Urban Homestead Livestock a.k.a. putting meat on the table.

This is Handsome, our two y.o. Flemish mixed breed buck bought for $5. He is quiet, eats almost anything I throw at him such as garden weeds along with his rabbit feed.

Right now he is giving me the look since I had actually touched his lady Chocolate. The look says "You know better".

Come winter I set up my portable greenhouse moving their pen in. They both sleep in a big hay filled nest box.

The plan is two or three times a year Handsome jumps the fence and has a tryst with our meat rabbits does.

The after about 16 weeks the results are sent to freezer camp.

Rabbit isn't our primary meat source on our menu so we don't grow more than say 10 fryers of 5 lbs. weight a year. Often it's less than that which is fine for now.

Raising meat rabbits is more or less a two fold benefit on our urban homestead.

First is the bunny poop which is the greatest manure ever since there is no need to age the poop before application. Here is a nice site http://www.rabbitfarming.com/manure.htm

Better garden production = more harvest = less $ spent on food = extra income.

Second is that raising this type of meat is very do able both in cost & location wise.

Can't buy a beef cattle for under $25 and pasture it in your backyard.

So if the worst case scenario does happen be it a version of Red Dawn or simply that money is tight we can still eat.

Rabbit is good eating. Delicate white meat that can be cooked anyway you would chicken.

I can directly control what my rabbits eat.

Resulting in a healthy meat that isn't laced with hormones or antibiotics. Or jammed pack with preservatives.

The care & welfare of my livestock wasn't trusted to a multinational company who's bottom line will always be profit, think pet food or peanut butter. Or the latest- Sara Lee products.

Good site on raising backyard rabbits http://www.rudolphsrabbitranch.com/rrr.htm

~~ pelenaka ~~

Urban Homestead Livestock

I said, "ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME"!

This is Chocolate a pig who is after a year the common law pen mate to my Flemish mixed breed rabbit, Handsome.

What can we say it works for them.

He protects and warms her on cold winter nights in their nest box and she signals for more food with a glass shattering squeal.

Chocolate came to us about six months old from a home that had two big dogs. Her cage was on a small table in a dark hallway. She was a bundle of nerves to say the least. She isn't real social, dislikes being held, but will take feed from your hand now.

Last time she was weighed she came in just under a bit over a pound.

Last night while prepping charts a coworker asked me this very thought provoking question.
Got me to thinking. Thinking real hard. Real real hard. My head started hurting.
So I laid this on my husband's lap when I came home in the morning.
He gets me. We are kindred souls. Let his head hurt a bit.
A few seconds later he answered.
Time.
You would & do pay retail for Time.
He soo gets me.

Time in my world is defined as not spent in the pursuit of employment.
This Time includes family time, church time, martial time, leisure activities such as camping, fishing, shooting, reading, knitting, and a sub category of city time. City time is all the great things you can do in a city like ethnic festivals, museums, art galleries, & gardens in old historic neighborhoods.

Any time spent obtaining employment such as washing of uniforms, commuting to a job, continued education to maintain my professional degree, or depending on my mood time spent thinking about an upcoming shift qualifies as unpleasant time.

Buying time.

Easier said then done.
Buying time is a accomplished by money saving activities such as foraging, gleaning, gardening, canning, energy conservation, in short voluntary simplicity.
Learning to live within our budget ... saving for a rainy day, saving to take time off to enjoy Time.

Don't get me wrong I love my profession. It has enriched my life in soo many ways other than monetary. It's just that I am no longer exclusively defined by my occupation. It is not my source of entertainment, nor social companionship. An all expanding filler in my life.
It is a means to an end.

Buying Time.

Like the bumper sticker reads, " A day fishing is better than a day working".

~~ pelenaka ~~

A gallon saved is cash in the hand

I would like to say that my use of rain barrels come from a deep seated belief in water conservation ... reuse, recycle, blah, blah, blah.

Or how great rain water is especially when gathered in a lightening storm ( ionization) .

Truth be told it's because of cold hard cash.

No sense in growing free food to lighten the food bill if ya gotta pay for H2O.

I lucked out when my Blessing got these free from a pump manufacturer as the prototypes outta a new mold.

The color matches my foundation so they aren't really visible from the city street. Mint & Strawberries @ the base.

There are barrels @ all gutter down spouts for a total of 5 around the house.

Husband fit in real plumbing sigots so a garden hose can be attached.

19 cent common goldfish live in each one happily after two years. Winter they live in a 5 gallon bucket in the cellar. Tried them in a goldfish bowl but they freaked. Way too much openness I suppose. They have doubled in size living on mosquitoes & a bit of fish food now & then. For entertainment they dodge the neighborhood cats leading to a fun game of wet kitty.

Notice the white jugs to the left of the garden path?

Kitty litter jugs holding extra rain water.

Now spray painted black for solar gain in a crazy attempt to heat my green house.

In the distance is last year's tomato crop. Bloody Butcher on the left & Yellow Pear on the right.

Added bonus is that my 105 year old cellar stays dry.

One day hope to score a 200 gallon reservoir tank that can be buried. Fill it with the rain barrel overflow. Top it off with an old fashioned hand crank well pump ( think child labor oppertunity)

Hmm, now isn't that what every homestead needs ?

~~ pelenaka ~~

Urban Cider Press

Bought @ a yard sale for $40 late Summer 2006 this is a fruit press.
No maker's mark. Could be as old as 100 or as young as 30 years.
Perfect size for an urban homestead.
Good price for fugal homesteaders.

Pretty simple design just ratchet the donut shaped wooden plate down on top of the fruit. Juice flows out the bottom and out the pour lip.

DH spray painted the cast iron base red on a whim. Or to see how the iron will hold paint. Not liking the red. Doesn't match my stove.




