blog intro i guess
hello everyone, this is a side blog unrelated to my main or secondary blogs. in an ideal world, Simple Song is my personal growth and sustainability efforts. I don't know where these efforts will lead, i don't even know if they'll get off the ground, but I have plans.
Plan the First;
get meat rabbit breeding pair or trio.
raise meat rabbit kits to maturity to have food for myself, my dog, and my family - if they want it.
use a mixture of forage and commercial rabbit foods to ensure that my buns are healthy. plan to increase forage as i get better at it.
butcher the rabbits and use every part. this means learning to tan, making bone broths, dehydrating parts for dog treats - or human jerky, canning, freezing, stewing, etc.
use tanned furs/leathers to make useful things. at the moment i want to learn to make slippers and mitts, but eventually i want to make other useful items that i can use, give away, or sell.
use rabbit poop, pee, and blood for fertilizer, possibly sell or give away fertilizer.
Plan the Second;
buy property. there is no way at the moment i can afford to buy any sort of property, but if i start saving now, i might be able to finance something in a few years. especially if i can sell rabbit things to subsidize my income. however, selling rabbit things is not a priority at the moment, just a potential side effect.
focus on property without existing houses - or houses that need to come down. lots of at least 0.5 acres is preferred, but not so big its unmanageable for one person.
pay property taxes to local Nation. begin - or continue - supplying Nation food bank with rabbit in a few forms.
build a home. depending on location, build an earthship or other similarly principled sustainable housing. in this house have root cellar, bedroom, indoor/outdoor rabbit warren, kitchen, living room and not much else.
home should have in it; grey and black water systems, solar heating/geo-cooling, solar power, rain water catching system, local and recycled materials.
Plan the Third;
build a chicken coop on property. coop must be safe from local predators including my dog-s. also build chicken and rabbit 'tractors' - movable 'cages' that give access to the ground for free foraging.
build up soil. dependant on the state of the soil but, either full or partial hugelkultur - buried wood, manure, leaf and loam litter, topped by straw or more wood. use rabbit and chickens to help with this.
plant cover crops - use cover crops to feed rabbits and chickens.
plant several perennials and berry bushes - blue, rasp, Saskatoon, etc
plant a kitchen garden - herbs etc - and a food garden. focus on foods that do well in root cellars. i.e. potato, beets, etc.
at that point i don't think i'll be able to work in my current industry, but i should be able to get a part time, low stakes job to help pay for things like mortgage and... cows milk lol.
as i plan on being mostly urban - if rural small town type place - i don't think i can get any dairy goats or a cow. i don't really want chickens for butchery - happy to have them for eggs. but that might change after i get used to butchering rabbits.
i don't want to get rich or anything, i want to survive, which does mean i'll still have to make some money to pay off the property/taxes/etc, so i'll have to sell somethings - even if it's only my own labour. but i want the majority of my surplus foods to go to people who need it. food banks, family, new mothers, refugees. so long as you're hungry, you're welcome to my supplies.
i am pretty close to plan the first at the moment; i have bought rabbit meat to try - if i don't like it as a foodstuff, i don't think i can justify getting meat rabbits - and i've ordered some cages. once the cages get to me i can actually start looking at buns to buy.
plan the second is... much much more challenging. i have very little in savings at the moment and as a single person - in my industry - it will be a challenge to get financing on property... but i am keeping my eyes out for interesting land - there are a few parts of the country i'd happily buy in at the moment - and socking away any extra pennies.
plan the third is entirely contingent on plan the second. so. no movement there yet other than planning.
