No, not to the big time, to their fancy new rabbit tractor!

“I’m totally ready!”

I wanted to grab this opportunity to get one more good video of the Small Buns: you see, they’ll be moving out to their larger, more opulent digs in a few days, and they’ll be MUCH HARDER to film when they’ve got all that room to jump around in. Here they are this morning, totally full of beans:

Although E’s been working like a crazy person (busy season just now), she’s been putting in morning and evening time getting the new rabbit tractor ready. Like a chicken tractor, the small buns will get moved to fresh pasture each day, but will be protected from various wildlife and dogs while they grow.

The ‘lawnmower’.

It’s wire on four sides, and will have a recycled tin roof (leaning there against it). You’ll note that it’s split down the center, so we can have either 2 young litters of kits, or older ones that have been split into male and female. It’s still waiting for the installation of feed bins and waterers, plus a cozy place to rest and nap, but it’s MOSTLY done.

Grass channels.

You’ll note that the BOTTOM isn’t wire, though. It needs to be sturdy enough to discourage them from digging out, and the slats allow more grass to stand up, providing more accessible food for the Small Buns. It’s roughly based on the ones they use at Polyface Farms, Joe Salatin’s place. I’m not much for his politics, but I think his ideas about sustainable agriculture are pretty right on.  And I think the Small Buns will be super happy with all that room to hop and snack, even if I’m a bit concerned about the final weight of the spacious tractor, as the one who will be lugging it around the yard this spring.

Meanwhile, here on the farmlet, the azaleas have burst into bloom, the garden is coming up beautifully (although we could still use a couple days of good soaking rain), and we put in a small potato patch, just 5# of seed potatoes. Until, that is, my boss at the catering gig asked if we wanted a box of sprouting beautiful organic tricolor fingerling potatoes to take home and plant. Free stuff is my weakness: of course I said yes.

Little sprouty beauties!

This year’s potato crop will be much fancier than originally planned (and MUCH bigger), with all these blues. And perhaps best of all, there were tons of potatoes in the box that WEREN’T sprouting, so I get to cook them (and don’t have to pull out more sod to find them a home).

Beauty.

If you need me, I’ll be out enlarging the potato patch.

Until next time,

~Fae

This post submitted to the Homestead Blog Hop #28. Thanks for visiting!