NC has the most unpredictable weather! For weeks the weather has been fairly warm considering its January. And last weekend the temperatures were in the 60's. It felt like a Spring day. Then on Monday it started raining. By Wednesday the temperatures had turned bitterly cold and the wind was picking up. The rain was starting to blow under the shelter where our rabbits are and they were getting wet. So my oldest son Tristan and I spent nearly an hour tacking up large pieces of cardboard around the sides until my husband could get home to put up a tarp around the shelter.
The cardboard was very short lived obviously so after a few hours and Shane wasn't home still we had to come up with a plan to bring in the rabbits. We ended up using an old pack-n-play for the 2 does (Oreo and Speckle) and a cat carrier for the buck (Snowball) for a few hours. When Shane got home he went out and put a tarp up all around the shelter. But on Thursday evening it began to snow heavy and although the tarp solution worked for temporary reasons, it was difficult to feed and water them everyday since we had to remove it each time. Friday the snow and rain had stopped and was nearly melted so that night we just threw some old blankets over the cages to keep them warm. Today however we had to come up with something more since it was going to be in the lower 20's tonight. We ended up stripping poor Pebble's cage (the indoor bunny) of her little log shelter and her igloo that she came with when Aunt Maria gave her to us and gave the log to the does and the igloo to the buck. Then we covered the cages up with the blankets again.
When we raise up some more money my husband wants to finish the shelter by adding a solid wood back and sides with lattice style doors that we can latch closed at night.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
One of those rare days
Well, today is one of those day's. Grrrrrr. Homeschooling today is really trying
my patience. It's kind of
dark, rainy and gloomy out today and the younger kids are in rare grumpy form. I don't know what it is about this kind of weather that has everyone's mood out of whack.
We have only been up since 8:30am and already I think every child up to the age
of 9 has cried at least once and the 4's and under easily have cried or whined
the majority of the morning. I am about to declare this a video learning day and
make everyone up to the age of 9 lay down for the rest of the school day. Ughhhh
It's snack time right now and FINALLY there is the sound of quiet ....that is until
the 1 year old walks under the dining room table to retrieve a dropped animal cookie and whack....poor thing.
Thinking maybe I will make some cookies and pull out the play-do for creative play once I put the 1 year old, who eats play-do, down for her nap at noon. Days like today make me thank God for the privilege to home school my kids. We can go at our own pace and if something isn't working for the day than we can put a pin in it for later and find other creative ways to learn and lift our spirits. The bible said that David encouraged himself in the Lord when he was faced with adversities.
The rest of this week will be rainy according to the news forecast and I accept the challenge to turn the gloom to bloom. Here is the lyrics to an old song that I think are greatly appropriate.
Thinking maybe I will make some cookies and pull out the play-do for creative play once I put the 1 year old, who eats play-do, down for her nap at noon. Days like today make me thank God for the privilege to home school my kids. We can go at our own pace and if something isn't working for the day than we can put a pin in it for later and find other creative ways to learn and lift our spirits. The bible said that David encouraged himself in the Lord when he was faced with adversities.
The rest of this week will be rainy according to the news forecast and I accept the challenge to turn the gloom to bloom. Here is the lyrics to an old song that I think are greatly appropriate.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Low Carb while pregnant Part 2
I told you I would update you about my low carb experiment and boy, was I surprised how drastically it changed my numbers. Here was my previous daily regimen:
Before breakfast: 1000mg of Metformin pill, Insulin 60 units of N and 40 units of R
Before Lunch: 40 units of R
Before Dinner: 40 units of R
Before Bedtime: 1000mg Metformin pill, Insulin 60 units of N
Once I cut my carb intake down to 20g with breakfast and 20g at lunch and dinner, this is what I was able to reduce my medications to almost immediately.
Before breakfast: 1000mg of Metformin pill, 30 units of N and 20 units of R
Before Lunch: 20 units of R
Before DInner: 20 units of R
Before BEdtime: 1000mg Metformin pill and 30 units of N
A few days later I reduced my carb intake to zero for breakfast and 10g for lunch and dinner. This is what I was able to reduce my medications to.
