A Tiny Homestead

Lala and Justin’s Homestead

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00:00

You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Have you thought about being a cottage food producer?  Or if you're a cottage food producer, have you thought about expanding it into a small business?  Cottage Foodie Con is probably for you.  You can find more information at cottagefoodiecon.com and if you use the code HOME15,  you'll get 15 % off your registration costs.

00:29

and that price is valid through the end of November.  So again, check out cottagefoodiecon.com.  The tiny homestead is sponsored by uh cottagefoodiecon.com. Today I'm talking with Amanda at Lala and Justin's Homestead in Vermont.  Good morning,  Amanda, how are you? Good, how are you Mary?  I'm good, how's the weather in Vermont this morning? Chilly, we got our first freeze.

00:56

Um, well, our first day that the bowls in the barn, the ice bowls were all frozen. So that was a fun morning, topping out dishes, but it's to be expected. It's Vermont. So as my dad says, it's all part of it. Yep. Yep. It's, uh, it's very gray here in Minnesota this morning. It's chilly  and there's almost no breeze at all. It's very quiet outside, which is weird. We usually have some kind of wind blowing.

01:24

Okay, so  I want to know why it's called Lala and Justin's Homestead first. Well, Lala um was a nickname given to me by my stepdad.  And  when I got into rabbits,  he helped me a lot with like building nest boxes and building cage areas and different things that I needed help building. And he always called me Lala. So

01:52

When I started the rabbitry back up, um as an adult, I decided to honor him and call it Lola's Lovely Lops.  And Justin's my partner, so he gets to tag along.  Well, yeah, and he probably helps, which is really nice. um Is your stepfather still with us?  No, he passed away five,  he's been five years since he's been gone. Okay.  Well, what a great way to honor his memory. That's, that's fabulous.

02:20

Okay, so tell me a little bit about yourself and what you guys do. Um, sorry. Um, so I'm- Did I make you cry? I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

02:37

It's just... I just miss him. That's all. Yeah,  yeah, it's so hard. It's hard around the holidays.  Oh, for sure, yeah. And the way that I deal with people who have passed... The way I deal with it is I try to remember the really fun stuff that made me laugh and then it makes me laugh and it kind of counteracts the crying a little bit.  Yeah, he was hilarious. So there's a lot to laugh about.

03:05

Yeah, and you're carrying on his memory by doing something you love to do.  So that's a beautiful thing. And how much do you love raising rabbits? I mean, come on. I've been raising them since I was 10. I absolutely adore them. Yeah. one of my favorite animals in the whole entire world, other than my dogs. Okay. So are you okay? Yeah, I've got it back.  Okay, good. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do.

03:35

So we are a family of four.  We have a point four or five acre property and we raise the rabbits  garden. We do a lot of foraging.  like, I'm very into mycology and mushrooms. um So we've been taking on teaching ourselves different types of edible mushrooms for the past,  I'd say 12 years or so we've been learning about mushrooms.

04:05

And I'd eventually like to get into herbs and learning about that. But I would like to find a mentor before I step into that because there's just so much to learn. But yeah, we're a small family and we raise the rabbit meat. I do a lot of bartering with people for rabbit. And I get most of my beef and chicken from other people that raise so that.

04:30

That's a good trade. It's a good barter system we have going in our community. And we started that back in 2020 with the bartering because of the shortages and stuff. So I just got deeper into the rabbits at that time.  And I have way more than I intended  now.  So rabbit math is not much different from chicken math. take it. Oh, I think it's a little worse. Okay.

04:56

But it's enjoyable, so it's okay. don't have anything bred right now. I have one that's due today. And, she was due yesterday and she hasn't had her litter yet. But other than that, I don't have anything bred because I haven't decided if I want to have babies in the cold, cold months yet. But I have a few that I was thinking of breeding this week so that I could have them born during my Christmas break from work. So. Yeah. And it's addictive. Those baby bunnies are so cute.

