I wish he could work from home, but right now there's nothing he could do from home that could pull in enough to cover our bills. House payment, electricity, gas, phone bill, and of course the astronomical feed cost for all the animals I keep.
I think he just calculated we have something like $300 in rebate checks to Menards (love 11% sales). Perhaps we will buy a chest freezer to store meat in, and we can process some critters before it gets cold.
Matt continues to be a good mom, staying on her hidden nest at the edge of the yard. She comes off to eat and drink, and then goes right back. Today while she was off I put the wire cage top over it and put a feed bag on top of that, then opened up the side door and left it over the nest. The idea being two fold. If the cage stays on her nest all the time she can still come and go as she wants to, but now she only has to guard one opening rather than all around her. We are also expecting a lot of rain in the nest couple of weeks, so by putting the feed bag over the top, it may help to keep her nest at least a little dryer than it would be otherwise. I did not lock the little cage top over her tonight, but instead left the door open in case she wants to go get a drink or something. Every night out is a predator risk. Perhaps the smell of human so nearby, including my touching the feed bag and cage will deter would-be predators. I can hope anyway.
We lost one baby from Snowflake's litter, and Thumper still has no babies. Tomorrow I need to sanitize one of the smaller cages and move Skittles in to the colony building. He needs to get acclimated to the ladies before he's let loose. He's currently smaller than the girls in there, and that worries me a bit. I've got a place set aside for his temporary cage in there while he and the ladies meet through the cage. I don't know how long he will stay in the cage in there, but I'm tempted to leave him in there until he's grown larger than they are. They should definitely be acclimated by then. Since he's not old enough to start breeding right now anyway, it could also give the ladies a chance to deliver any litters they may be pregnant with now and not have to worry about Skittles harassing or harming the babies (not that I think he would). And of course once Skittles is moved to the colony building, that means Rugby will have to be moved over to the buck cage, because it won't be appropriate for him to stay in the cage with his momma any more.
I need to work on getting more ads posted and get more bunnies moved out. I could use the money to pay for more feed, and I could certainly do with fewer mouths to feed. Of course, the more I sell the fewer we have available to feed us through the winter. I'm especially hoping to find a home for Peter Parker. He's too cute to eat, and I don't need another buck.
I was watching something the other day and there was some story about how people sell their adopted kids online when they don't adjust well or have special needs they don't want to deal with anymore, and how it's a way for child abusers and sex traffickers to get kids without having to kidnap them. It broke my heart that someone would willingly place a child in danger like that. It's a good thing I don't understand how that system works, or I'm afraid I'd go off and start collecting unwanted children to save them from bad situations. I wonder why this is happening. Is there some government office working on tracking down the people doing that and rescuing the kids? On the other hand, I honestly have to wonder what kind of a price tag a human child comes with on this "black market" of sorts. When adoption is so expensive, why would people go through all the background checks and home visits, paperwork, and expense, and then turn around and throw a child away? I don't understand. It makes no sense. Then again, I have special needs children, so perhaps I'm biased. My heart goes out to those poor unwanted children who find themselves trapped in a broken system.