I Have Wood Chips!, Mowing, Solar Panel Setup And Bunny Update

So the electric company or the county guys or somebody (guess I should ask, yes?) have been doing tree trimming along the roads in the area. And I was lucky enough to talk to them and ask them to drop off their wood chips. This is what I've gotten so far and I've told them to bring as much as they like. Of course, this area is getting pretty full so they may start dropping them somewhere else. I'm sure I'm not the only person that requests wood chips.

I've also been doing some mowing. Like always. The grass and weeds were getting too high around my solar panels so I got that cut down. I don't think I've ever posted a picture of my solar panels so here you go.

That is 800 watts. 100 watts each, of course. Each pair is connected in series and then all the pairs are connected in parallel. This gives me 24 volts but still keeps the amps down less than the 40 amp limit of my charge controller. One of these days I hope to raise these off the ground. Then I won't have to worry about weeds covering them and I will be able to easily mow under them.

As I mow, I use the bagger on the back of the mower so I can give the grass clippings to the animals. Mostly the sheep and the pigs. Anytime I come towards them with the bagger, they all eagerly run to the fence line. But once I pour it into their hay rack, they eat what they can while the rest falls in the tray. Then they don't touch it. Go figure. I've thought about putting it back up into the hay rack just to see if they'll eat some more. But I've got plenty of grass clippings to replenish the hay rack so I'm not worried about them eating all of it.

In other news, here are the first pictures of Hermione's new babies. They're about a week now. Ish. They are doing lovely, of course. I think I have really found my rabbit raising technique. The individual cage thing never really worked for me. I never got the hang of getting the girls mated or I would miss the due date and forget to put in things for them to build a nest. Then there was the fiasco with the raccoon or whatever stealing the babies. I can't do a full on colony setup because the bottom of their area is covered in wire and they don't have anywhere to dig burrows. They also still need their individual cages for safety at night.

Sooooo, they are in a pseudo colony setup until they they have their babies. In the future, I'll have the wooden cages open so the girls and my male can have access to the cages to get out of the sun and other weather. And then when the girls are ready to have their babies, they will hopefully have them in the cages.

Also, I hope to build more cages and get more rabbits in the future. But not more redbacks. They just don't get as big as a new zealand or something of the like. I would love to get some silver fox rabbits because they get to a good size and their fur is really nice for pelts. But those are hard to find here (like everything else I want to get) so I will probably get new zealands or some kind of new zealand mix. But, that probably won't happen anytime soon simply because I've got so many other things I NEED to do first.

Like build a bridge across the runoff. The bank is starting to get really slippery from me going up and down it all the time. And a bridge will allow me to get the sheep back and forth so that they can have access to both the old and the new fenced areas.

Ok, I think this is long enough. And I need to get back outside and run the mower again until I get hot again and then run back inside. But for now, take care all and have a good rest of your day.