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Bits and Pieces

November 1st, 2014 at 06:37 am

I was able to transfer $1000 to my December Money Fund today. $400 of it was medical reimbursement and $500 was scrimped out of last month's budget. $100 I took off the top of today's paycheck.

This puts the fund total at $1947. I am hoping to be able to save $1500 out of the next 5 paychecks. It's not enough to cover 5 weeks with no pay, but it'll mean that much less out of the Emergency Fund. We can't rely on any kind of a company bonus this year to get through the shut down period.

Mom says we don't have to make a December payment on our loan to her, but I'd like to avoid skipping it. I absolutely hate owing her that money and any month we skip will be that much longer we have to be under that debt. We hit the halfway point today, $55,000 paid off, $55,000 to go. We have 4 years and 7 months left if we stay on track.

We have 2 years and 8 months left on the van loan at our current rate of payment. Maybe a little sooner since I pay a little extra each month, but it's hard to say how much sooner. Probably just a month, possibly two. It's not that much extra.

We will be butchering 2 of our turkeys on November 8th for the upcoming holidays and whichever rabbit kits have hit 5 pounds will be butchered the next day. That will cut the turkey feed bill in half. I'm not going to raise rabbit kits over the winter, so that will cut the rabbit feed bill way down, too, once all the current grow outs are butchered. The youngest kits will be 8 weeks old on Sunday.

The older kits will be 15 weeks old on Sunday. I think they will all be of butchering size by the time DH comes home. 4 out of 8 are now, and I think it is more likely that 6 out of 8 are, but I haven't weighed them in a couple of weeks. I hope they all will be because we need the cage space for the youngsters. I will weigh them tomorrow since we will be cleaning out cages.

I have about 50 pounds of rabbit meat in the freezer currently and after this next round we'll have an additional 20 pounds to either can or freeze since dress out weight is a little over 1/2 of live weight. And then the youngest coming up number 18, so that will be an additional 45 pounds if they all survive to butcher age. There will be plenty of meat without breeding again until late February.

I am also debating on sending the drakes to freezer camp. I don't need them for the ducks to lay eggs, and considering how little meat there is on a Welsh Harlequin, we won't be raising ducklings after all, so we don't need the males. Plus one of them is really beating up on one the girls when they mate. Her wing feathers are in pretty bad shape from it. If I do, that will cut that feed bill down, too, but not too much since they mostly eat what they forage and just fill in with feed when they are hungry.

I've been getting 5 duck eggs a day lately and 4 chicken eggs every 36 hours so the female birds are definitely paying for themselves. I need to make a bunch of meatloaf freezer meals so I can use up some of these eggs. I do sell a few dozen here and there and I give them away to family and friends, but even so, it is hard to keep up with what they produce.

I've still got to do up a payday report, but I haven't finished paying all the bills yet, so will likely do that tomorrow.

5 Responses to “Bits and Pieces”

  1. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1414869558

    It sounds like you have some good plans on how to cut costs.

    If you send the Drakes to freezer camp, would you need to replace them in the Spring, or make do with the other Drakes you have to keep the chickens/ducks, etc laying?

  2. LuckyRobin Says:
    1414877848

    No, ducks will lay regardless of whether or not we have drakes. The only thing a drake does is fertilize the egg to make a duckling. The eggs come out regardless of whether or not there is a male. Same thing with chickens, they lay whether or not there is a rooster. You only need the rooster to make chicks. It is illegal to keep a rooster in most cities. If you compare it to a human female, we release an egg each month, but without intercourse there is no chance for a baby. The egg is still released though. With the birds it is just almost every day that an egg is released.

  3. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1414890778

    Ok, I thought the chickens/ducks needed the drake/rooster not only for the fertilization, but also to kind of get the egg process going. Learn something new. Smile

  4. LuckyRobin Says:
    1414960454

    A lot of people think that. If you don't grow up on a farm or don't come from farm people, you end up pretty removed from your food supply and it's not exactly something they teach in school. A ridiculous number of people don't know that eggs even come from chickens and of those who do some even think you are killing a baby chick every time you eat an egg even though commercial hens never see a rooster in their lifetime. That's like saying every time you get your period it kills a baby. But they don't need the rooster around anymore than a human female needs a male around to menstruate. It happens regardless.

  5. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1415075357

    Thats why vegetarians are okay with eating eggs. Smile The ones sold in stores *usually* aren't fertilized. I guess it never connected how unnecessary the males are in the process. Smile

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