Peter Rabbit, RIP

I am admittedly not the morning person I used to be.  Or the morning person my husband has become.  My response to dawn is generally an unintelligible grunt.  So early this morning, when Andy popped into the house, said something about a rabbit and ran back out again, it all registered in my fogged brain as a mumble and rustle.  Nothing jolts you out of sleep quite like the sound of a gunshot, especially when the gun is fired just outside your open bedroom window.

Peter Rabbit has been raiding our garden for some time now, enjoying the radishes and kale and pepper plants with abandon.  Generally, when we spot him, he quickly dives for cover under the large pine tree in our neighbor’s yard.  This morning, he must have been really enjoying his breakfast, because he had not moved when Andy came back out with the .22.  And until that thing went off, neither had I.

Matter-of-factly, Andy glided back into the house and put the .22 away.  So, I ask the next two obvious questions:  “Did you get him” (Of course I did!  Right between the eyes!)  and “Are you going to field dress him before work” (Um, OK).  So I quickly put on my glasses, got my hair out of my eyes and, still bleary eyed, searched the Internet for “How to field dress a rabbit” while fetching a cutting board.

Out onto the back deck we go with the most basic of tools:  a gutting knife, a cutting board and a smart phone.  I begin talking him through the skinning process approaching this whole thing as stoically as possible.  “This is food”, “Everybody used to prep their own meat like this” “Shaye Elliott does it.  I can too.”, etc.  But as Andy is nearing the end of the skinning process, which has taken all of about 3 minutes, my chest tightens, my skin begins to prickle, and the deck begins to spin beneath my feet.  Right about this moment, Andy asks “what’s next”, and based on my response from reading my smart phone, asks for a cleaver.  So I lurch into the house and fumble a cleaver out of the bottom of the knife box, somehow avoiding a nasty cut from the unsheathed knives on top of the cleaver.  I hand him a cleaver through the back door, then fall back inside in the nearest chair as the room spins around me.  Field dressing fail #1:  the nauseated wife.

About 30 seconds later, Andy comes in to announce field dressing fail #2.  I had initially handed him a tempered glass cutting board, which is now in a thousand pieces on the back porch.  Fail #2:  glass cutting boards and cleavers.  Fortunately, that was the only glass cutting board we owned, so that’s not likely to happen again.

What had been a light sprinkle has by now turned into a steady rain as I sweep as much glass as I can off the back deck.  So there will be no roasted rabbit tonight, or rabbit stew.  But the garden is a little safer today, in spite of our failure to fully realize the blessing of wild rabbit.

Web-Mistress

Belated Father’s Day Greetings

I hope all the dads out there had a happy Father’s Day.  It was a busy day here on the homestead, what with the kids having hockey camps and such, but I got to spend a lot of time with my kids and that’s what it’s all about. 

Spending time with them and seeing how they have changed did get me to looking around at what has been happening around here.  So much has gone on since this spring.  Our winter squash is HUGE!  We did 4 foot high box trellises on 5 of the 6 plants and the 2 feet hanging over the top on most tells me we didn’t go high enough.  I also just cleaned out the snap peas.  It seems like it wasn’t that long ago that I was writing about cold crops and yet we have harvested a ton of peas and have replaced those plants with cauliflower.  The timing of the snap peas finishing up was providential as I was able to move their trellising to the first group of cucumbers needing it.

I also want to take this time to rat out the Web Mistress.  After having to issue a correction as to her willingness and ability to defend the homestead from marauding rabbits I take it all back.  Yesterday, as we were preparing for church, in the middle of a garden I spied Peter the Great.  I called for the Web Mistress to keep an eye on him as I went for my gun and was met with a host of reason why we should let him live.   Argh….We will meet again Peter, and I might just be alone!

Anyways, I hope your summer is off to a good start.  Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and Twitter.  Until next time.

Andy

Completion and Clarification

It is done!!!  The coop is complete.  One final push was all it took and the girls weathered their first night in it yesterday.  I left them out until it was dark to see whether or not they would venture in on their own.  When I got around to checking on them a little after 9, I only saw three chickens and assumed most were in the coop.  I soon realized my error and began pulling chickens off of the clown car pile by the fence.  At least this group of survivors was following their instincts to stay warm.  I loaded them into the coop and noticed that none moved away from the door as I went inside.

This morning, when I went out to open the coop, it didn’t appear any movement had occurred and I was met with what can only be called “chicken stink eye”.  But with the growing light they began to explore the rest of the coop and I did see them venture forth by the time I headed off to my day job.

Now for the clarification.  If you are still reading, the Web-Mistress took issue with any insinuation that she might be other than a crack shot.  So, for the record, I am sure that should any rabbit come along it will meet a swift and terrible end.

Andy

Cold Crops

With the frost on the ground the last couple of days I am certainly glad we have waited to put most of our vegetables in until Mother’s Day.  We did, however, get a raised bed going for some cold hearty plants.  The snap peas and radishes are up and doing well.  The carrots, lettuce, kale and broccoli are all showing signs they want to grow.  The carrots and snap peas each got their own 4x2 section of the bed, while the other 4x4 section was divided into triangular plots for the rest of the plants.

I built the bed using untreated 2x6x8s.  This gave me a nice 4x8 bed, the frame of which was then treated using boiled linseed oil.  The linseed oil helps to preserve the wood but is nontoxic, a must when working on projects which are going to be part of your food supply. 

We sowed all of the plants in this bed directly in the soil.  I do have a ton of plants started and under grow lights, more on those a bit later.  The radishes are from Ferry-Morse and the rest are heirloom seeds from Mountain Valley which I purchased at Costco.  So I will see how these brands do and let you know.

My only real worry so far has been rabbits.  I haven’t seen any signs of damage to the plants but have a trusty .22 at the ready.  One can only hope the Web-Mistress is a steely-eyed killer in the event Peter Rabbit shows himself while I’m not home.  Eventually I hope to get some fencing up when all of my raised beds are built.  Until then I can only hope that I get to share a recipe for rabbit stew in a future post.

Did you plant any cold tolerant vegetables?  How are they doing?  Send me some pictures and let me know what brand of seeds you used.

Andy