05:25

Oh, they're adorable. Yeah, I don't, I'm not, I am not an expert. We tried raising meat rabbits for about a year.  We had one litter after trying to breed rabbits for the whole year. got one litter out of the deal  and had to bring them, had to bring the mama and the babies in the house because they're born on the hottest day of and oh there was no way to keep them cool out in their hutch. And my husband was like, we should let nature take its course. And I was like,

05:54

No, because this is not nature.  She is not living the way she would live if she was in nature. If was in nature,  she would be burrowing into the ground to stay cool with her babies. I said, I am not letting those babies die. And so we literally put her in a clear bin with her nesting box with the babies. And I had little baby bunnies in my house for about three weeks. Oh my goodness.  No, it was so fun.

06:24

It was no, it wasn't bad. just we had pine shavings that we had in a bag and we would just empty the  bin out every morning  and put them for our shavings in and it was it was very educational but it was far more entertaining than anything else. Yeah. But they are they are the most adorable babies and  about the only time you can hold a rabbit really safely is when they're the size of your palm.

06:56

I know if I agree with that, but. Oh, I I got kicked really hard when I was about, oh, probably 15 from my pet rabbit. had a pet rabbit when I was 14, 15 and, uh, claw punctured the skin at the top of my breast. I still have the scar from that puncture. I have a scar in that area too from a rabbit I had as a child that bit me and. Yeah.

07:24

And I mean, if you hold the babies from when they're just  little and they become something that you hold every day, they trust you and they're fine. But I didn't get that rabbit until it was probably four months old. So it hadn't really been handled a lot. So it did not love to be held. And of course I wanted to hold the bunny.  I didn't hold that bunny as often after that happened. Yeah, they get kind of feisty if you don't really hold them too much, if you don't give them too much attention, but if you socialize on them and

07:52

play with them, they're usually pretty easy and chill. Yeah, exactly. They don't fight me too hard, but I think I just have a bunny way about me. I don't know, I  can handle almost any rabbit, even the wild ones.  You're a bunny whisperer. Yeah,  I've doing it a while. I I've had rabbits for 28 years, I've  had them for a long time. You have a lot of experience. Yep.

08:21

Okay, so since you've been doing this for a long time,  can you walk me through so that anybody who wants to get into rabbits could think really think about it more how you get started because  it seems like it's easy, but having done it, it's not as easy as one would think. Yeah, they don't really breed like rabbits when you want them to. They do not. oh Well, if I was to get started, I think I would research.

08:49

the breed that I want. There are so many breeds to choose from. And I would  look at the American Rabbit Breeder Association standard of perfection and find someone that knows a little bit about what they're talking about. Because  rabbits bred to the standard,  the meat breeds are bred to produce more meat. So if you get something that's closer to the standard of perfection, you're going to have more meat production.

09:17

and better meat production because they're going to be bred to the right standard. oh I would start by finding a breeder that knows what they're talking about,  that has a little bit of experience at least. I mean, there are new breeders that have done the research, so I can't say just experienced breeders, but for the most part, find someone that might want to mentor you. So if you have questions,  you can refer back to them and

09:47

I mean, as a breeder, if someone buys from me, when they message me, I answer their questions. That's part of it is they get mentorship out of purchasing my rabbits. um

10:00

But I would research that and then research  the type of environment that you want for your rabbits  based on your space.  So I don't have very much space because I'm a small property  and I do stacker cages, which work for me in my space.  But with that, you've got to clean more often because if you don't, you can get pneumonia buildup and end up with sick rabbits. So your space,  some people want like a full barn with

10:28

just hanging cages, which is nice because then you can shovel out the poop and you don't have to clean pans.  And you don't have to clean as often because  the droppings fall to the bottom and they're not ever going to be in their waste. you'd want to do, some people want to do colony style.  That doesn't work for my area. um I also don't like, I personally don't want my rabbits  on the ground picking up parasites and