Before breakfast: 1000mg of Metformin pill, 30 units of N and ZERO units of R
Before Lunch: ZERO units of R
Before DInner: ZERO units of R
Before BEdtime: 1000mg Metformin pill and 30 units of N
A few days later I didn't even need the N!!!!
Now I take my morning and bedtime Metformin and that is all. And I am not sure if I really even need that.
And a little bonus, I lost a few pounds. Don't worry the Dr. said I could lose a little during the pregnancy since I had a little extra when I started :)
Before breakfast: 1000mg of Metformin pill, Insulin 60 units of N and 40 units of R
Before Lunch: 40 units of R
Before Dinner: 40 units of R
Before Bedtime: 1000mg Metformin pill, Insulin 60 units of N
Once I cut my carb intake down to 20g with breakfast and 20g at lunch and dinner, this is what I was able to reduce my medications to almost immediately.
Before breakfast: 1000mg of Metformin pill, 30 units of N and 20 units of R
Before Lunch: 20 units of R
Before DInner: 20 units of R
Before BEdtime: 1000mg Metformin pill and 30 units of N
A few days later I reduced my carb intake to zero for breakfast and 10g for lunch and dinner. This is what I was able to reduce my medications to.
Before breakfast: 1000mg of Metformin pill, 30 units of N and ZERO units of R
Before Lunch: ZERO units of R
Before DInner: ZERO units of R
Before BEdtime: 1000mg Metformin pill and 30 units of N
A few days later I didn't even need the N!!!!
Now I take my morning and bedtime Metformin and that is all. And I am not sure if I really even need that.
And a little bonus, I lost a few pounds. Don't worry the Dr. said I could lose a little during the pregnancy since I had a little extra when I started :)
Total Rabbitry Start-up
So I thought I would give a run-down of the amount of money this rabbitry start-up has cost us.
3 Pedigreed New Zealand bunnies: $75
Dremel tool, and wire cutters: $42
Wood for structure, wood screws: $172
Cage Wire enough for 2 cages, four 2-liter bottle converters, J-clips and J-clip tool: $88
Roofing, Roofing screws, chain, and eye hooks: $67
extra roof piece, cable ties, more roofing screws: $21
9 packs of Cable ties, and 2 food bowls: $23
Total: $488
We will also need to buy in the next few days:
20lb Bag of food: $10
horse quality hay: $4
The only other thing will be (in 2 months when we seperate Oreo and Speckle):
Cage Wire for 2 more cages: $66
Cable ties (if these hold up): $20
Roofing for 2nd tier of cages (guides the poo and pee into the second chamber and away from the bunnies in the bottom cages) : $24
chain: $2
Eye Hooks: $4
Food bowls: $3
Picture of Cage assembled with cable ties
Door Assembly using cable ties
3 Pedigreed New Zealand bunnies: $75
Dremel tool, and wire cutters: $42
Wood for structure, wood screws: $172
Cage Wire enough for 2 cages, four 2-liter bottle converters, J-clips and J-clip tool: $88
Roofing, Roofing screws, chain, and eye hooks: $67
extra roof piece, cable ties, more roofing screws: $21
9 packs of Cable ties, and 2 food bowls: $23
Total: $488
We will also need to buy in the next few days:
20lb Bag of food: $10
horse quality hay: $4
The only other thing will be (in 2 months when we seperate Oreo and Speckle):
Cage Wire for 2 more cages: $66
Cable ties (if these hold up): $20
Roofing for 2nd tier of cages (guides the poo and pee into the second chamber and away from the bunnies in the bottom cages) : $24
chain: $2
Eye Hooks: $4
Food bowls: $3
Picture of Cage assembled with cable ties
Door Assembly using cable ties
Jumping the gun Part 2
When we arrived home, the kids and I spent about an hour holding the sweet little bunnies and the big boy. Then I made a list for the store. We needed 2 feeders, roofing, roofing screws, chain for hanging the cages, eye bolts, and cage door latches. So I headed to Lowe's hardware first while Shane headed to the garage to start cutting the doors and door holes as well as the baby saver wire. He first began to assemble the cages using the j-clips and j-clip tool. (It was now 6:30pm) Meanwhile....
