1/4 Acre Mini Homestead Ongoing Build

[Laketex]

What to do when you only have 1/4 acre and want to become more self sufficient? Well, you do what you can with what you have. We're looking for a few acres in Oklahoma, but it'll be a minimum of 6 years before we can move anyway and we want food now. Progress to date: We built garden beds out of scrap pallet lumber last spring and had a meager crop to start with. Went with raised beds to keep the kids and dog out of them. Still much to learn. Built a garden bench, also out of scrap wood...both of the above being built back when wood was priced like gold. You do what you can. Build thread on garden bench and the raised beds here:

https://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=808700&highlight=bench

We also planted a peach, a plum, and an apple tree that has grafted branches, so we should end up with 4 different kinds of apples on it and it'll self pollinate. I'll try to keep the build progress in this thread.

The next step was rabbits, which we got from Chew. Drove to Houston last Sunday and got them with not much of a plan in place on how we'd keep them. Going to Bobby's house gave me a lot of ideas, and we spent the last weekend working on cages and the hanging structure.

[Laketex]

Going to get the rabbits and checking out Bobby’s setup.





We also picked up a trio for a guy I work with. They’re in the cardboard box. Yes we took the minivan for gas mileage. Yes we may have regretted that after stopping at TSC for hay.



But we made it home and they went in borrowed cages for a week while I got my plan together and started work.

[Laketex]

The kids love the rabbits and since these are the breeders and not the eaters, we let them name them. No naming of the babies though! They are Rosie, Pinky, and Patches.

[Laketex]

Some major cage building this weekend. I didn’t get a video of the process, but Chew’s KCA build has great videos. I was too busy chasing kids, stopping for soccer games, stopping for youth group, church, and all the other dad duties. But we made good progress.

[Laketex]

Snagged a piece of 60x120 16 ga galvanized from work for a roof.



What a PITA that was getting into the backyard with no alley access. But it was worth it for a one piece roof with no screw holes. Glued it on with Locktite PL3 premium. We use it at work for bonding plywood to steel and it works awesome.

[Laketex]

“Finished” pics. Next plans are to remove all clamps when the glue is set. Had to buy 8 more clamps which is great, because who ever has enough clamps? Bought edge guards for the doors and spring clamps for latches, should be here Tuesday. Going to put lattice on both sides and planters for some sort of vining flowers. Rabbits are in there for their first night. There’s 3 holes with doors between the sections. They’re all open right now and the bunnies were racing back and forth last night.



This morning, better pics.

[dpg481]

Awesome build. The kids will get a lot of learning and entertainment from the critters.

[Tbar]

[Chew]

Great job Brian. Nice meeting y'all and hope y'all enjoy raising rabbits as much as we do.

[Strummer]

Looks like a nice set up .

[3ChordTruth]

Good luck with this project. Great to see all your family involved in the build.

[Laketex]

Good luck with this project. Great to see all your family involved in the build.

Thanks guys. And we all get involved. I’m the builder, but my daughter wanted to jump in cutting wire and putting J clips on. The two little boys help as much as they can and my bride is in charge of plantings and very involved in day to day stuff. I couldn’t do it solo, that’s for sure. Or more like wouldn’t. I’ve wanted a garden and stuff for years and never got it done. A great bride was what it took to get me off my butt.

[Laketex]

All I got done last night is to pull the clamps off the roof and organize the garage back into somewhat of a useable space. Roof is glued down very well though and don't anticipate any issues there. Everything I read in the rabbit books said to put the cage doors on the inside and hinged from the top. That's what I did and I hate the setup! Makes it incredibly difficult to access and if a rabbit is in the doorway, have to push him out of the way. So I will be pulling those j clips today and reconfiguring the doors to a drop down external style.

[TreyRo]

Interesting and I like the garden thread too.

We had an urban chicken coop at our last house in the city and enjoyed that with the kids. Now that we have a little over 2 acres we've got all kinds of stuff going; chickens, compost, garden, fruit trees, etc. Gives the kids a ton of healthy outdoor hobbies.

[Laketex]

Got the doors reversed so now they’re hinged at the bottom and open out. Also got edge protectors on and spring finger latches. I got this stuff from amazon but I honestly hate amazon so I’ll try klubertanz for the next go around. Tonight my plan is to get hay racks on the doors. Doors work so much better now. It’s actually possible to get a rabbit out and close the cage afterward without requiring 3 hands. [emoji1787]