The baby bunnies are growing up fast. They are now off their mother and ready to go to new homes. Which for some odd reason I am not sure I am ready for. I myself have been thinking about keep them but boy I know how much work each little bun bun is so I don't think I'll do that.


For all of you Angora people out there what color would you call this bunny in picture below? She has chocolate ends all around her but her roots are really light. Her feet and now on her chest and on the back of her neck is also starting to turn the same color as her roots (maybe, I need to take her in to see my stylist next time..hee..hee..)


Anyone in Ohio that would like a really nice English Angora give me an e-mail. We are only going to be charging $25.00 each for them (the crazy brown colored one stays and so does one of the other white ones not pictured.) Good healthy bunnies nothing wrong with them and both parents I have paper work for and are here to see (100% English Angoras.) This money is just going toward Brianna's 4-H fund for next year. This is her project and it's the price she decided on.


Making your animals feed dollars stretch a little-
The sprouting project is coming along just fine. If you look at the picture below the last jar on the right is The SAME amount of seed that I started this project out with. All 4 jars on the left are what I needed up with only a few days later! There is something to this.

I have been cooking of course. My goal in the next few years is to try to have ALL (ok most all) of our meals from our own food source (or if I buy it at least from a PERSON I know not a store..) Man, this meal tasted so very good. I'll try to get back online when we are back to share this recipe with you all. Doesn't it look good tho (I thought it looked, and tasted good enough to take a picture..lol..) **Yes, I do know that Non-stick pans are not good for your health. It is ONE of the many things I want to change. I have to take one step at a time tho.



Make-up warnings-
Boy, it's crazy but now we have to worry about LIP STICK. If, you haven't heard yet they are finding that some of our lip stick may have lead in them. The odd thing is that the night before I heard this I started making a list of things that I wanted to do. One of those things were to make my own make-up.

I did an Internet search on it. I found a ton of information but almost EVERY site that I looked at to find out how to make my own foundation wasn't sharing that secret. A matter of a fact they wanted to sell it to you. Now, face Powder was another story and finding information on Mica is easy enough BUT not foundation! I am still looking into that one.


Here is one of the sites that I found on how to make some of your own make-up (this is one of the better sites that I visited but still no free information on how to make your own foundation. I e-mailed them and they did point me to a place to buy the stuff to make my own, which is really nice of them but I REALLY want to know what I am putting on now days and I want to be able to get the ingredients myself.) So, my search will go on.


What's new that I CAN talk about-

Black Walnuts-We have picked up more then enough over the last few weeks. So, today I was working on taking the shells off of them. I am going to use the shells to make more "stain" and the seeds for exspelling worms or maybe just in some ice cream..lol. Don't worry I will not use them on my horses (we do not use black walnut shavings either.lol)

Here is what I did. Stomped on them to get the outer shells to come off.

Hey, this stuff stains. It's better to do this in your yard and not on a driveway unless you don't mind it getting stained.

Oh, the joys of Mother Nature! Yes, you see those little white things. Yes, the thing that people use to eliminate worms also attracts some other bugs... Ok, maybe their not worms but I believe they are Husk Fly babies! Even so, nasty! Even tho, some of these shell has bug on the outside most of them will not have them on the inside where the meat is (odd but that's what I found.)

So, I drop these shells with the nasty bugs on them inside a pot (with holes on the bottom of it.) I wash, wash, and wash away! Bye-Bye bugs.

The shells I put in Stainless steal pots with some water in them. I let them sit out for at least 24 hours. Then I take them into my house and cook them up (don't worry I don't drink this stuff.) The reason why I cook this outer shell is to get the Black Walnut stain so I can dye my Angora wool later on.

Here is one of the pots just cooking away. I let it cook on low for many hours (6-8 on low.) I was very careful not to drop ANY of this water any where in my house. This stuff isn't called stain for nothing. lol..

Oh, your wondering what I do with my nut shells at this point. Well After a good washing I put them out on my old table and let them dye out.

After I cook up my stain I strain it into another container (so I get all the shell out of it.) That container I save so I can dye my wool (or you could use it for a water base wood stain.)

After my nuts have dried I just take a hammer and smack the heck out of each and every single nut shell. These things are hard to crack but a hammer works every time (yes, I have heard about driving over them and using a nut crack too. I just like using a hammer! Makes me feel better...hee..hee..)

Other things-
I bought a NEEM tree , Stevia plant (sweat leaf plant), and some luffa seeds (which I wont plant until next year. I am growing these to make my own Luffa sponges and to fill them up with soap. Click here to see when I did something like that before. It's toward the bottom of that days post.)

The reason I bought the Neem tree is for it's use on bugs! Yep, that's right mites and lice. If, you have farm animals you know what I mean (if you don't you might be thinking, Oh..My God, what dirty people... Farm animals seem to pick things up like this if you aren't too careful.)

The Neem tree has been used for years and you can use every part of the plant for something or another (seems like people have been using it to treat everything under the sun. I always take things like that lightly when I hear something treats so much although it intrigues me.) You just need to know what your doing and know how much to use (which means a lot of reading and sifting through material to figure out what is good and what is bad.)

**Also you need to make sure that the person/animal you are using it on is NOT allergic to it (just like everything else. Common sense needs to play a roll here.) Click here to find out what people say about what Neem can do.

So, you ask why the Stevia plant? Well I love sweet things and it is supposed to be a very sweat plant (hints the nick name Sweat leaf Plant.) I will not replace my sugar with it but I thought it would be a neat plant just to have around and to try.

*I want to send a VERY Big Thank-you out to Kansas. She sent me some Salmon from the lake. I have not tried it just yet but I am going to. Kansas is one of the nicest ladies that is always writing some of the best blog post on the Internet today. If, you have not seen her site just click here!

*I sent my friend Melinda some Kefir grains for her b-day (Happy B-day!) I bet before Winter she'll be teaching classes on Kefir in Mississippi. She jumps into things and really learns everything she can about it. Good for you Melinda!

*I am sorry if you have e-mailed me (or left a comment on a post) in the last few weeks and I have not gotten back to you. Right now there is a lot going on that I can not share on this site yet. Things will settle back down and I will get back to returning all e-mails soon. Thanks for understanding and I hope to be able to share more with you all soon.