I was at Lowe's and found the metal roofing material we were going to have to use which was almost $12 a sheet. The dimensions were different than the structure we built so we needed 4 sheets and Shane was still going to have to cut them down a little in the front. (ugh...more work for tonight) I then picked out the chain and eye bolts and got the roofing screws and headed home to drop that stuff off before I headed to Walmart. (The cost was $67 and It was now 7:30pm)
When I arrived home to drop of the stuff from Lowe's, Shane was using his dremel tool to file off the sharp edges of the cage sides from where he cut them. (This time-consuming task was one I hadn't taken into account and I don't think Shane had either). I left the house and headed to Walmart. At Walmart I had the huge realization that WALMART DOESN'T HAVE EVERYTHING! They didn't have the rabbit food feeders or the cage door latches. grrrrr Then I get a call from Shane. He says that the J-clip tool I bought at Tractor Supply is so cheaply made that when he clamps the J-clips closed, the tool falls apart!!!! And of course Walmart has NOTHING in the form of a J-clip tool, of course. NOW WHAT?
So here I am walking around Walmarts tool and gadget aisle (It's literally one aisle mind you) and I see nothing. And then I see cable ties and remembered that somewhere on the internet when I was researching how to build your own rabbit cage, I had seen someone who had used those to assemble their cage. (only one person and I don't even remember who cause I thought it was a dumb idea.) So what to do? I mean we were in a crisis at 8:30pm at night with 3 bunnies hanging out in cat carriers who needed their cages TONIGHT! So I grabbed 9 packs of 20 of the thickest cable ties they had. I then grabbed 2 little "dollar" feeding bowls for their food. (The cost was $23 and I arrived home around 9:45pm.)
I get home and realize I had forgotten to get wire or something to make the door latches and decided to temporarily use 2 pieces of thick "hanger style" wire I found laying around the garage. One crisis down....For the next 2 hours, I sat on the floor using cable ties to assemble the cages. I dreamnt of the boxed cages that seemed like they would be soooo easy to assemble now. We found that the cage wire wasn't exactly "one inch by two inches" or "one inch by 1/2 inch" which made it hard to line up the bottom of the cage with the sides to a perfect square. Oh well, I just used EXTRA cable ties to make sure it was secure in the corners. Until I realized they weren't extra and I was running out before I was done with the second cage. We ended up skimping on the "hinges" to the door on the babies cages temporarily til Shane could go buy more in the morning.
While I assembled, Shane was finishing the cutting of the doors and the baby saver wire for the bottom of the Does cage which he also had to use his dremel tool again to file down. (The filing was the most time consuming) Finally the cages were finished; doors and latches affixed and then all we needed to do was attach them to the structure. Sounds Simple, right?.... hmmmm, not so much. (It was now nearly 1:45am.)
We spent 2 HOURS trying to level out the cages after attaching them to the structure as well as attaching those PIECE OF GARBAGE "2 liter water bottle converter" Water feeders from Tractor Supply that leak non-stop! We finally put the bunnies in their cages around 4am. NOW THE ROOF.....NOT!!! We decided to throw a tarp over the whole thing for the night and strap it down so that it wouldn't blow away until morning. We got up at 9am to begin THE ROOFING...grrrrr (so tired).
So I am thinking we kindof jumped the gun on purchasing the rabbits yesterday. We are 3 hours in today and my husband realizes that we are short one piece of roofing. So off to Lowe's he goes again to get more cable ties and another sheet of roofing. (The cost was another $16.) I will add up all the costs in the next post. At this rate the kids will have to sell like 30 rabbits just to break even.
Picture of cages hung the next day as it was too dark to take last night without the roof.
Oreo and Speckle enjoying their new digs :)
Snowball enjoying his Kingly Castle :)
Picture of our Rabbitry with the new roof. Now we need to save up enough money to enclose the sides and add our lattice style wooden doors.
