Weening myself from technology

Growing up, my mind has been in a constant battle. I love the outdoors, survival techniques, roughin' it, and being as sustainable as possible, but yes, I also love technology. I love everything to do with the latest gadgets, and I grew up tinkering with everything from Radio Shack 150-in-1 Electronic Project Kits to classic cars.

But over the years, my desires have swayed much more towards the natural side of things. Luckily, I spend most of my imaginative energy thinking up ways to merge the two. This includes adapting old farm technology to modern sustainability practices, peppered with the latest gadgets and upgrades to make it all just work better. I think about this every day, and can't wait to finally implement it.

But this requires a filtering of this new technology. I don't believe that every modern machine is a good thing, and I really believe most of it is ruining us. Ironically enough, I write about video games and hi-tech gadgets for my day job, and it's really something that I don't see myself doing forever. But seeing this hi-tech side of things makes me only yearn more for the simpler side of things.

Lately, there's been this trend in the gaming and hi-tech world for malicious-minded people to hack into the accounts of gamers and tech-savvy people. The security of smartphones, computer networks, gaming accounts, and more are being compromised at an alarming rate, allowing cyber criminals (for lack of a better word) to steal personal information on these people. I've had three game accounts infiltrated in recent months, and just yesterday I discovered that another account was hacked, allowing these criminals to purchases hundreds of dollars of products with my bank account.

I won't really dwell on how much that knocks the wind out of your sails, but it DOES reinforce this deep desire I have to distance myself from being so connected to the internet world.

I'm fascinated by technology, but I don't NEED to have every latest gadget, and I think that self control really helps me put it all into perspective.

So as I look forward to inching closer and closer to buying my dream farm, I remind myself of why I'm doing this. It's not about dying with the most toys, it's about providing sustainability for the generations to come. I want my children to have food to eat that wasn't created in a lab, and I want them to have an appreciation for the way life was meant to be lived.

Getting closer to the dream

This has been an insane two week period.

First, I'll get the unfortunate news out of the way. After another predator attack, we were left with only one baby rabbit. Ironically, this is the one that lost one of his legs during the first attack, but he seems to be better for it, and showing no other negative effects. He can hop around the cage with the best of 'em, and doesn't seem to have any infections or be in any pain.

But soon after this, the mother of that litter died as well. With no injuries on her, we're still scratching out heads as to what happened, but I have a hunch. Either it was the intense heat (heat index around here is 100+ daily) or it's the mosquitoes.

See, we have some pretty scary mosquitoes around this house. With two vacant properties on either side of me, the little buggers seem to treat this block as a major metropolitan area, and my yard is the food court. Those poor rabbits spend most of their day swatting their ears at the mosquitoes that literally cover their ears. Since they're in the shade, it makes it even worse. I just think a mosquito carried some disease from a stray cat or raccoon and brought it to the rabbit.

But despite my ongoing adventures of raising rabbits (poorly), I do have some potentially exciting news.

Last week, we put an offer in on a house. The house is a mini farm with six acres, three outbuildings and a price that can't be beat. The sellers are going through a divorce, so the husband wants to sell (per their divorce agreement) and the wife doesn't, because her grandfather build the home in 1960 and it's been in the family ever since. I can completely understand her reluctance, but it keeps me in a constant state of worry that she'll back out of the negotiations at any time. Sure, that may be a tactic, but I believe it's still genuine sadness on her part. Divorce is a crazy time (I went through one seven years ago that completely destroyed my life, and the financial after-effects are still being felt today), but their agreement says they must sell the home.

Anyway, we're in love with the property, but are preparing ourselves for the worst. There are some legal issues that have been discovered (one of the outbuildings goes slightly over their property line), but they're looking to get that resolved and we've already agreed on all other conditions.

So say a prayer for us that we get this house -- and if we don't, something similar soon! It will be the first step in a life we've been dreaming about for many, many years. And it sure would add a lot to this blog!

Poison Ivy makes its annual visit

Every year, without fail, I get a poison ivy rash. My yard is surrounded by the vine, and it actually used to be much worse, with vines crawling up some of the trees in the back yard.

Since I'm not a big fan of spraying chemicals in the yard, I find myself pulling this stuff every year. I cover my arms and legs and go to town. In 100+ degree heat index, this is not a fun process, and usually takes a few weekends. But then it becomes a literal juggling act trying to properly clean the clothing and gloves that come in contact with the ivy.

Last weekend, Sarah and I did some major weeding. I came in contact with poison ivy a few times, and figured I'd get some on me, so this isn't a big surprise. Boy, it sure itches already. Although, I'm tending to believe that I'm building up a tolerance, because the severity of the rash is less and less each year. That first year... boy oh boy. It looked like I had third-degree burns all over my forearms. But now it's usually no more than a few bubbles here and there. But almost always still on my forearms.

So I guess you could say poison ivy and I go way back. And that's ironic considering the fact that we're going to name our daughter Eleanor Ivy. No, I promise I'm not naming my baby after the plant that haunts me every summer, but it's funny to think about.

Sad news

Over the weekend, we had some type of predator attack. I'm not sure if it was a cat or a raccoon, but I've seen plenty of both running around this old suburban neighborhood. And it's ironic that in just the last post I was going on about how lucky we are to not have predators around here!

