Spring means rabbits

So, spring is well under way here in Illinois. The weather in March was amazingly warm (hot) and I was able to get my garden started about a month earlier than last year. We have radishes, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, peas, and chard all going strong in our little garden, and little apples, pears, peaches, plums, and apricots growing on our fruit trees. Katie even made two strawberry rhubarb crisps earlier this week using the rhubarb from our garden . Nevertheless, the best crop of the year so far has been our rabbits. We had a litter of 8 back in January (the last four of those were put in our freezer on Thursday). We had a litter of four about 6 weeks ago that have another month or so to go before they join their older sisters. About two weeks ago we were blessed with another litter of 3-6.  To add to this, it appears that one of our does is again pregnant. This is evidenced by the 3 foot long burrow that she built under our shed, and the fact that when provided with straw she compulsively began stuffing it into said burrow (watch the video). We are very pleased by the success of our 'free-range' rabbit experiment. If anyone has some good rabbit recipes, feel free to send them our way!

Daddy bunny (pretty sure...they all look the same) with three of the four (approximately) six-week-old adolescents, all nibbling on a piece of honeysuckle vine.

One of our ~2-week-olds. They're pretty cute when they first start venturing out of the burrow.

The burrow that now exists under the concrete floor of our shed. I swear she dug this overnight. Any guess how long it will take before they start showing up in our neighbor's yard?

Juno (or is that Jadwiga?) collecting straw for her nest under the shed.

Later the same afternoon. If you hadn't see the burrow, you'd never know it was there. Sneaky little rabbits!

These are our chickens. They still lay blue and tan eggs (not from the same chickens). We have a lot of eggs right now. Do you want some?

Little Pears

Lots of little peaches.

Apricots

Plums. (Does anyone know how to keep the squirrels from stealing all my fruit?)

Heirloom oxheart tomatoes seedlings started from seeds given to me by Kathy in my lab. 

Hoping it warms up this week so I can put these in the ground...

We spent Easter weekend at my brother and his wife's place in St. Louis. They just had their fourth child, Cypress, and my parents, two sisters, one brother-in-law, and two of my other nieces were all in town for his baby blessing on Easter Sunday. It was a great weekend.

A bunny of a different type visited while we were there...

This is their dog Boomhauer. He's awesome.

Before church. Aren't families great?

In other news, Katie got a new road bike. Are you jealous?

LaPierre Audacio 400L

This bike is possibly worth more than my car...of course, that's not really saying much.