

At Tractor Supply today, a couple guys who were in line behind me saw Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits in my cart and asked me, "Are you raising rabbits?" I replied, "Not yet, but I will be soon. I just bought my first two rabbits today." We continued the conversation and one of the guys told me that he and his wife started with two and now have over 30. They were at TSC to buy hardware cloth to use to build pens so they could get them out of the house and into the back yard! I was thinking how glad I was to know that I would have a lot of rabbits to eat soon, but I was also thinking how glad I was that I was starting outside and would never have to deal with a rabbit overpopulation problem in my living room!

Tonight I had a talk with my four-year-old daughter. She and her siblings are all very excited about the new bunnies, which of course they were all smitten by. They are very small, furry, and cute, which is right up Toddler Alley. But I felt it would be better for her in the long run if I got her used to the idea from the start that we are going to kill and eat these rabbits. The look on her face was one of slightly hurt feelings and disappointment, but I assured her it would be a long time in the future and that we would have other rabbits to replace them. It actually went pretty well, I think.

Judging by the pictures and videos we got today, we may have a slightly harder time getting the kids to be okay with me killing rabbits when the time comes. We shall see.

Counting My Blessings (Pt II)

I know I have so much to be grateful for, but I can never forget why I do the things I do or why I need the help I need.

Counting My Blessings

On the automotive front, I've had a great stroke of luck in the last few years. I have had cars falling into my lap from people around me who feel I'm deserving of a break. I also have a friend who is helping me get my Toyota (the one that overheated) repaired. That thing still gets 30 MPG, so if I can keep that one running, it's a great little car to have!

This friend also gave me his 99 Ford Taurus. Then at drill last weekend, my 1SG stood up in front of the unit and passed out forms to use to get a free National Guard license place. What great timing--I got a car and a free license plate in the same week!

I'm so grateful for the help that has come my way these past couple weeks. I know that God is providing for me and my family. When cars break down or the roof leaks, I know I don't need to worry because Heavenly Father knows exactly what I need. Everything is going to be okay. I should just take every challenge in life as an opportunity to learn how good he is and what I can do with his help.

Financial Freedom Warrior

I don't know where it came from, but I have recently decided that I am going to get control of my finances. Scratch that...I know where it came from. I wrote a check that I failed to account for and I ended up having a scary week not knowing if I was going to have gas to get to and from work on Monday and Tuesday. It was then I decided I was not going to begin my thirties still behaving financially as though I were only 17.

The first thing I did was to decide that I was going to get a good grip on my checkbook. Not only that, but I was going to figure out how to keep my checkbook on the computer so it would be readily accessible to both my wife and me. No more losing the checkbook, no more transactions getting lost in the shuffle between who carries it out of the house. Also, if I recorded something incorrectly, when I go to balance my checkbook, I can simply edit the incorrect transaction and it corrects all the math for me! I know this may sound like I've just discovered how to use fire to some people. But this is my story!

So I got my checkbook set up using a simple app for Mac called--what other than--"Checkbook." It's really simple and therefore really great. I started looking for budgeting software next. That proved to be a bit more difficult. There were lots of programs out there. Lots of seemingly great programs that had cool little features and widgets and gadgets and bells and whistles and tassels and fuzzy tails and...well...none of it felt like home to me. My problem with them all was that they all had too much going on. I wanted to enter transactions and see a graph or pie chart and that's it. But they all wanted me to categorize transactions using these uncomfortable categories or--I don't know--just lots of little things about each program that made each whole program just not fit.

So I got ultra simple. I broke out Numbers and made up my own little spreadsheet. I entered some simple formulas and wrote down twenty or so categories where I spend my money. Now I record each transaction as it happens, and the spreadsheet keeps a running total for me. At the end of the week, I save the spreadsheet as a PDF to keep as historical data and begin a new week. This is the tracking part of the budget.