10:58

being exposed to disease.  So for me, cages work best to keep them clean and healthy. Let's see. What else? have, I have a specific question. If someone was going to get into raising rabbits  and they were in it for the cuteness effect to begin with, because a lot of people love baby bunnies.  If you were going to get like,  I don't know, eight week old baby bunnies, is there a whole different

11:27

way of taking care of them until they're old enough to breed? um So my rabbits,  my rabbits are on hay and pellets. um The younger ones don't get treats, snacks and stuff because that can give them diarrhea.  So for the younger ones, I wouldn't expose them to like vegetated  stuff. I would wait until they're a little bit older to start introducing that to them.

11:53

Okay. Just so that their stomach doesn't get messed up because they have sensitive digestion.  But if they were into the  cuteness factor, they might want to consider what they actually want to breed for. Do they want to breed for pet? Do they want to breed for meat? There's dwarf rabbits that are primarily pet or show. And  is that the direction they want to go? But if they go that direction,  they might want to research. um

12:21

issues with dwarfs and know a little bit about like rabbit hips because some rabbits will get stuck if their if their hips are narrow when they when they go to birth. um So that's something I would look into um getting a properly  shaped rabbit obviously that's able to birth those kids.  and a narrow pelvic floor is no good for any female animal ever. No,  no.

12:49

And that's when you end up, can lose your female, lose your babies. Dwarfs are more prone to producing peanuts, which is a double genetic dwarf  and it's not viable.  So you might have to call those babies because sometimes they'll survive about 10 days or so,  but they don't grow.  why do they call those babies peanuts?  I've seen it before. Why is it peanuts? I don't know why they're peanuts, but they're super tiny.

13:19

Um, that could be part of the reasoning because the I've had, I've had letters where the mother had a peanut and a regular kit and the penis just don't grow. They stay like birth size.  They get fur and then they slowly like wither away and die. If you leave them in the nest,  um, they have pinched pointy ears that are like closer to their head versus a non-peanut that has a little bit bigger ear. So you can kind of figure them out when they're born.

13:48

They're usually like half the size of the rest of the litter. So it's like failure to thrive? Yeah. Yeah, they can't survive. They're not, they're not viable. Okay. I always wondered about that. Thank you. Cause I read about it when we were looking into getting meat rabbits and I was like, why do they call it a peanut? And I couldn't find any information about it. Well, if you're getting into meat rabbits, your meat rabbits shouldn't produce any peanuts. Um, I was just reading up on baby rabbits in general, and it mentioned peanuts.

14:18

And I  think probably the reason that people pick the word peanut for it is because they look like a peanut. They're so tiny. They're just little tiny things. Yup. And you know you're going to lose them. It's just pretty sad. This raising animals thing is like the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I kid you not. It's so  good and so bad at the same time. Yeah. There's days that I think about getting rid of all of them because it's just been hard.

14:48

Then I'm like, oh, look how cute they are.  I can't do that. I love them. Yeah. And honestly, meat from rabbits is really  nutritionally dense, I think. I think it's really good for you. It's the highest protein of any meat you can get  and the lowest amount of fat.  And it's absolutely delicious. It's very similar to chicken. Yes. And actually, I was thinking about this earlier, knowing I was going to talk to you.

15:18

I have an opinion question for you. you think that if you are trying to get someone to try rabbit that you should say, I made rabbit as a dish for dinner. Would you like to try it so that they know what they're eating? do you think that you should let them think it's chicken and then wait a few days and let them know that they ate rabbit? Wow.

15:44

The first time I went to Bible study at my new church, I brought buffalo body dip and I made it into, it looked like chicken, know, buffalo chicken dip. And I didn't tell anybody, I just let them enjoy it, you know? And then later someone asked me, oh, is that chicken or was that pork? That was really good. And I said, actually it's rabbit. And they're like, oh.

