I managed to get basic bunny chores done. I'm going to be moving the hay cart to the other side of the barn (away from the sick bunnies) to prevent spreading anything. It may rain tomorrow, so I refilled the cart with enough hay to go around tomorrow. Pellet bin has been refilled as well, so we're all stocked up on food for this week.
I did some research and spoke to other breeders again today about the dietary needs of the rabbits and what we can do differently. I believe I will be switching up their food gradually at the end of this run of pellet food. It's a good pellet food and it's worked well for us for the past several years, but we're going through 20 pounds of pellets, 5 gallons of water, and a wheelbarrow full of hay every day now. I'm glad the hay is free, but that's still 600-620 pounds of pellet feed we're going through per month - as of when we had 66 mouths to feed last week. We have a couple fewer right now, soon to be about half that, but it's starting to be more of a very expensive hobby than the money-saving meat raising it was originally intended to be. Changes are coming.
I was able to grab four large red okra, the one and only Table King acorn squash that grew (it's so tiny), one Lemon Boy tomato, and one baby yellow zucchini. The one watermelon in the garden got eaten by someone else, but maybe I could snag a couple seeds. The dried up strawberries I'm hoping to use to make more next year (winter sowing is right around the corner already).
Today #5 finished a bottle of orange juice and asked me if we could plant seeds in it. It's not even getting below freezing at night yet and he's already gearing up for winter sowing... at age three. It's great! The joy of gardening (or maybe just playing in dirt) is in this kid.
In other news, a quick update on the preserved feet and tails. They're fully dry now, I put the caps on but still have not glued them. They are pretty and I should really finish them up with glue. I especially like how the tail turned out.
Today I tried another loaf of bread in the bread machine. This time I followed the recipe for white bread and added 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, and 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon. It looked good, it smelled good, but I'm not a fan. I cut it up this evening after bed time, so the kids have not weighed in on it yet. I'll try to remember to offer them each a slice tomorrow morning before they head off to school.
If nothing else tomorrow is supposed to be warmer than today. I hope I can be more productive!