What did you do in the garden today?

[NewBoots]

I have heard that about rabbits, but don't you need even yet another separate feed for them too now? also they fight and kill each other too I also heard. we were going to raise some on the farm but the neighbors dog got in one night and took them all out.

We raise meat rabbits on a small scale. One buck and two does. We keep the kits till eleven or twelve weeks. Anything longer than that and they are too tough for good fryers (the best) and are then stewers. A bad litter is three and a great litter is eight. We sell a few but mostly eat them ourselves. Once it a while a kit will get sold for a pet. Lucky bunny.

Y'all! We made an offer, they countered, we're taking the counteroffer. Very satisfying horse trade. Now we'll go under contract, but ask for a contingency that if the survey turns up less than ten acres we can back out. I'll be happy if it's at least nine, but less than that and we'd need to reassess the amount.

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you. Keep us updated.

We had savory oats with bacon, mushrooms, and eggs. The painter had lunch with us and agreed, this meal would be a sensation in a restaurant.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

Turnips coming up. Can't wait.

 

[Ascholten]

Y'all! We made an offer, they countered, we're taking the counteroffer. Very satisfying horse trade. Now we'll go under contract, but ask for a contingency that if the survey turns up less than ten acres we can back out. I'll be happy if it's at least nine, but less than that and we'd need to reassess the amount.

Getting land is always exciting and yes I know you said it is desert BUT, you need to do a bit more homework.

WHY are they selling? If the price is stupid good... WHY, thats a huge alarm bell there.
Is there toxic waste in the land? are their liens on the land? back taxes? is it solid bedrock 2 inches below the surface so nothing grows there? alkaline pools, . are there any flash flood planes that run thru it? What's around it. Are there any endangered species on it so you can't do a thing with it? How about old buildings, even run down ghost town crap...oh but now it's HISTORIC, so you can't knock it down, you can only fix it Back to orig specs.... Don't end up buying someone elses problems.

I almost got a killer deal on a building, until I found out, its on septic, which is leaking and was condemned, the city will NOT let them fix it because it backs up to a wildlife protected wetland. The owner of the property sub leases out from an uncle who lives in Saudi Arabia, the number to contact 'contact people' is disconnected.... bla bla. good luck suing when you get shafted. It'd have cost me 60k to run into the city's sewer main, thats just the sewage, you'd need city water, so run back with water now,how much was that??? didn't bother to look at that point.

Not trying to turn this into an 'all about me' post but to show that I almost learned a very bad lesson about land the HARD way, stupid things normal people don't think about... until it bites them. Please exercise due diligence.

aaron

 

[Ascholten]

This is how you know when YOU did not feed them first thing in the morning !
Cute, maybe until they start pecking on the glass to make sure you know they are there, waiting for you. Which then triggers the Cockatoo Redundant Alarm Pest System (CRAPS for short) to alert you at 115 dB of your transgression against the Avian Nation.

I get the looking in the window because they see me come in and out of that door and know I am in there, but who the hell taught them to peck at it? PACO ?? !!! ???

It's the little ones TOO now !!

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

We raise meat rabbits on a small scale. One buck and two does. We keep the kits till eleven or twelve weeks. Anything longer than that and they are too tough for good fryers (the best) and are then stewers. A bad litter is three and a great litter is eight. We sell a few but mostly eat them ourselves. Once it a while a kit will get sold for a pet. Lucky bunny.

so you fry the rabbits? IM assuming deep fry? They look fairly easy to clean, chop split and gut really, the hair / skin slides right off.

Aaron

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

We had a big Wild one that ate all the green beans. It was great as rabbit sauce piquant

 

[Elyrian1]

Getting land is always exciting and yes I know you said it is desert BUT, you need to do a bit more homework.

WHY are they selling? If the price is stupid good... WHY, thats a huge alarm bell there.
Is there toxic waste in the land? are their liens on the land? back taxes? is it solid bedrock 2 inches below the surface so nothing grows there? alkaline pools, . are there any flash flood planes that run thru it? What's around it. Are there any endangered species on it so you can't do a thing with it? How about old buildings, even run down ghost town crap...oh but now it's HISTORIC, so you can't knock it down, you can only fix it Back to orig specs.... Don't end up buying someone elses problems.