I have not started the planning part yet. That's my next task. I've made a lot of progress with the low hanging fruit. The hard part is going to be a few months down the road. After I have gotten good at keeping my checkbook balanced, planning a budget, and tracking my spending, I am going to have to work really hard to shave expenses everywhere I can. What's really great is that I have begun exercising impulse control when it comes to eating at work or grabbing a bag of chips or a candy bar off the impulse rack at the store. The hard part here is going to be later on down the road when it comes to making decisions about what in the house needs to be fixed--and how and to what level of quality--and what we can make work the way it is.

But I know I am going to be willing to make sacrifices. Last week, all week I knew I was going to have to get a haircut for drill. I was dreading going to sit and wait at the barber shop, sit in the chair for half an hour, then pay 15 bucks for a haircut that isn't that good! (I MISS MY MILITARY BARBERS!)

So I said !@#$ it all...I'm going to shave my head. So I went on down to Sally Beauty Supply and picked out a reasonably good quality set of hair clippers that came with a close trimmer they called "the peanut". I spent $60 for the set. That will pay for itself in four months. Probably sooner, if you think about gas, waiting time, and the fact that I can cut my hair more frequently if I want to.

Roll With the Punches

I've been having kind of a hard time lately, to be honest. For starters, I had to put down two of my last three chickens a couple weeks ago because they got attacked by the dogs. I thought I had adequately socialized my dogs and my chickens, but apparently I was wrong. The first time I let the chickens free range throughout the entire yard, two chickens came up missing. Days later, my wife found one chicken still alive in the yard as the dogs were attacking her again. She had deep flesh wounds, so I had to put her down.

The next day, I found my rooster walking around in the yard. He didn't look so hot. He didn't try to run too fast as I approached him to see how he was doing. He also had some pretty bad wounds, so I put him down as well.

A few more days later, I found the last chicken--which I thought was dead because I hadn't seen her for days. She was hanging out on the big wood pile in my back yard. I'm guessing she had been there the entire time--almost like a man shipwrecked on a lone island in the ocean. I went to pick her up, but she was moving around very well. She evaded me for three laps around and over the wood pile as I tried to catch her. I could see she had some feathers missing from the back of her neck and head so I knew she had been attacked.

Since she appeared to be in good health, I left the door to the pen open and waited until nightfall to pick her up off her sleeping perch. I examined her--she looked fairly good, all things considered. She had a little wound on the top of her head where the feathers were missing, but by the time I caught up with her, it had scabbed over and was well on its way to healing.

She is sleeping in her pen right now. She's my survivor. My other hen and my rooster were also survivors. These are the last three chickens from the flock of thirteen I acquired in November 2009. The first ten died within the first year. These three had all survived the attacks by dogs, the starvation, (DISCLAIMER FOR PETA ACTIVISTS: The starvation was not my fault. One of my chickens somehow developed one lame leg, so she could not scratch around in the yard. After trying to serve her bagged feed for days, which she rejected, I put her down to prevent her from starving to death.) the freezing weather, and the poor air quality. They probably would have had a much longer life had I not made the stupid move of allowing my dogs and chickens access to the same land.

In other life difficulty news, I just received a letter from an attorney stating that I owed money for a deficiency on a foreclosure that took place three years ago. This was a big, nasty surprise to me because I hadn't heard anything from them for three years. I thought if I was going to owe money to someone I'd at least know about it relatively soon after defaulting. Ya know? I guess maybe they didn't sell it for a long time after taking it back from me. I don't know.

Finally, my car broke down. I should have seen it coming. I did see it coming, really. So I guess I should say I should have prepared for it. I was driving home from Phillip's wedding when it started overheating. I discovered there was a heater core hose that was spraying fluid, so I replaced it.

That didn't solve the problem.

So I replaced the thermostat, just for S's and G's. The car kept staying stable for a little while then overheating. The weird thing was that the radiator still had plenty of fluid in it after it was overheating. That's why I thought it could be the thermostat. Anyway, I worked on the car all day. I ran out of time and had to drive to work in this car. It was fine for a while, then overheated, then cooled back down. It did this progressively until it just went up--WAY up--and never came back down. Luckily I made it to work even though I was 30 minutes late.

The only thing to do is keep pushing--count my blessing, pull up the ol' bootstraps, and march on.