Abu Bakr

"It is a matter of shame that in the morning the birds should be awake earlier than you." - Abu Bakr

Rabbits

When we first got to the new place, we had to do something we hadn’t done in years: buy meat. Not only is the store-bought stuff super expensive, but it’s also nowhere near the quality we were used to. So we bought some Californian rabbits.

We suspended cages from the rafters of a carport. The cages all have water nipples and feeders. At the moment we have 7 breeders, who have a large cage each, and then the weaned litters go into a whole unit of cages (with doors between them open). We may expand the whole enterprise at some point by tractoring the rabbits out on pasture, but this is enough for right now.

The current setup isn’t ideal. We feel they need a little more protection from the elements and would love to somehow incorporate a burrow for each rabbit. But it’ll do for now.

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Rabbits

Gustave Flaubert

"I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings." - Gustave Flaubert

Henry Ward Beecher

"The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy." - Henry Ward Beecher

Gardening

There’s a lot of naturally growing edible plants around us, the best of which are blackberries, grapes, mulberries, and walnuts, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to grow a whole bunch more.

In fact, one of the first things we did after settling in was make a garden.

This endeavor began with putting up a seven foot tall perimeter fence, electrified on the top and bottom (a lot more critters here to protect from). We then marked out rows on contour. Each row is 30” wide, raised above the 18” wide, sunken pathways. There are about 25 rows in total, each averaging 45 feet long. The whole enclosure is about 5000 square feet.

This may sound like a lot of work, but it’s actually been very easy. We are used to clay soil with lots of rocks. We had to work hard to improve the organic content of the clay, so that it would become crumbly enough for productive gardening. This place has sandy loam. It is so easy to dig, and driving in posts and such is almost laughably effortless. We still have to add organic material and mulch, but that’s just good gardening sense!

So far we only have six of these rows made and planted. They are currently producing (or about to produce) radish, carrots, spinach, turnips, peas, beets, onions, and broccoli. The rest of the space is planted with a cover crop that we feed to the rabbits. We also have a few trees, shrubs, and all kinds of herbs planted around the inside of the perimeter fence. In all, not a bad little garden patch!

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Gardening

Junkhounds

There were so many things we loved about living in Mexico, but one thing that sucked was the lack of junk. There, things very rarely go to waste and the trash is always filled with, you know, trash. Not so here!

When we arrived, the house was bare except for a fridge, stove, washing machine, dryer, and... wait for it... dishwasher!

We brought no furniture with us, so our first main job was to buy beds, sofas, tables, etc. This was accomplished on two fronts: craigslist and dumpsters. The former provided both free and very cheap items, but it was the latter that stole the show.

We live within reach of a big city with a large university. So, when it was time for student leases to lapse, we decided to go prowl the dumpsters in the student areas. It was unbelievable. There were literally hundreds of beds, sofas, tables, desks, shelves, trash cans, etc. sticking out of or beside overflowing dumpsters. We tried our hardest to do our part to limit this waste, taking as much as we could, in several trips, but we didn’t even make a dent. Along with most of our furniture, we even got our first ever TV (which we use to watch things via internet).

The things we found aren’t new and don’t necessarily match, but they’re all in good shape and suit us perfectly. So now we have a fully furnished, comfortable home, and all for less than $300.

We plan to visit the dumpsters again next year, to furnish the cabin. But then what do we do? We can't just let all that good stuff go to waste, but eventually we're going to run out of space to put the stuff we collect. I guess when that happens, we'll just have to build the kids a house, and then maybe we could furnish a storm shelter, and then... well, we'll figure it out.

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Junkhounds

William Hazlitt

"We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts." - William Hazlitt