Rabbits and Goats

Joe has been very busy lately with his rabbits. About a month before Easter he had 4 litters of babies. He had the idea that he would be able to sell more rabbits at about Easter time. Sure enough, he sold all of the babies and 2 of the adults (totalling 18 rabbits) with the exception of one. Originally, all of the rabbits were sold, but I accidentally gave someone the wrong rabbit, and when the person came for the rabbit I gave away, they didn't want the other one that was left behind. That worked out perfectly, because unbeknownst to us, Adam had really wanted to keep a black bunny. So, meet Whale, our new baby black bunny:

("Whale" because he looks like a whale!)

Since Easter, we have had another litter and soon we will still have one more litter, these are the meat type rabbits and so Joe is thinking he will sell some and try to eat some. Hmmm....

Joe originally got rabbits with the idea that he would learn how to breed them so that we could use them as a food source in case of a catastrophic event. Personally, my parents raised rabbits for eating when I was younger and I am not a big fan of the meat, but Joe had never tried any. A couple of weeks ago, we had a rabbit that he decided to butcher for us to eat. I got my best fried meat recipe, cornmeal batter, that works great for disguising the taste of any meat. I fried up all of the rabbit, and tasted a few pieces along the way. I didn't think it was all that great, but it was edible. We sat down to dinner, and Nate thought the meat was great. The older kids were all complaining (they do that for most meat meals). I took a bite and made a barely audible groan and Joe gave me a dirty look. Then he took a bite and spit it out because he decided it must have been a bad cut of meat. I picked out a piece that was probably the best piece of meat we had and let him eat that. I watched closely...he took a bite, a chew and then....he started gagging. He tried once more chew but that was it, he couldn't eat it. Personally, I thought it was pretty darn funny, and he felt a little humbled. (Since Joe is always so certain about his ideas, it is nice when I am proven on occasion to be right).

I guess I need to find a new recipe for the next time we try it, but I am not sure that we will be "trying" it all that often.

Our goats are doing great out on our little island. They were unhappy to be on the island at first (they were pets before we got them and missed the constant people interaction), and even swam across the small span from the island to the land so that they could be with us. (Goats rarely/never swim, you can google it if you don't believe me). Since then, they have accepted that the island is their new home. They are doing a good job clearing the island, you can now sit on the shore and see through the underbrush to the other side of the lake. A few more months and we may be done. Originally, Joe had thought about eating the goats after they had done their job, but after sampling a little rabbit, he has decided that he will just sell them when he is done! (Boy am I grateful for that.)