Today, and the past 3, has been a slow day for the educational TO DO list, 5 sick kiddos and one big one on the way. So what do we do on such days? Well, we read. We read the Net, we read the shelves of books our addiction has filled, we read the library’s books that are bursting the seams in my 2×2 polybag that I seriously will miss when the bottom truly falls out. We’ve had that folding down flat “bag” for 13 years. Seven people in the house, we can come home from the library with A LOT OF BOOKS. I also took the better part of Sunday fixing things which I will write upon later. HAVE I GOT A PRODUCT REVIEW LIST FOR YOU! Lotsa writing to go on this week!
I discovered some great blog sites I’d like to share regarding growing your own meat rabbits. 
Thanks to a new friend, I had the opportunity last Thursday to participate in the process of harvesting meat rabbits, dressing them for the freezer and learned a bit of how to cook them. Yes, my next endeavor is to see what kind of woman I am. I had no idea if I would freak out and run home with wet drawers or would I watch the process and just think of the fine meat I was likely to provide for my family! I tell you, this seems like an underground topic. People don’t want to talk about it until you’ve been patted down and vetted. I’ve nearly singed a few friendships by telling them of my intentions so I can understand why the hushing. I think it is just too upsetting for someone to even think about killing an animal they’ve raised. I don’t like the thought of it either, but I am having a midlife “do my kids even know where that food on their plate came from and do they care” attitude. I am not thrilled to think I’ve put the killing off onto someone else’s conscience. Worse case scenario, I’ve let the killing to someone who didn’t give a care as to the quality of the food they send to Kroger’s for me to pick up later in the clearance “sell before it turns green” aisle. Spiritually, I’ve also been dogged with the question if killing animals for food is considered to God as violent, or abusive to our stewardship of them or against His devine plan for us. If I explain the answer I came up with, it’d take another page, but here is a site that echoes my sentiments well.
SO, with that in mind, my new steps are toward what I can do to inform myself and family as well as provide some quality food for our table. I may come out on the other side a vegetarian, so we’ll see. Thus far I can say I did pass my own test last THursday and there was no wetting of the drawers. I do believe we will be having rabbit in future meals. If you are not squeamish or twisted there are some very informative YouTube videos on the subject of harvesting meat rabbits using humane methods.
I’ve read quite a bit on the subject and there is indeed tons out here in cyberspace about raising your own rabbits so I will resist repackaging and just give you some links.
First I was looking into what are the possibilities of pastured rabbits or “rabbits on the ground.” I am not crazy about cages and having to change poop trays or deal with cage sores on the feet. Apparently there are lots of possibilities and apparently more than the pet rabbit industry would like one to believe. Rabbit colonies are popular overseas and even here in the States. Here is a large farm with excellent as well as natural practices that I hope to follow on a significantly scale down version:
and here is one of their apprentice’s blogs.
My all time favorite source this weekend for an example of rabbits raised on the ground rather than cages is Palazzo Rospo. Allow yourself time here. IF you are specifically interested in their rabbit adventures just click on their rabbit category on the right hand side of the blog.