I was at Lowe's and found the metal roofing material we were going to have to use which was almost $12 a sheet. The dimensions were different than the structure we built so we needed 4 sheets and Shane was still going to have to cut them down a little in the front. (ugh...more work for tonight) I then picked out the chain and eye bolts and got the roofing screws and headed home to drop that stuff off before I headed to Walmart. (The cost was $67 and It was now 7:30pm)
When I arrived home to drop of the stuff from Lowe's, Shane was using his dremel tool to file off the sharp edges of the cage sides from where he cut them. (This time-consuming task was one I hadn't taken into account and I don't think Shane had either). I left the house and headed to Walmart. At Walmart I had the huge realization that WALMART DOESN'T HAVE EVERYTHING! They didn't have the rabbit food feeders or the cage door latches. grrrrr Then I get a call from Shane. He says that the J-clip tool I bought at Tractor Supply is so cheaply made that when he clamps the J-clips closed, the tool falls apart!!!! And of course Walmart has NOTHING in the form of a J-clip tool, of course. NOW WHAT?
So here I am walking around Walmarts tool and gadget aisle (It's literally one aisle mind you) and I see nothing. And then I see cable ties and remembered that somewhere on the internet when I was researching how to build your own rabbit cage, I had seen someone who had used those to assemble their cage. (only one person and I don't even remember who cause I thought it was a dumb idea.) So what to do? I mean we were in a crisis at 8:30pm at night with 3 bunnies hanging out in cat carriers who needed their cages TONIGHT! So I grabbed 9 packs of 20 of the thickest cable ties they had. I then grabbed 2 little "dollar" feeding bowls for their food. (The cost was $23 and I arrived home around 9:45pm.)
I get home and realize I had forgotten to get wire or something to make the door latches and decided to temporarily use 2 pieces of thick "hanger style" wire I found laying around the garage. One crisis down....For the next 2 hours, I sat on the floor using cable ties to assemble the cages. I dreamnt of the boxed cages that seemed like they would be soooo easy to assemble now. We found that the cage wire wasn't exactly "one inch by two inches" or "one inch by 1/2 inch" which made it hard to line up the bottom of the cage with the sides to a perfect square. Oh well, I just used EXTRA cable ties to make sure it was secure in the corners. Until I realized they weren't extra and I was running out before I was done with the second cage. We ended up skimping on the "hinges" to the door on the babies cages temporarily til Shane could go buy more in the morning.
While I assembled, Shane was finishing the cutting of the doors and the baby saver wire for the bottom of the Does cage which he also had to use his dremel tool again to file down. (The filing was the most time consuming) Finally the cages were finished; doors and latches affixed and then all we needed to do was attach them to the structure. Sounds Simple, right?.... hmmmm, not so much. (It was now nearly 1:45am.)
We spent 2 HOURS trying to level out the cages after attaching them to the structure as well as attaching those PIECE OF GARBAGE "2 liter water bottle converter" Water feeders from Tractor Supply that leak non-stop! We finally put the bunnies in their cages around 4am. NOW THE ROOF.....NOT!!! We decided to throw a tarp over the whole thing for the night and strap it down so that it wouldn't blow away until morning. We got up at 9am to begin THE ROOFING...grrrrr (so tired).
So I am thinking we kindof jumped the gun on purchasing the rabbits yesterday. We are 3 hours in today and my husband realizes that we are short one piece of roofing. So off to Lowe's he goes again to get more cable ties and another sheet of roofing. (The cost was another $16.) I will add up all the costs in the next post. At this rate the kids will have to sell like 30 rabbits just to break even.
Picture of cages hung the next day as it was too dark to take last night without the roof.
Oreo and Speckle enjoying their new digs :)
Snowball enjoying his Kingly Castle :)
Picture of our Rabbitry with the new roof. Now we need to save up enough money to enclose the sides and add our lattice style wooden doors.
Jumping the gun. Part 1
About 2 weeks ago, My husband started cutting the cage wire for the cages and realized that we were only going to be able to build 2 cages out of what we had. UGH! (That cage wire was $66. So now it's going to be DOUBLE THAT! see expense reaction photo from previous post) So after he had all cage pieces cut he put them in the side shed and there they would sit for 2 more weeks :(
I was starting to feel antzy because I had heard that there was alot of profit to be had a Easter and we already have 1 rabbit named Pebbles (not sure what breed she is) and she is breeding age. SO I was hoping to at least get a New Zealand buck of breeding age and breed her. Then maybe we would have a kit ready to leave the nest by the time Easter rolled around in like 12 weeks. Soooooooo.....I started hounding my husband to put together the cages to no avail. (Shane is very laid back so without a deadline things kindof get put off for more prudent matters.)