16:08

And were they like, ew? Or were they like surprised and considering they were like, more curious. So I mean, I've tried to bring,  I try to bring a rabbit dish every Bible study. It's once a month.  And I try to bring it with me every time I go so that they can try something different because I feel that, um, like a lot of people have prejudgment around rabbit and eating cute little animals, but aren't they all cute?  Like aren't the cows cute? Aren't the chickens cute?  Um.

16:36

So I think if  it's cooked up and made into something that's edible looking and smells good, people are more prone to try it. eh And when I have birthday parties for my kids, I'll make some kind of rabbit dish. So if someone's there that hasn't tried it, they get an opportunity. em I pulled rabbit for summer barbecues. People seem to love that. And I've had a lot of people that said they never try rabbit. Look at it.

17:02

and be like, actually, I'll try a little bit of that. That looks pretty good. Yeah, and part of the reason people don't have exposure to eating rabbit is because grocery stores don't really sell rabbit. No, only like the Asian markets like carry it. There's a couple of specialty food stores, the health food store around us used to carry it, but I don't think they've found another farmer to supply it to them.

17:28

Yeah, just yeah. So they don't I don't think they carry it anymore because the lady that was selling to them got out of it and I haven't bothered to see if they were interested in mine or I don't know. I don't think I make I  grow enough to  supply any stores, but I do grow enough to supply myself and my community with barter. OK, so the reason I asked you about that that question is.

17:56

When I was a young  lady, like not quite 18 and not 12, um I babysat for a guy who raised rabbits  and his kids ate rabbit all the time.  And I didn't realize that he thought that I would be grossed out at eating rabbit.  And so he was like, I fried up some chicken, it's in the fridge. You can have some if you would like it, but that's the kid's dinner. And I'm like, okay, cool.

18:25

And so I grabbed a chicken wing or chicken leg or something. remember what it was.  And I had a piece of chicken with the kid.  And he informed me like a week later that it was rabbit. And you couldn't tell the difference, could you? No, I had no idea. But I was really perplexed. I was like, why didn't you just tell me it was rabbit? Because some people have that mental block. I mean, my niece,  when she comes over, I make

18:55

chicken nuggets, but they're not really chicken nuggets. um And she's always said, Oh, Auntie makes the best chicken nuggets.  And she was over a few weeks ago, talking about how I'm cruel for killing little baby bunnies. And I'm like, you don't seem to mind my little baby bunnies when you're eating chicken nuggets.  Oh, that just clicked for her that she's been eating rabbit for four years. And what was her? What was her? uh

19:25

reaction to it clicking. mean, she's  10 and I got the big eyeballs.  but yeah, she's still going to eat it. think when I make it again and think it's chicken. I  don't think it'll ruin that.  Okay, good. Well, the answer that I got when, when I said, didn't you just tell me it was rabbit was that he had had people, he had told people that he raised rabbits.

19:50

And he would have people over for dinner and they're like, is it rabbit or is it chicken? And he would say it's rabbit and they would say, no, thank you. And he learned that asking for forgiveness was better than asking for permission to get them to try it. I said, how's that been going for you? And he said, well, he said, I've only had a couple of people get greener on the gills when I tell them they ate rabbit. And I said, is that why you wait a week? So they don't end up. um

20:20

up checking dinner. And he said, yeah. And I said, okay. I said, I understand your reasoning. said, I'm kind of offended that you tricked me.  He says, okay, I can accept that. He said, did you like it? And I was like, yeah, it tastes just like chicken. He's like, it does. He said, it might as well be chicken, but it's not. So that was why I asked you because people are like, oh my God, rabbit. And I'm like, it  literally tastes like chicken. It does. I mean, I've been labeling my crock pot lately when I go to places and

20:49

It's funny when people read it and I can  see the faces. And I went to a  baby shower this fall and I brought a, my friend wanted Buffalo bunny dip. So that's what I brought. And there were some kids there about my son's age, about 13, 14. And you could tell they were daring each other to try it.  And then one finally did. And like the look on his face was like, Oh, this is really good and impressed. And then the other little boys all tried it and.

