Stella Bella the bunny's final days

 Sometimes with rabbits they pass quite suddenly and you don't see it coming. So it was with Lilla Bunny a while back. For Stella though it was more of a slowing down, a knowing and then a quiet passing. It wasn't bad as such, it was her time, she wasn't suffering, she reached a good age for a large breed rabbit, she enjoyed her life and seemed comfortable in her final days. 

Almost 7 years ago these big rabbits were born on a farm two towns away. After seeing an ad for their sale on a farm page, we bought three of them to join our farm. We know bunny "leftovers" are great garden fertilizer and the kids would enjoy them as pets. We have had bunnies off and on (mostly on!) over the years and they fit in well here. 

Stella (black), Lilla top (Harlequin), Matilda bottom (Harlequin)

 

The terrific, terrible, three at 3 months old, already causing trouble but pretty cute too!

Stella, Lilla and Matilda proved to be pretty wild big bunnies! Many times myself, Hayley and the boys had to find escaped bunnies. These rabbits could find their way out of any enclosure it seemed!

 

We love digging!

As the rabbits got older they stopped trying to escape and ave been allowed quite a lot of freedom within the fenced farmyard. In fact over the last few years I have found that I can let them out into the large fenced yard in the morning and they return to their cage in the chicken coop/barn for lock down at sundown. 

Fun times in the farmyard

 

Surely the chickens food is tastier than my bunny food!

Over the last few weeks Stella had been slowing down and staying nearer the coop area, she seemed to enjoy pats and attention more than in the past too. While Matilda would still run around all over, digging and looking for snacks Stella was  content to watch and have snacks brought to her. She seemed to enjoy this years young chickens and hung out with them a lot right near the coop. 

Stella and the baby chicks

Stella and a chick

 

Then sometime in the last week Stella decided that she would just watch the goings on from the small back door of the coop. I think she wanted to feel a part of the farmyard but getting around was too hard for her. 

Stella watching the goings on in the farmyard

Stella, slowing right down but still wanting to see what's going on. She doesn't go far just watches out the door.

 

Finally her last day Stella did not leave her large cage in the coop and in fact Matilda stayed in and kept Stella company. Stella ate a little, fresh garden lettuce, but mostly slept that last day. When I shut up the birds and buns for the night I knew Stella would not be with us the next day. 

A few days have passed. Matilda is the lone bunny now in our "flock". I don't know how she feels about it  but being near 7 years old and a large breed bunny I don't think she will have a great many years left. She seems happy enough and we have no plans to add another bunny. With the kids grown now and all of our busy schedules there are no plans to add new farm animals right now. Hopefully Matilda will continue to provide rich garden fertilizer in exchange for lovely garden produce for awhile yet.

Matilda wayyyyy under the coop, one of her favorite places to stay cool on hot days.

Matilda under the coop digging holes!

Lots of good things growing

 We've had a lot of greens, herbs and onions from the garden so far plus one cucumber. Lots more is growing. It's so much work but getting the plants started early, indoors over the winter, finally starts to pay off.

Green in a Green Stalk

little yellow squash

Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes

More tomatoes

Nasturtium near a melon vine

Plum tomatoes

A different type of Nasturtium

Kale, Collars and Cabbage

Wow this cabbage is doing nicely

Tiny green beans

Around the farmyard

                                             I wonder what they're looking at?

 

 I was supposed to be an Olive Egger, nope Gold Laced Wyandotte. Bought 5 Olive Eggers and  3 of them turned out to be Wyndottes. Our egg basket won't be as colorful as planned this year but at least they are female. 

 

 No, I'm not sitting on my sister...really.

Happy Flock, Happy Garden, Happy KitKat

 I've been weeding in the veg. gardens and tossing all the weeds to the chickens, ducks and rabbits. 

KitKat is hard at work supervising the weeding process.

Things are looking pretty good after the weeding in the upper garden which is near the chicken yard. I've had to sort of corral the sunchoke plants between various tomato cages and fence pieces to stop them crowding out tomatoes.

Growing Kiwi in zone 5, Arctic Kiwi that is

 We added arctic kiwi plants a few years ago, knowing that it could be several years before we harvest fruit from these plants. Many Arctic Kiwi plants can be successful during very cold winters One tricky thing about most arctic kiwi plants is the fact that you need both male and female plants of the correct types to get a crop. We have three or four varieties of arctic kiwi and one variety didn't have a mate. This one is the Arctic Beauty (Actinidia Kolomikta) variety. Last year I thought we had found a good set of plants to add to the lone Arctic Beauty but the plants, ordered online without thoroughly checking the plant company, were a disappointment. These plants were tiny, arrived in terrible shape and only one survived the winter. About a month ago I decided to try again and found a new to me company to try. This company is called One Green World. Those plants arrived yesterday and they are WONDERFUL plants. Large, best packaged/shipped plants I've ever seen. The prices were very reasonable too. Hopefully now we have all that is needed to get fruit from these fantastic plants.

 

Very happy with these kiwi plants from One Green World.

Best packaging we've had from an online nursery.

Of course KitKat needs to make sure all is well with the new plants, and the new box!

 

Besides Arctic Beauty the other kiwi plants we have are  ISSAI Arctic Kiwi (Actinida arguta) and Actinidia deliciosa 'Jenny' and un- named male. There might be one more type out there in the garden but now everyone who needs a "mate" plant has at least one. 

 

The new issue we have is that these vines are going crazy and need to be sent in the directions we need them to go. I'm going to need to add trellising, fencing or an arched fence in the chicken yard to have these head that way rather than into one of the veg. garden areas. Thankfully the arctic kiwi plants are not bothered by the chickens and ducks!