Anyway, four of the six baby bunnies were killed by something. Whatever it was reached through the bottom of the cage and killed them. Of the two remaining bunnies, one is missing a foot, but he/she seems to be ok otherwise. This happened two days ago, and it's still active, so I think it will be OK.

I put a plastic pan under the cage for now, to hopefully protect them a bit more, but I guess this is just a lesson learned with my first litter. It seems no matter where you live, there are dangers from predators.

Hopefully soon the puppy will be old enough to stay outside all night and help protect them as well.

How they grow

This weekend, we bred the other female rabbit. Or at least we think we did. Remember, we're pretty much rookies at this whole rabbit-breeding thing, and I always find it amusing when things don't necessarily go according to what the books and websites say.

Since one of the females successfully procreated, we figure we're on the right track, at least. In hindsight, we realize that there was a distinct difference between the one that did and the one that didn't become pregnant. The one that did (we'll call her Female B) had a textbook mating period, if there is such a thing. The male mounted, went to town, and fell off, just like the books say. But Female A kinda just ran around in circles until she got tired, and then Male A looked like he didn't know which end was up. Literally.

But this time we took Female A and mated her with both Male A and Male B. Male B, of course, is an old pro at this by now, so he did his thing like he did with the other one, but he didn't fall off. He kept going and going and going (like another certain bunny), with small breaks in between. But he never fell off. So Sarah and I are left scratching our heads as to whose issue this is. Could it be that something's wrong with Female A? We've decided that we'll try a few other crosses (Male A with Female B, etc), before we narrow down the issue to Female A or not.

And this brings us to the six newborns. They seem to be doing really well, and despite my previous panic-laden post, they're turning out all right. I thought that the mother was just being a bad mommy, but it turns out that's how rabbits are. They give birth, lay around all day (not on the babies), and feed them once a day, for only five minutes. The rest of the time they pretty much ignore them (unless you try to get close to take a pic!)

Since the initial jailbreak, those little baby bunnies have escaped probably every other day, but I have been keeping my eye out and make sure to scoop them up before they get too far. One good thing about living in the 'burbs, is the fact that there aren't many predators out to find those babies before I do. It seems that the babies climb their way out of the nest box, then scoot over to the side of the wire cage, fitting through holes in the wire just big enough for their tiny bodies. The bottom of the cages have wires that are closer together, so it just happens when they make their way over to the side. Fortunately, they seem to be too big to fit through the holes now, since I haven't seen any jumpers in a day or two.

So the six babies are growing up nicely. Their ears are moving around, their eyes are just beginning to peek open, and they're all covered in white fur. So far, so good!

In a similar fashion, our little puppy Geist is growing up just as nicely. She's nine weeks old now, and I just readjusted her collar this morning for the first time, since it seemed a bit tight. Also, her ears are starting to stand up on their own, and her face is elongating.

Training is going really well, and she has learned some German commands already. She can sit and come to me on command, and we're working on getting her to stay. But so far she's been a really good dog. Her first trip to the vet presented her with a clean bill of health, so we're happy about that.

Oh, and keeping on topic, Sarah and I found out that our baby will be a girl! Yes, I saved the best for last!

The great bunny escape

So I wake up this morning, take the dog out, and do my daily check-up of the rabbits. Mother rabbit? Check. Baby rabbits... hmm. Their nest is still full of fur so it's hard to tell. I don't see any moving inside, so I keep watching for a few seconds. Oh no, I hope they didn't die! Maybe they're still sleeping?

Then I look over to my left a bit and a bundle of pink catches my eye. It's four baby bunnies on the ground about six feet away from their cage!!

I run over, start counting and sure enough, there are only four. Just last night I counted six, so I know two are still missing. Luckily, they're not far away, but since my yard is on a hill, it appears they fell out of the wire cage and rolled a bit. Those poor things!

I ran inside to grab a plastic bag (so I didn't get my scent on them) and used it as a glove to gently pick them all back up, one by one, and place them back into their mother's care.

The mother seemed to take them back OK, and the babies scooted themselves back over to her to feed. Phew!

I'm still wondering how they got out. Their nest box wasn't turned over. The holes on the bottom of their cage are way too small for them to fit through. They had to have either climbed over to the sides and through the larger holes, or -- God forbid -- been pushed out by the mother. Either way is scary.

So I'm going to try to keep an eye on them as much as I can today while I work (I work from home). I guess one good thing about living in the 'burbs is the limit on predators. I've seen racoons in the yard before, but luckily, nothing ate those babies.

I'm going to read up on how common this is, and what to do about abandonment, if that's the issue. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

Baby bunnies!

One of the female rabbits gave birth to a litter of babies last night. We suspected she was the pregnant one, as the other didn't seem to mate as easily, but we'll try them both again soon. She was also pulling fur out last night, so I provided a little nest box for her (and the other female, just in case).

Since this is my first successful rabbit mating, I'm excited to see these babies grow. I didn't want to get too close this morning and scare the mother, so this picture isn't a close-up. She could hurt the babies if she gets frightened.

You'll notice in the pics, it just looks like pink blobs in a bunch of fur. That fur is from the mother to make the nest, and the babies are still too young to be much more than pink blobs at this point. I can't even really count them yet, but I should be able to in the next few days.

More pictures soon!