More rain. UGH!
Made some strawberry jelly though. At least that's more for the food cabinet, since I can't get a chance to get to the gardens.

I am currently working on our hay supply for the rabbits. I have a very complicated system. I cut down hand fulls of tall grass and throw it on a sheet and my fancy drying rack. Don't be jealous when you see my fancy setup!

This was the first batch after a day of drying.

Yep, cattle panel on blocks of wood. 

Fancy, huh?

I tie it up in a bundle and put it in the cabin overnight then put the bundle out for an extra day to continue drying.

This was the day I cut this batch. I got a little carried away with the cutting. I don't like to get too much at once so everything has plenty of room to dry.

When everything is completely dry, I stuff all of it in a burlap bag, tie it up and hang it in the potting shed. 

I haven't had the laptop for awhile so haven't added new pictures. These are all a few weeks old but I decided to add them anyway.

These are Pickles litter: pure creme.

Popcorn's litter: pure creme.

These are Mocha's litter: rex/creme cross.

Iris's litter: pure cremes.

Mocha's

My first litter of Dutch babies:) Ginger had 8! 

We actually had BEEF over the weekend. First time in months. It was pretty good, especially with the homegrown lettuce,  and homemade pickles. Now I just need to get busy on that homemade ketchup:)

We're battling the floods again. All this water is getting tiring! In a few months we'll probably be begging for some rain, but now we just want a break from it!

We started another rain barrel. We'll probably need it.

Rainy day today so I made some blueberry syrup and some black raspberry jelly. Yummy!!

I harvested some thyme, basil and Greek oregano today. The thyme I put in the freezer, the others I put in the dehydrator.

I sowed more annual rye out in the compost lot today. What's there is growing nicely, but some of it got washed away when we had heavy rains. I guess it wasn't really washed away as much as it was washed into a few big areas instead of spread out like it was supposed to be. I went around to try to fill in the holes.

I also cut our first hay. I took a sheet out, cut the tall grass by hand fulls and threw it on the sheet to dry. I will do the same thing, hopefully, every day for awhile to get our supply started. It was some work, but will be worth it!

I took a good look at the litter of Dutch this morning. It appears that we have 5 black and 3 of something else, chocolate maybe? Not real sure on the Dutch colors yet since they are new to me and the first litter. I guess I'll learn as I go:)

We had a good day yesterday with Daryle, Tina and poor little Camden who didn't feel real good. We went to a few antique shops and a nursery where I got a few nice plants. We got them all planted today. We got some lemon verbena, chocolate mint, and a few replacement cucumber plants.

After spending a few days in the hospital, Dewayne is doing well again.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there. Hope you have a wonderful day. I will!!

We are hoping to add on to the rabbitry soon. We will double the size of what it is now. It won't be full of breeding stock for a while though. We want to put in a few pens and use everything to see what we may need different. We will move the Champagnes in the new part for sure but don't now if we will have fattening pens or what we'll do. Will decide as we go.

Another box went in today. Now it's Ivy's turn with Ginger's box going in Tuesday. Pretty sure Ivy is pregnant, but not sure about Ginger. We'll see. We still have 31 babies in the rabbitry. All are doing well and growing nicely, with awesome mommas.

We covered all the plants last night, just in case it actually did frost and will do so tonight as well. I'd rather be safe! To much work to not take time now to be assured the plants are not damaged.

Tonight is supposed to be a chance of frost. WHAT!! We just got the plants in the ground. Oh well, you have to roll with the punches right? ( and there seems to be quite a few from Mother Nature lately!) Now to figure out how to cover everything. Hmmmm.

Went out to do night check on critters and stood watching three deer on the back part of our property. I stood watching them as they were watching me. Beautiful:)

On the morning critter check this morning, all are doing wonderful. We are at 31 in the nest boxes. We are very excited! All does are doing an awesome job and babies are fat and healthy. We have four more does that are bred and do within the next few weeks. Next month around Father's Day will be the day of freezer camp for the oldest younguns.

Dewayne made a new arbor for the front fence that separates the front yard from the rest.  We also got the rest of the garden planted, sunflowers and gourds planted and several different flowers. Whew! Busy day, but it's finally done! Now it can rain:)

Cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes and bush beans are in the garden:) Only 18 tomatoes! We are trying several kinds of heirlooms this year to see what we like.

Today's planting so far is hyssop, summer savory, more cherry tomatoes, more banana peppers, and pink dianthus. Unfortunately, the cherry tomatoes are store bought. UGH! I only had one that made it past the birds.Everything was started from seed. Very rewarding planting your little seedlings in the ground after months of care and attention:)

The cabbage, broccoli and basil are in the garden! The plants looked great going in, hope they continue to thrive:) These are all from seeds we started.

Several weeks ago, I noticed I needed to do something with my worm bin. It didn't look quite right. Well, I forgot about it again soon after. Whoops! Now, today, I finally got around to doing something with it. Needless to say, there are a lot less worms that what I had weeks ago. The good news is, there are some worms left and they should be happy now. Time will tell. Hopefully we'll get back to where we were before my memory lapse. If it's not something I do every day, it tends to slip my mind. Old age? I think so!

We had an eventful but relaxing and fun weekend. Davy spent the weekend here since Erin was at a hair show in St. Louis. It was great visiting with the kids Saturday when Daryle and family came over too. It's crowded but nice to have the kids here. We always miss Erin though. Maybe one of these days, her schedule will slow down a little so we can all get together.

The newest litter of 8 was born to Pickles on Saturday night. We lost one this morning. It still had some yuck attached to its belly. I really had to dig it out of the box Sunday because it was wrapped up with so much fur. I think she just missed it when she was cleaning them up. I also don't think it was fed. we were expecting to lose it. Oh well. That happens. She is taking very good care of the rest of them.

Now the wait is on for Iris. Her box went in Sunday.

Another 3 1/2 inches of rain:( Can't we space this rain out just a little?!? Next thing you know, we'll have a drought again.

I didn't get much done through the day. Our youngest son was here....ALL DAY!! I think this is the longest I've gotten to see Davy for a LONG time. I very much enjoyed it:) Love you Davy!!

Popcorn's litter is getting along nicely.

Now, today I put the box in for Pickles. She should be due on Saturday. She's huge and miserable:)

Got some planting done tonight. We started soldier beans and I transplanted calendula and borage. We may wait a bit longer for anything else to be planted but have working the ground. The area for the tomatoes is ready to plant. We are transplanting over a dozen tomatoes this year. Don't remember the types and amounts, will post later about them.

We also have the area ready to go for the cabbage, broccoli,and  pole beans.