21:20

they were all eating it and enjoying it. So I mean.

21:25

I  think if you label it, they have the opportunity to see what it is and then you don't get in trouble as much with them when they find out. Yeah, exactly. don't think it's fair to trick people into trying something. I  have a little bit of an issue with the trickery involved.  But I also think that people should try things because you never know what you're going to like until you try it. You don't know.

21:54

and kids are more picky usually, but I found that uh my son's friends when they come over, they're interested in trying it because they've never had it before. Most of them don't have a clue what it tastes like because that's not something on their menu.  And I've had quite a few of them that are like, ooh,  I'm coming for dinner tonight. Can you cook rabbit? And I'm like, OK, I'll go outside and pop one off.  You know, because it takes me about two hours to make it if I'm roasting it in the oven.

22:24

And  it's a lot quicker to take a fresh one than it is to take one out of the freezer for the most part.  Yeah, absolutely.  Rabbit takes forever to thaw out. Yeah, about a day. It's a chicken. That's  OK, so I have a question about that. I thought that you were supposed to let the rabbit carcass sit in the fridge in water overnight. That's not you don't have to do that?

22:48

And  when you put animals in water,  takes the blood and stuff out of the meat and it makes it like soft texture. oh I never soak my rabbits.  Some people brine them, I don't.  I usually will process and if you eat it before it hits rigor, then you're good. um But if it starts to hit rigor mortis, then you want to wait until it passes rigor mortis or you'll end up with tough meat.

23:17

And how long  is it from death to rigor setting in? I don't know. I don't know.  When I'm making them fresh, I go out and I kill one  and  process it right off and get it in the oven. So I don't usually  have to deal with that. em But if they've hit rigor, it's usually like you want to let it sit in the fridge for a couple of days.  If I'm processing and I don't have time to get them packaged up,

23:44

right off, I'll put them on like a baking sheet pan in little bags and  let them sit there for a day or two until I get to um them and then package them up when they're flexible again.  Okay. And if you're not going to cook them after that timeframe, then  you put them in the freezer? Yep.  Okay.  I usually take and I marinate  a large portion of my rabbits. So I'll

24:10

I'll bring them in and I'll put them in a marinade and let them sit in the fridge for two days anyway  to soak up that marinade. And then I'll freeze them. oh Awesome. And then since you know what you're talking about and I didn't know what I was doing, um do you, is it better to roast a whole rabbit or is it better to  piece them out and  cook them like fried chicken or is it different in general? Oh, there's so many ways.

24:39

There's so many ways to cook rabbit and it took me, I mean it took me about three years since, it took me about three years of cooking it to learn how to cook it properly. And I was always like, okay, this is tough, this is gross, like I don't know about this. But the thing with rabbit is if you cook it low and slow, so like 300, 350 for like two hours, if you do that, something like that in the oven and you want.

25:06

to add some kind of a moisture method. So like butter, oil,  water,  it'll help make it more tender in a closed vessel. You don't want it drying all out because if it dries out, it's not gonna be nice and tender.  No, it's terrible rabbit jerky and you won't be able to chew it. Yeah.  Yeah, I love to cook. So I'm glad you're talking to me about this because...

25:32

Eventually we will probably try meat rabbits again, not anytime soon, but we have flirted with the idea of trying again. Yep. Because I actually do like eating rabbit, but I don't know anybody who has any to buy. So yeah. mean,  yeah. I'm sure there's someone in your area. I've got a list of readers on my page that's pinned to the top. If you want to find someone close to you. Go look. Yeah.

25:58

And I really loved having the rabbits. I just didn't love feeding them for no return. Yeah, that's upsetting. So when I don't get return, I usually end up culling the rabbits that don't give me return. Yeah, that's what we ended up doing because we only had three  and they were not doing the job they were hired to do. No, sometimes a lot of rabbits get fat if they're not bred continually um and will not.

