The Circle of Life {& our weekly menu}

Sis with the first Flopsy

I'm a day behind posting my weekly meal plan. Part of this is due to the unfortunate fact that we lost my favorite bunny last week. We know she did not escape, so we are pretty sure she became someone's dinner. The 3 remaining rabbits seemed quite terrified by the event they surely witnessed. None of them wanted to leave the hutch the next day, and 4 days later, Mopsy, the sister of the bunny who was snatched, still hesitates to come out, preferring to remain in the safety of their hutch.

Hubby and I are becoming quite attached to our animals; I think we were almost as devastated as Sissy was. Still, it became another opportunity to teach our kids about the circle of life. And an opportunity to improve our rabbit hutch.



Over the weekend, we turned this:




into this:


















We also added two new {replacement} bunnies to the mix.

Munchkin

Flopsy II

We framed out our chicken coop, and hope to have the exterior finished in the next day or so. I ordered our chicks on Saturday, and they should {hopefully} arrive next week. 

We gardened, finally roasted the turkey from my freezer, hit up Market on the Move for more piggie food, and wrapped our pine tree in burlap to deter the goats from eating the bark. Overall we enjoyed our long, productive weekend. Unfortunately, my house is suffering a bit from my ourdoor productivity, but I suppose that's par for the course. 

Last week's menu didn't quite turn out as planned. Hubby took us out for Valentine's Day, and my turkey was still frozen (I had to turn down our garage fridge, as it wasn't thawing!), so I improvised a bit. As a result, this week's menu has several items from last week. For Monday's dinner I heated up some of our leftover turkey for the kids, diced some for my salad, and used some in Hubby's quesadilla. On our menu for the rest of the week:

• Buffalo turkey salad/wraps using this recipe, but with my leftover turkey
• Turkey burritos (again, leftovers from Sunday)
• Flank steak (subbing out the brown sugar)
• Salmon patties
• Meatloaf (hopefully posting on this)
• Turkey shepherd's pie

What's on your menu for the week??

Today I'm linking to Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie.com and Menu Monday!

Playing with our new toys...

The blog has been quiet this week, as it's been a little crazy around here. On Saturday Hubby and I splurged for a miter saw and a skill saw. The bunnies desperately needed a new home, so weattempted to build one. I scoured the internets for plans, but didn't really find any that fit what we had in mind. In the end we built something similar to this, though about double the size. We're also in the process of incorporating a fenced area, inspired by this picture from Pinterest (follow me!). The ramp is not finished (or attached to the hutch), and we still need to build the fence. Hubby has to level the ground out a bit first, but that should be done in the next few days. The bunnies are already enjoying their new home, and I am excited to give them a little more freedom.

This week we also purchased lumber to build our chicken coop (can't wait!!). Hopefully we'll get to work on that this weekend. Local folks, do you have any connections/recommendations for {cheap} tin roofing material? Hubby struck out looking for some at Home Depot.

We've also been working on our garden this week. No pics yet, but I am so excited to see how it fares this year. We haven't had much luck in the past, but we're confident this year, in this house, will be different! (Hubby blogged a bit about our gardening endeavors last month.)

I've been playing with some recipes this week. I tweaked my old meatloaf recipe, and we really enjoyed it this time. I am working on a new sausage recipe, as well as homemade lara bars, and a grain-free banana bread recipe, all of which I will share once they are perfected.

The in-laws moved into their own apartment this week, so we've been in a bit of transition. They still have a few closets worth of stuff here, and I'll be reorganizing our stuff over the next week or two. Yesterday, though, the kids and I enjoyed a slow day, spending a good portion of the day outside, enjoying the beautiful spring weather we've been having. I even used our new tools to build the kids a swing to hang from our Chinese Elm! (Though I discovered I need to work on my knot-tying skills.)

We're having a fun week--what have you been up to??