Busy, busy.

We have been taking care of business on the farm this week! Aside from filling holes and laying grass seed in the yard from the "mowing rabbits," harvesting more strawberries, peas, and two large heads of cauliflower, planting more lavender and edamame ("mama peas" to Matilde), and pitting and freezing cherries, we have discovered a free and sustainable means for feeding our farm animals!! 

Long story...

Andy stopped at the coffee shop on Saturday and left us in the car. (Typical.) I noticed the woman that works at the bodega next door walk out with a bucket in her hand. As she got closer to the car, I noticed the bucket was filled with bread. I looked around and then noticed she was headed straight for the compost dumpster on the other side of the parking lot. I stopped her in her tracks, and, as kindly and uncreepy as I could, I asked her if I could take her stale bread. The kids initially thought I was crazy! I explained to the woman that we raise rabbits, chickens, and a turkey a block away and they would LOVE her stale bread. She gladly gave us all that she had and showed me the beautiful heap of fruits and vegetables that she had already dumped into the compost bin before we had arrived. She said it was a daily occurrence. Of course, my next question was if there was any chance we could leave a bucket at the store for her to fill. We told her we would pick it up daily and she said yes! We have a nice system planned out to return an empty bucket when we pick up the full bucket of refuse. It's perfect! 

Today was our first exchange, and Andy picked up 16 POUNDS of free fruits, veggies, and bread for our animals. All food that was perfectly fine for our animals, but would have otherwise not qualified for human consumption. We are going to save a fortune on rabbit feed by only supplementing with pellets while we are away. This was our ultimate goal in having an urban farm. We knew it was only a matter of time before we found a perfect, reliable, FREE food source. We are livin' the dream! L. I. V. I. N., baby. 

Papa's little helper

Matilde helped Papa scoop out rabbit pellets to fill the feeders.  She is such a big help when it comes to her animals! 

Feeding the flock

Alfalfa, Timothy hay, and chick starter. 

I think they'll all gobble it down. The grasses are for the rabbits. I thought if we mixed them together we may lose less of the yummy leaves from the alfalfa.

Ps- The bunnies are nesting!  It's only a matter of time before they are inundated with babies!  

Seed and feed

Big trip to the feed store yesterday. I love going to the U District for my farm essentials! People always have such a quizzical look when they hear we go to the heart of the city for feed. It's a great little place with everything from chickens and ducks to coops and bee keeping supplies. I am pretty confident bee keeping is next on the big to do list. Their honey is too enticing to not be next on the list. ;)

You're cramping my style!

These are our giant bags of hay and alfalfa from the seed and feed store. We are limited on trunk space and we don't have a pick up, so this is the obvious solution! The girls don't complain because its only about a 15 minute drive back to the house. I love that you can see them passing books to each other! They're great sports and they understand the importance of both of the bags that sit between them.