26:26

That sounds terrible, but not continually. um... When they're supposed to? I breed my does like two... two to three times a year. And if they go a whole year without breeding, they're gonna get a lot of internal fat and they're not gonna get pregnant for you. Or it's gonna be a lot harder to get them pregnant. Yeah, we had the most beautiful... I don't even know how to explain her coloring. She was...

26:54

She was like the prettiest, softest brown with gold tips and black mixed in and a little bit of white. All those colors together, the  predominant was like a deer color brown. Oh, so she's probably castor colored or chestnut colored, which is a wild rabbit color. Yes. She looked like a wild rabbit, but she was not a wild rabbit because you're not allowed to keep wild rabbits in Minnesota as any, in any way, shape or form that is highly frowned upon.

27:24

Same here.  But she was beautiful and I so wanted her to have babies and she just never took. And I was so frustrated after six months I was like, what is wrong with you? Why are you not getting pregnant? My husband's like, she cannot understand English. I'm like, I do not care.  I still want to tell her.  Why? Why are you not giving me babies?

27:48

And so after a year, we were just done with all of them because  the one that did give us babies actually died. have no idea why. um I don't know. Three, four months after she had that first litter. Yeah. My husband went out to the Hutch and she was just killed over dead. And he came in and he said, you are going to be upset. And I said, OK, well, I've been upset here before. What? And he said.

28:15

the white rabbit died and I said, well, it's a good thing no one's having babies anywhere in this house or around us. I said, because that would be a bad thing. It's the old joke is the rabbit died if you're pregnant.  he said, you're not as upset as I thought you'd be.

28:31

I said, well, I said the rabbits are not exactly doing what they're supposed to be doing. So it's one we don't have to call.  Yeah. And he said, I am so proud of you. said, thank you.  I said, when are we going to take care of the other two? He's like, oh, we'll give it one more breeding attempt. And if it doesn't work, they're done. They're food.  Yeah. I usually give three strikes and then they're out.  It was what I try for. And if I really  want them,

28:59

I threaten them one more time and give them that fourth try  and hope that it works. I mean,  you don't want to waste too much time on them. They should be breeding. And if they're not, then  it's time to find something else  that does want to breed because there's a lot of rabbits that do know how to breed.  Yes. And feeding rabbits is not cheap.  Nope.  I mean, my feed bill is about $400 a month, but I have a lot of rabbits.

29:29

Yeah. And I mean, they are lovely little creatures and I really do like them, but I don't want to spend the money to feed them if they are not doing the job that we've got them to do. Well, they do great fertilizer. They make great fertilizer. So I mean, that's a job that they can still do  if you still want to hold on to them for  fun.  Yes. And rabbit manure is um a cold fertilizer. You don't have to let it uh cure, right?

29:57

Right, you can add it right to the garden. Yeah, yep, and they are very good at producing poop. They poop a lot. Oh yeah, oh yeah. I pull four wheel barrel loads out every weekend.  And uh as I recall, it's not their manure that's stinky, it's their urine. So yeah, yeah, their poops don't really stink unless it gets like built up in a corner.

30:24

And the only reason it would stink is because it's getting built up and there's pee on it. So yeah, exactly. It's true. And to end this out, because I try to keep these to half an hour, I feel like we could talk for four hours about this. could talk for five hours about rabbits. Yeah. Yeah. But I, no one's going to listen to that for five hours, Amanda.  I know. uh Um, so I learned a thing when we had the baby bunnies,  they will eat the mom's poop, but it's  different. Can you explain about that?

30:55

Um, so they have hard poops and they have soft poops and their soft poops.  Um, so the mama's soft poops  have all the probiotics and everything the babies need to build up their gut system. So they'll eat the softer poops. The moms that will go in the nest box and drop off some of those poops for them.  And they'll, that'll be some of their first foods to build up their stomach.  Yeah.  There's a note for that.