So yesterday, again in hopes to light a fire under him, I started calling around to local rabbitries to see what they had available. Once that snowball got started though it wouldn't stop (making my YIKES face)
It seemed no one had any available kits til February and then I talked to a guy in Sophia which was about a 40 minute drive from where we are. He said he had a 2 month old litter of Broken Black New Zealands and he had one White New Zealand BUck who was 3 months old but he didn't have any older bucks for sale. I think after our "search" Shane and I became panicked and agreed to buy 2 Broken Black Does and the 1 White Buck. The man said he would rather us come today if we could and so 45 minutes later we were in the car with our borrowed cat carriers to go pick up our new bun bun's. (Remember we still hadn't finished building the cages. This would prove to be a disaster)
When we arrived at the rabbitry, we immediately started taking mental notes about his set-up, the mess, his cages, his feeding system ect. And he was very accomodating. He answered every question we had and more. He showed us how to sex the rabbits for Does and Bucks and told us how much food they needed everyday. He also showed us some full-size New Zealands and let me tell you they are HUGE!
After much conversation, he gave us the pedigrees and we headed out with our new babies. We were very optimistic about the amount of work we had set ourselves up for once we got home........
I was starting to feel antzy because I had heard that there was alot of profit to be had a Easter and we already have 1 rabbit named Pebbles (not sure what breed she is) and she is breeding age. SO I was hoping to at least get a New Zealand buck of breeding age and breed her. Then maybe we would have a kit ready to leave the nest by the time Easter rolled around in like 12 weeks. Soooooooo.....I started hounding my husband to put together the cages to no avail. (Shane is very laid back so without a deadline things kindof get put off for more prudent matters.)
It seemed no one had any available kits til February and then I talked to a guy in Sophia which was about a 40 minute drive from where we are. He said he had a 2 month old litter of Broken Black New Zealands and he had one White New Zealand BUck who was 3 months old but he didn't have any older bucks for sale. I think after our "search" Shane and I became panicked and agreed to buy 2 Broken Black Does and the 1 White Buck. The man said he would rather us come today if we could and so 45 minutes later we were in the car with our borrowed cat carriers to go pick up our new bun bun's. (Remember we still hadn't finished building the cages. This would prove to be a disaster)
When we arrived at the rabbitry, we immediately started taking mental notes about his set-up, the mess, his cages, his feeding system ect. And he was very accomodating. He answered every question we had and more. He showed us how to sex the rabbits for Does and Bucks and told us how much food they needed everyday. He also showed us some full-size New Zealands and let me tell you they are HUGE!
After much conversation, he gave us the pedigrees and we headed out with our new babies. We were very optimistic about the amount of work we had set ourselves up for once we got home........
This Rabbitry is getting expensive.
So the girls and I went out 2 weekends ago and bought the cage wire we needed for the 4 rabbit cages. (This was my attempt to push my husband along in the building process..wink, wink) We had to go to 4 different stores to find the right cage wire. (Lowe's, Farmers Feed and Seed, Farmers Hardware and The Tractor Supply.) The Tractor Supply store seemed like it had everything we needed even though we had to drive about 35 minutes out of our way. We got the cage wire, J-clips, J-clip tool, and these 2-liter bottle converters so we could have bigger water feeders than the average Water Feeder. They had the food dispensers too but at $8.99 each, I thought I would check Walmart first. (Big fat mistake) The total for the cage materials at Tractor Suppy was $88. Add that to the $172 we already spent at Lowe's for the wood to build the frame, the wire cutters, and wood screws. This thing is starting to add up...little did we know we would be spending about $100 more on emergency supplies (next blog post....be patient. :smile:) and only being able to make 2 cages with what we had YIKES!
Alexia demonstrating my face as I added up the expenses for the rabbitry. haha
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