Feed Sack Recycling #1

I am a waste not, want not kind of person.  If I can find a second (or third or fourth) use for some thing, I am happy.  One of my favorite things to reuse is feed sacks.  We always have a couple laying around, and I have found some handy uses over the years. A common use for me is to use them as weed control.  Just cut them open down the sides with a blade and - v`oila.  Free weed control.  For smaller areas the sacks can be cut to size.

Snapping Turtle

Potato Harvest

Cabbage were harvested the other day, and now potatoes.  We grew them in old tires stacked up - the first year we tried to grow this way.  We were at three truck tires high when my son accidentally killed the plants.  We needed to put tomatoes in the tires so we decided to go ahead and knock the tires down.  The first tire (top) - nothing.  Second tire (middle) - a few small pearl sized taties.  Third tire (bottom) - I pulled the roots and nothing came out.  I was disappointed, but shrugged it off as not being in the ground long enough.  I went and got my tomato seedlings I had started and began to dig around the dirt in the tire when my fingers brushed something hard.  I ended up pulling out the biggest, prettiest new potato.  After dumping the third tire, we ended up with a nice batch of new potatoes.

Cabbage Harvest

Control Burn

Piggies that will go to the market

I had a bit of a surprise a few days ago.  Our sow was due to farrow in a few weeks, but sometime during the night she decided to pop them out.  They were tiny, but all were healthy.

 The sow, who has a moniker of Macon Bacon, had them in a pile of horse hay.  My mare was quite taken with them.  She stood they sniffing them and carefully following them for hours.  The pony was less amused.

Um, excuse me, waiter?  There is a pig in my hay.

We eventually got Macon and her babies rounded up and moved to a pen by themselves.  In a few weeks they can rejoin the general population.

Baby Bunnies

Not too terribly long ago, my other half decided to give meat rabbits a go.  I was fine with that, except for one thing.  Rabbits are cute.  I had no problem, uh-hem, getting rid of them, but what about the kids.  My hubby argued they had no problem with the chickens or pigs.

True.  Of course, the broiler chickens were more like mini velociraptors than actual chickens.  They were vicious things with no personality.  The pig - well to be honest no one liked the pig.  We just wanted bacon.  But rabbits are cute and cuddly.  If you aren't careful, you will be up to your ears in no time. I know - I've been there before. Long story short, we got some rabbits.

I was right about the cuddly part, but wrong about my kids.  Although they do enjoy the baby bunnies, they did not get attached.  They were perfectly fine knowing that after eight weeks, the fluff bums were permanently going away.  They helped with almost everything, and have enjoyed many rabbit meals.  For the next batch, my daughter is going to keep track of feed cost to see how much the meat costs per pound.  It is going to be her 4-H project.  Sometimes it is nice to be wrong.