I almost got a killer deal on a building, until I found out, its on septic, which is leaking and was condemned, the city will NOT let them fix it because it backs up to a wildlife protected wetland. The owner of the property sub leases out from an uncle who lives in Saudi Arabia, the number to contact 'contact people' is disconnected.... bla bla. good luck suing when you get shafted. It'd have cost me 60k to run into the city's sewer main, thats just the sewage, you'd need city water, so run back with water now,how much was that??? didn't bother to look at that point.

Not trying to turn this into an 'all about me' post but to show that I almost learned a very bad lesson about land the HARD way, stupid things normal people don't think about... until it bites them. Please exercise due diligence.

aaron

Aw, thanks for your concerns! That was part of what I did. I dug into the county records, such that there are, and checked the plat map. Also got the most recent google maps satellite imagery. Can confirm, no previous structures on the property. No previous wells dug or septics buried. Electric at the property line, but we're likely to go solar.

Owners bought it years and years ago, probably for a pittance, but ended up retiring to Florida instead. Property sat undeveloped, alongside it's seven identical sister properties that are also undeveloped. It's an hour from the largest town in the area, and almost half an hour from any gas station or grocery stores. Mesquite is considered a pest out here, so nobody wanted to touch it, or live that far from town/the oilfield proper. It's outside the Permian Basin proper and for some reason no one likes to commute. Despite a perfectly good state maintained highway. Property has perfect access to that highway, butts right up to it.

It's just wild land. Probably a larger ranch subdivided at some point when the land was no longer fit to graze cattle, aka taken over by mesquite which outcompetes the native grasses if you let it. And this stuff is all at least five to ten years old by the growth stage. Possibly much older. I won't know until we get it and start clearing out some.

We are absolutely getting it surveyed. And we insisted on going through a title guarantee company and they're going to pay for it. Then we checked out the title guarantee company with a third party realtor to make sure it was legit.

I have also viewed the topographical maps of the area. The property sits at a high point, above the 500 year flood plain for the river, three miles away. It is ten feet above to be specific, which in this giant, flat, nothingburger is actually impressive.

Largest possible concern is brackish/nonpotable well water (which we already have at the rental and we filter through RO). We won't know till we dig and send off for a test, but if the water is bad, we've got ways around that. Like our RO system, lol.

More tomatoes are getting ripe on the cherry tomato plants. We still don't have a frost in the forecast.

 

[Ascholten]

Ive been doing solar for decades, back before it was popular. my first solar panel i got in 1987 . Wrote several articles over the years on it in various mags etc.
anyways, without starting a new boring topic if ya aint into that.
if you got room for solar, which sounds like you do, a much easier and in thelong run cheaper way to make water. you wont have enough to irrigate but the collection from your air coinditioner, is good for 10 gallons a day. need more, well electric is cheap, just run some dehumidifiers with the ncv / exp valve open, and use that to suck the humidity out of theair, run it thru a cheap char coal filter, and either heat / sterilize or uv it to disinfect and no worries about well pumps and that crap

jus saying
aaron

 

[Ascholten]

Justlooked into rabbit cleaning, piece of cake, cooking seems a breeze too. Next time I pop one in the garden im gonna eat it. The only reason i didnt eat the last one was it was LOADED with fleas, I mean like hundreds of them and that kind of turned me off. No $$ way was that coming inside with me. In hindsite, clean it bury the crap and cook it on the grill, no worries now !

Great, just what I need. another rabbit hole to go down ...

aaron

 

[Elyrian1]

If you haven't looked at airships, they're pretty fascinating science. Capture water off the roof and run it through filters/UV, get solar set up along the roof front, no AC needed because of cooling tubes through the berm on the north side. The greenhouse on the front/south makes hot air, that rises out vents, sucks cool air in through the tubes, and the whole house is cooled with constantly moving air.

Recycle the gray water to water the plants in the greenhouse, use composting toilets in the bathroom, bury the compost in a no grow zone or further process it for safety... It's fairly self-contained. as much as anything can be, I suppose. Septic has a 3-5 year upkeep so I'm humming and hawing over that.