Vaughnshire Farm

Inserted nesting boxes into cages today.

No bunnies…Does rebred on June 18th. The boys reintroduced the does to the buck on June 22 and noticed agitated behavior from the does. The assumption is they are pregnant this time.

Introduced Buck1 to all three does today

We bred 3 does on May 15, 2007. We put in nesting boxes on June 11,2007 and expect kindling on June 15, 2007. We haven’t noticed unusual behavior from our does but have noticed that the rex doe is getting noticeably larger. All does are usually in their nesting boxes when fed each morning.

Living over an hour from a Kroger or almost 2 hours from a Costco or Sams, our methods of gathering groceries have changed quite a bit since moving out to the farm.  In an emergency, I can be at a Sav-a-Lot in 15 minutes, but I enjoy the local markets around here more. 

Once I get a bit more settled, I am going to pick back up on my couponing for certain items in a modified way (toothbrushes, razors, toilet paper, paper products, some food products, etc).   In the transition, my food stockpile was a great blessing to me. I still have a good stocked pantry of basic supplies that have been an invaluable resource from which I have been pulling from.  Because of the availability of bulk supplies like grain, local honey, local vegetables and seasonal fruits, I am taking advantage of my proximity to these items.  I found a wonderful country store that I have done my shopping at and while it is nothing compared to a conventional grocery store, it provides us with fresh good food for a good price.  It has the added bonus of me not having to worry about getting the children dressed in something other than overalls and rubber boots as well as, not worrying about all the strange looks and stares.  So while I did not have to give my “grocery shopping with 7 children speech”  when we exited the vehicle, I did give the ”Don’t ask me to buy any more animals…even if you have the money for it…we aren’t taking home live animals today…” speech.    

We took a picture to compare the differences in what the food from a country grocery store looks like, compared to what we are use to shopping at.  Here was our haul today: 

6 loaves of fresh baked sourdough (about $2.50 each)
2 gallons of fresh milk ($3.50 each) with the added bonus of fresh cream.
Lots of sausage patties ($2.xx a pound)
2 lbs of sliced farmer’s cheese ($3.25 a pound)
5 1/2 dozen fresh eggs ($1.49 a dozen)
1 peach frozen ready to bake pie (it was very good too!) 
Fresh picked sweet strawberries
And for the ride home –water and cinnamon rolls –

for a total of $50 

Last week, I purchased a bulk amount of raw sugar and local honey, fresh milk, grain berries, sourdough, onions

You know your at a real country store, when they have live animals outside for sale.  Last week, we saw a rabbit in one of the cages with a sign that said:

“$6 for Live, $8 for butchered” 

My children pulled the stray dollars and change they had in their pockets and bought the buck rabbit –alive–to breed to their does.