Finished upgrade & the Handy Dandy Husband who always finds a way.

With help from my daughter here is what went into our new old fashioned press.

Sanding & painting the cast iron base with food grade black paint.

Removal, sanding, and painting of the metal hoops from the wooden basket.

New basket based on the old made from oak, varnished with a food grade product.
Pricey stuff but a bit went a long way so the rest can be used in making cheese presses.

New stainless steel hardware to replace all the old rusty nuts & bolts used to attach the hoops to the basket.

New donut shaped pressing plate made from a food grade plastic cutting board. This plate slips on to the center post followed by the ratchet thingy. The plate is actually what presses down on the fruit so I wanted a material that could be scrubbed & disinfected.

Last fall we made about a gallon & a half of fresh cider. Canned about 5 quarts of this.
Thank you Ball Blue Book 1943.
A good treat for Christmas breakfast and cold January mornings.
Would have had more but we were late gleaning apples loosing some great opportunities to heavy winds followed by hungry deer in late September.

Planning on advertising the press for cider parties in our city. Something along the lines of we will set up the cider press and supervise the pressing in your home. Not sure on what to price the "cider party" at but we are open to barter opportunities.
We also have an antique fruit grinder for the whole cider making experience, lol.
Grinding along with the washing of apples is the most labor intensive aspect of the whole process. Pressing goes by soo quickly.
Would also like to bring the press in at our Church's next family fun night this fall.

On a side note I won't let anyone drink the cider before I have a chance to pasteurize it.
Even after scrubbing the apples with nail brushes. Even after boiling the cloth pressing bag & the press it self.



This is a larger cider press I bought last spring @ a yard sale for $20.
No foundry mark.
Round wooden handle to turn the screw is gone. As is the pressing plate and most of the wooden base.
The frame is wet rotted & in pieces and when I dragged it home the center screw didn't even budge.
My blessing put some magical oil on it every day for a week.
Now the screw turns.
Every homesteading husband needs a winter project to make the cold dreary days go by faster.


~~ pelenaka ~~

Thoughly Modern Millie

Below is the pic of my 1934 Ice Box.
Unsure of the maker at this time as I still need to run a patent search on it.
If you scroll down to a previous post you can see what shape it was in when I bought it on ebay.
After much scraping, scrubbing, sanding, & careful nail removal it has been upgraded & painted.

Originally it was that '30's cream & green but I decided to go with white enamelware edged in black that I have soo much of like the milk pitcher & small wash basin. Also I have a gray & pink '50's kitchen so green & cream won't work.
Directly in front is a recent antique store find a small square enamelware container with a glass lid. Yes, we have a microwave. Also a small freezer. Just couldn't see given the power company more biz than we have to.



The ice box has a clear plastic tube connected to the drain under the ice tray. This tube feeds directly into the same plumbing as my clothes washer so no need to empty a catch basin or mop the floor when it was forgotten.
The shinny stuff under the ice box is insulation. Since my original plan was to restore a vintage '50's Hotpoint fridge figured there was no need to worry about laying tile.
That rise in the floor is an elbow of a huge plumbing pipe. My 1902 home wasn't built with indoor (upstairs) facilities. Hence some things tend to stick out or take detours.



To answer every one's question here is what's inside of my ice box.
Clockwise; ice compartment which holds 75 lbs. of ice. Since I don't have freezer space enough to generate that amount pictured is about 32 lbs which lasts for 4 1/2 days.
Compartment below is referred to as the dairy section. It is the coldest @ 36 -38 degrees. Holds eggs, cheese, homemade ranch dressing, mayo & butter.
Left compartment is broken down into 3 zones.
Bottom left; milk, juices, yogurt, anything that needs to be cold but not dairy temperature cold. Generally holds around 40 - 42 degrees.
Next shelf up temp is 42 - 44 so this holds fresh veggies, anything will will be eaten soon.
Next shelf farther up hovers around 46 degrees so this is for things like bread, commerical foods, & apparently a pint of my canned salsa.
Ice boxes work on air flow. The warm air moving in this case clockwise hits the top of the ice block cools which makes it fall to the next section. As the air warms slightly it raises passing the milk & fruits, then hitting salads, finally passing over the bread on it's way back down to the ice block. Yes when you open the dairy compartment you can feel a cold chill hit you feet.
The ice box is really two galvanized boxes one inside the other. It has a pine wood frame with sawdust wrapped in brown paper to form squares. Squares were then fitted between the two boxes.
The insulation factor varies thru out the ice box. Top & sides have the most @ R50.
Bottom around R 30.
Doors are the least @ R 12 - 20.
Reason being is that you can only unbend galvanized metal soo far before it loose it's shape.
Since I have no desire to learn how to use a sheet metal brake & my Dh's honey do list books him up to the year 2020 I made do.
The insulation was that pink foam & that foil bubble wrap stuff layered.

Learning curve was two fold.
One - make sure new ice is being made as it takes about two days to freeze.
Two - take out the food item quickly and if not completely used then return it quickly so it doesn't have a chance to heat up.

Since we eat from our pantry the majority of the food I prepare was canned either commerial or home canned. So if we have say baked chicken (frozen), carrots (home canned), peas (frozen), mashed potatoes (root cellar), salad & dressings/butter ect. (ice box).
Generally we don't cook with an eye toward leftovers.

Oh yea the beer on occasion's sits in the with dairy.

~~ pelenaka ~~

5/6/2008 The ice box is stilling going strong. Currently it's out on our unheated enclosed porch to take advantage of the cold (now cooler) weather. I still have yet to locate & buy a proper rubber gasket for all 3 doors. The foam rubber weather stripping is on it's last leg.
Great link on Crosley http://crosleyautoclub.com/IcyBall/crosley_icyball.html

~~ pelenaka ~~