It's interesting to me that for most of the history of this blog I think that the pictures have featured rabbits first, and everything else later, and yet lately things have been focusing on the garden, or other things. It's not that we haven't been thinking about the rabbits, and nearly as much as we ever have. It's just that we're doing a lot more as well. The garden has been a particular focus because we'd let it go last year much more than we should have, so the weeding has obviously been a priority. Right now we're also starting to figure out what we have too much of that we do want, and need to control. For instance, bee balm which you see above we have a LOT of. If you want some we can absolutely get you seeds or transplants of bee balm. That said, even with everything we've thinking about with the garden, and the chickens life still moves along with the rabbits.
Obviously I haven't done the number of breedings I'd usually do in a spring and early summer with the rabbits yet, but that comes down to making the time to build out more grow out hutches. Because of us deciding that having the does living together, and that for health and happiness of rabbits they really do best with greater moving space, it's led to a lot of building needing to be done, and not enough time to do it. We went from our does being singletons in 4'x3' hutches, to wanting to get them with a partner in at minimum a 6'x3' hutch, including a shelf for them to get some extra room and relief. Due to everything else going on that hasn't happened with any speed. At this point I have the base of a 6' hutch ready to finish framing out and get together, and two 8' base frames ready to go. I just need to get it done. Of course "Just" makes it seem simpler than it is. Time has been catching up to me a lot more now that we have a small person to contend with than it ever did before. It's just something we're still learning to cope with.
It's more, learning how to prioritize time differently. Pre Critter it was work, homestead, social time, partner time. Partner time could often be mixed with homestead time and social time. There were a lot of things we could and did do together, and working as partners meant that a lot got done in fairly condensed time. With the Critter around at this phase in life though we have to do things differently, for good or ill. We both know that it isn't going to be for ever that things go like this, but it is a real consideration as we go about our day to day life. Someone has to be watching the Critter at all times at this point in his life. When he's napping we can both for a few minutes be doing something together in ready access to where he is, and we take great advantage of that. Even then though we can't both be outside at once so he's always in ear shot if there's a problem, or if he wakes up and decides to get creative about things to do instead of cry for people to come interact with him.
He takes extra special amounts of focus now that he's able to get himself upright and moving primate style, albeit slowly. It's amazing just how much a small person can reach, and what sorts of day to day things are dangerous. What that comes down to on a practical level is, I can't just come home and get a couple hours of work in on the hutches, not if I want to have time with the Critter, give the Lady of the House a break, or spend time with her. We can't both just go outside and work on homestead things in the same place and enjoy getting things done, and each other's company. So now my life time balance things broadly are, work, homestead, social time (much reduced), partner time. critter time. Rolled in with the critter time is often give the Lady of the House a break time, but most things now can't really be combined nearly as well as it used to be. Social time, critter time, and partner time can be combined if the social time is at home, and to a limited degree out of the house. Homestead and critter time certainly can't be combined, at least not safely! Anyway, we're learning to figure out how to re arrange time, and thankfully our friends have been very generous with their time and patience as we learn how to use our time, and get everything done we want to do. Right now I'm having an interesting time as I try to integrate fitness time somewhere into that schedule. The Lady of the House in particular has been working hard between being a mother, and keeping her business going.
Regardless, we are still getting a lot done as you've seen. One of the things I haven't covered lately is how much the Lady of the House has been getting done at home. We've been re-imagining our home and arrangement now that we have another person living in it, and space is at a premium. The Lady of the House, with help from an amazing friend of ours has been keeping the house clean, and has been re-arranging to make things feel more open. Usually there aren't more than 3 people having dinner at our table together, so for now the dinner table is going to live up against the wall unless we want to host more in which case we rotate it out. So, I guess the up shot of this whole ramble is, I hope to get a lot more done with the rabbits as soon as I can get more construction done to support it, and while it's a still a priority, as with everything else, we're still learning.
Obviously I haven't done the number of breedings I'd usually do in a spring and early summer with the rabbits yet, but that comes down to making the time to build out more grow out hutches. Because of us deciding that having the does living together, and that for health and happiness of rabbits they really do best with greater moving space, it's led to a lot of building needing to be done, and not enough time to do it. We went from our does being singletons in 4'x3' hutches, to wanting to get them with a partner in at minimum a 6'x3' hutch, including a shelf for them to get some extra room and relief. Due to everything else going on that hasn't happened with any speed. At this point I have the base of a 6' hutch ready to finish framing out and get together, and two 8' base frames ready to go. I just need to get it done. Of course "Just" makes it seem simpler than it is. Time has been catching up to me a lot more now that we have a small person to contend with than it ever did before. It's just something we're still learning to cope with.
It's more, learning how to prioritize time differently. Pre Critter it was work, homestead, social time, partner time. Partner time could often be mixed with homestead time and social time. There were a lot of things we could and did do together, and working as partners meant that a lot got done in fairly condensed time. With the Critter around at this phase in life though we have to do things differently, for good or ill. We both know that it isn't going to be for ever that things go like this, but it is a real consideration as we go about our day to day life. Someone has to be watching the Critter at all times at this point in his life. When he's napping we can both for a few minutes be doing something together in ready access to where he is, and we take great advantage of that. Even then though we can't both be outside at once so he's always in ear shot if there's a problem, or if he wakes up and decides to get creative about things to do instead of cry for people to come interact with him.
He takes extra special amounts of focus now that he's able to get himself upright and moving primate style, albeit slowly. It's amazing just how much a small person can reach, and what sorts of day to day things are dangerous. What that comes down to on a practical level is, I can't just come home and get a couple hours of work in on the hutches, not if I want to have time with the Critter, give the Lady of the House a break, or spend time with her. We can't both just go outside and work on homestead things in the same place and enjoy getting things done, and each other's company. So now my life time balance things broadly are, work, homestead, social time (much reduced), partner time. critter time. Rolled in with the critter time is often give the Lady of the House a break time, but most things now can't really be combined nearly as well as it used to be. Social time, critter time, and partner time can be combined if the social time is at home, and to a limited degree out of the house. Homestead and critter time certainly can't be combined, at least not safely! Anyway, we're learning to figure out how to re arrange time, and thankfully our friends have been very generous with their time and patience as we learn how to use our time, and get everything done we want to do. Right now I'm having an interesting time as I try to integrate fitness time somewhere into that schedule. The Lady of the House in particular has been working hard between being a mother, and keeping her business going.
Regardless, we are still getting a lot done as you've seen. One of the things I haven't covered lately is how much the Lady of the House has been getting done at home. We've been re-imagining our home and arrangement now that we have another person living in it, and space is at a premium. The Lady of the House, with help from an amazing friend of ours has been keeping the house clean, and has been re-arranging to make things feel more open. Usually there aren't more than 3 people having dinner at our table together, so for now the dinner table is going to live up against the wall unless we want to host more in which case we rotate it out. So, I guess the up shot of this whole ramble is, I hope to get a lot more done with the rabbits as soon as I can get more construction done to support it, and while it's a still a priority, as with everything else, we're still learning.
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