Decided yesterday evening to go back to rabbit pellets for the time being. This is for two reasons, while I am still not certain rabbits need 16 to 18 percent protein, I do not feel that I am feeding them well enough to not have a decent amount of protein in their diet.
We have been suffering through a drought this summer. It has also been really, really hot. I cannot remember the last time we had more than a day less than 90 degrees. Everything is brown and dying. Even the weeds are not doing all that well. The hay we get does not have much alfalfa in it and the bale we have right now is really not very good (which is the way it is with the organic hay we get, one bale will be beautiful, the other not so good). I cannot source pure alfalfa hay that is not GMO and what is available is ridiculously expensive. What weeds and grass I pull for the rabbits is likely not terribly nutritious. It’s too hot still to plant cool weather crops … as soon as it does cool off I am going to plant plantain, chickweed, chicory, etc., etc. but it has to cool off! Next week is starting to look promising on the temperature and there is a pretty good chance of rain today into tomorrow so maybe next week will be better. We did get a little bit of rain last night.
So until I feel like I have a good crop of alternative feed for the rabbits, I am going to feed them rabbit pellets and take two steps back and re-evaluate.
This weather has about done me in. I am so bloody sick of the heat and lack of rain. It is amazing how strong rain smells when you have not had any for a long time. I could smell the rain as I got closer to home last night. It has an amazingly strong odor, something I guess you take for granted when you get regular rain.
I feel so bad for the man they featured on the news the other night who bought a new boat and was unable to use it because they closed some of the boat ramps due to low water levels …
I do not have to be in work until 10 today so I will pull weeds and grass for the rabbits and ducks because they do enjoy it, but I know nutritionally it is not worth much. Hopefully this weekend will be cool enough so I can spend a good bit of time in the garden cleaning and prepping rows and get some fall crops in. I can grow a good but under row cover this winter and I now have a greenhouse to UTILIZE this year.
So I feel like a failure but I simply do not have the tools that I need at this time. The land we live on right now is not as rich as where we were before; previously I had access to over 100 acres to look for nutritious weeds, but then again, they are just as dry as we are right now so it may have been difficult there too. We do have a good bit of chickweed here which has 14.5 grams of protein and a good bit of fiber so it will be a useful plant to cultivate. I just ordered seeds from Baker Creek to sow this fall in our raised beds.
I will get this.
Until later …