We bought a rabbit

Yesterday, we bought a bunny.  She is a mini-rex that is about 8 weeks old.  As a mini-rex she will end up being only about 4 pounds when she is fully grown. She is going to be a pet for our children, but more importantly she is going to be a manure machine for our yard.  Rabbit manure is supposed to be among the best available, and my yard needs a ton of manure so she cannot poop enough.

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Making butter!

If I had known how fun this homeschool activity would be, I would have done this much earlier in the year!  Yesterday, during my sons' homeschool videos, I had them make butter.  I put some heavy whipping cream and some real whipped cream into four baby food jars and had my boys shake away!

My second boy was the best at it.  He shook his own jar, two of this brothers' jars, and also my mason jar. It took us about an hour and a half to make all the butter.  Our first jar of butter took about 35 minutes.

This is the butter still in whipping cream form.

After some shaking, the mixture starts to thicken and pull away from the sides of the jar.

The butter is still in the "scrambled egg" stage here.  It still needs a little more shaking!

Now the butter really looks like a "butterball."  It was really neat to watch it go from the scrambled egg stage to this stage. Time to drain our butter!

I used a cheesecloth set in a colander set in a large measuring cup.  I think you are supposed to squeeze as much liquid out of the butter as possible but these were so little that I didn't do that.  Three of our bits of butter are gone already so I am glad I didn't go to the extra effort.

This batch of butter is from the mason jar.  I am planning on using the liquid in the measuring cup to make drop scones.

We had buttered toast for our snack yesterday and my kids loved it!  I think we will do this again just for the fun of making our own butter. I am not sure how long butter made this way will keep but if we only make them in small batches, I am pretty sure our homemade butter will always be gone before it can spoil!

Cement Block Raised Garden Bed

Today I built a raised garden bed.  I had planned to build one out of redwood until I saw the prices.  Creating a decent sized bed would have been well over $100 just for the wood alone.  At the same visit to Home Depot, I saw that concrete block was only $1.05 per block.  I ended up buying 36 blocks to create my bed.  Each layer is made from 18 blocks.


I had to dig out my yard some for the back section of blocks.  I then laid out my first layer of blocks using a 3 foot long level to make sure they were at least mostly level.  After that I used construction adhesive to attach the second layer of blocks to the first.  I have used the adhesive to hold together some other small walls I made before, and it worked out well.  Once the wall was built I laid 1/2 inch hardware cloth  on the ground to keep gophers out of the bed.

Once I get the dirt in, I plan to plant some Jalapenos, Habeneros, and Bell Peppers in the bed.  With the low price of the block, I should be able to build another bed for this year.

While working on my project, I even got to see a sun halo.  That isn't something I have seen often here in San Diego.