31:24

poop though.  Centotropes. Thank you. it's the right, I don't know if I'm saying it correctly, I say things a lot of times. That's okay.  It's a very specific thing that the babies actually need to do. Yes. probiotics is a good thing to give them during that time too so that they can help build more of an immune system. Yep. um

31:50

The other thing that I learned when we had the baby bunnies is that they nurse upside down.  Yep. So when people are like, Oh, don't hold a bunny on its back. I'm like, what are you talking about? They eat on their backs when they're babies. Like I think they can go upside down. They'll be fine on their back.  Funniest oh thing I saw when the bunny, when the baby bunnies were probably  two, three weeks old,  I looked in the, in the

32:20

in the box and I had taken the nesting box out. They were probably three weeks old, I think. And they were just all over the place. There was no point in having the nesting box in there anymore. They were just in there with mom. And they were nursing and you could see their little feet kicking, their back feet up from under her eye. Oh my God. So funny. so cute. So. So cute. I've had, I got some heat because I shared a litter. I keep my doughs with the mom until

32:50

I'm ready to harvest or breed back the mom. So sometimes my does will be with the mom 12, 16 weeks. And it's very funny when you go in to go take care of your rabbits and you hear these loud gulping noises and you've got some 12 to 14 week kids nursing off of their mom. huh. Yeah. the feet are flailing and they're almost as big as her.

33:19

Yeah, I would feel so bad for that mom because that just makes me think of the fact that I nursed all three of my babies. And if they had come to me at like, I don't know, eight to nurse, I'd been like, no, we are way done. No, way done with that.  I nursed both of mine too. So I mean,  I'm like, well, if she wants to do it, that's up to her.  Absolutely. Our  barn cat,  she's gone now. She disappeared.

33:48

I'm so sad about this.  But uh last year at this time, she had her third litter of kittens. And uh when the kittens got to be about  six, seven weeks old, they were still wanting to be up close to her because it was kind of chilly outside.  And of course, they're up close to her, so they want to nurse. And she was trying to wean them. And they would get up underneath of her, latch on, and you could tell they were nursing.

34:17

She'd give it maybe a minute,  maybe, and then she would kick them off of her.  And she'd walk away like,  uh, no. And they would just follow her around waiting for her to lay down to take a nap. And then they would just swarm her to nurse. And I'm  like, oh my God, you guys.  So yeah, babies are always going to want that comfort, whether they actually need it or not. And it's up to the mom to be like, yeah, we're done. m

34:46

All right, Amanda, this was amazing and I hadn't really had uh a,  to quote AI,  deep dive on rabbits before on the podcast. So this was great. Thank you. You're welcome. I hope it's informational for some.  Oh, I think it will be.  Everything on this podcast is meant to teach people how to get information and how to consider the next step. And so every time I talk to people like you, I'm just like, Oh, you're brilliant. Thank you for that. uh

35:15

Where can people find you, Amanda? Well, I  have a Facebook page, Lalo and Justin's Homestead. I also have a rabbitry group, Lalo's Lovely Lops, I  post my babies when I do have them available. But I like to evaluate before I post anything, usually. And then I have an ad on American Rabbit Breeders Association if they want to see the breeds that I raise and  contact me through phone or email.

35:46

Other than that, I don't really have anything else for contacts. Okay. Well, if anybody listening wants to learn about rabbits, they should talk to Amanda. And I'm assuming if people have questions, they can message you on Facebook or they can email you. Yeah, they can comment on my page on something I post or keep those interactions coming so I can keep growing that page. Yeah. Yeah.

36:12

It's amazing what it takes to get Facebook to notice you.  as always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com. And if you want to support the podcast, you can find  the support page at atinyhomestead.com slash support.  Amanda, again, thank you. I hope you feel better and I hope you have a great day. Thank you for having me, Mary.  Absolutely.  Bye.

 

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A Tiny HomesteadBy Mary E Lewis