Actually the may. They are raising meat rabbits not the cute pet bunnies. 

I have never had baked rabbit, stewed or fried. I have also never had a farm raised rabbit. Been a while but we used to go rabbit hunting a lot. 

Speaking of rabbit hunting, once when i was in Germany i was on guard duty in the tower. A group of locals came out onto the airfield we had to hunt rabbits. They were given access for hunting and sheep grazing. They formed up into a huge circle along the fence line and started slowly walking in towards the center driving the rabbits to the middle. When they got maybe 50 yards apart the started shooting the rabbits in the middle. Always seemed to me that was not the best idea in the world and you better hope that the guy across from you is not mad at you. 

Ha ha yeah like in the movies where they circle the bad guy and all shoot at the same time. I don't think I'd try that in real life. 

Rabbit meat is good but we like goat better. We used to sell rabbits pretty decently and covid business was great. Everyone wanted rabbits and we were some of the only breeders in our area that still had a good supply. People from Oklahoma, Missouri and even Colorado and Florida bought from us. Since then, you can't hardly give them away because everybody has them now. For years, we didn't eat goat, just sold them on the hoof occasionally. About 3 years ago, I decided we needed to start sending some to freezer camp. I have two wethers designated for that this winter. And when the cows calve, I'm hoping we'll have a bull calf for the freezer as well

Chellie, we used to have friends in CO who raised goats.  There was a market selling to folks from the mideast for whom goat is a traditional dish on certain holidays.  However, most of these folk were from the city and had no idea how to slaughter a goat.  So, after hearing of some unfortunate experiences would only sell goat carcasses, not live goats.  They had raised these critters and wanted them slaughtered humanely.  The purchasers would happily pay extra to have their goat slaughtered, dressed, and skinned.

4 hours ago, CrazyGoatLady said:

Ha ha yeah like in the movies where they circle the bad guy and all shoot at the same time. I don't think I'd try that in real life.

Works just fine if the bad guy's in a hole. And when shooting, do NOT try, A I M and squeeze.

Lots of people eat goat, it's a big seller for certain holidays but there's generally a market all the time. When we raised Pygmy goats we were regularly getting people wanting to buy for occasions or the freezer. 

What I really like is how well goat kid picks up the flavor of smoke on a BBQ grill. 

The BEST thing about raising goats is you can sell or eat them without getting in trouble. Good times. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.

Most of the people I've sold goats to have been Hispanic and they like to buy intact bucks. One of the last ones I put up for sale was a good looking two year old and he sold within about 45 minutes of listing him. My FIL sells to some people he knows that like them really young for holidays. I'm not too crazy about selling them so little for that so I just don't. But I'd be on board with it if folks would be willing to pay extra for us to do the work when they are older. I had 6 bucks this year but we just wethered 2 for ourselves. I gave one to my FIL and sold the other 3. We introduced Kiko into the herd and I decided I want to go back to Boers after a couple of years so I'll be shopping for a good Boer buck soon. 

What breed of goats do you have now? Boers are a good meat producers. You know, Meaty Bleaty Big and Bouncy.

Unless you don't remember the 70s then disregard the last sentence. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I had that Album by "The Who". Kind of a greatest hits album IIRC. 

I have only ate goat 1 time in my life and that was at a restaurant, i think it was Cuban, in San Antonio. They had a festival down town along a river that we went to. Pat Travers played while we were there. That is about all i remember of that, the cerveza flowed like water. The next day my buddy got us up to come to breakfast for the best hang over cure. That was the first, and hopefully last, time i have had menudo. The broth and all was good but i have no idea how anyone eats tripe. 

That was when i was stationed at Ft. Hood and my friend was from San Antonio. He was the first one to explain that he was Tejano and that Mexicans were not Spanish but Native American. I was young and from the hollers so i was ignorant of such matters. Any way his mom would make us big bags of tamales to bring back with us. Those were great, lasted about as long as grandpa's deer jerky. And just a bit spicey. 

The first time I had rabbit was at the youth hostel in Evian, France where Lisa and I stayed on our honeymoon (she went on tour with the Juilliard Orchestra the day after the wedding, and I tagged along). The choices were between rabbit and quail; one of the other musicians commented, “Great. Bugs AND Tweety!”

I once had a really fantastic dish of curried goat at an Indian restaurant out behind the airport in Hartford, CT. 

The way you eat tripe is by chewing HARD. I agree though, the broth and other stuff is good, the tripe doesn't taste good enough to be worth the work. Ever have hagis?Hmmmm?

Bugs and Tweety, perfect example of why a person shouldn't name the food on the plate.

Rabbit is as versatile as chicken and makes a fine friccasee though adds nothing to Welsh rarebit.

Frosty The Lucky.

<insert cheesy comment>

A toast to John! Hip Hip Hurray!

Frosty The Lucky.

Toast and cheese? Is this  grilled cheese post? 

Installed the water column in its place

 

 

1 hour ago, Ridgeway Forge Studio said:

Toast and cheese? Is this  grilled cheese post? 

Not really, it's actually a rare bit of cooking lore some might think interesting. Close though. 

The water column is almost as beautiful as your house Alex. What are the water lines and valves coming out of the wall and into the walkway? I think they could use a little dressing up to match the water column. Maybe a simple wood and copper cover that rests on the walk and leans against the wall with a nice forged copper handle.

They just don't fit with that beautiful water column maybe a meter away.

Frosty The Lucky.

Rarebit? Did we go back to rabbit puns? I like rabbit, but it's the only animal I still feel guilty about killing, meat animal or otherwise. I know it's just aesthetics, but the cuteness gets me. I like oberhouse's for milk, and boers for meet - but oh so many tiny bones. Did ya know you can literally starve to death eating rabbit?

I found a easy way to do tripe that I use in New England Pepper Pot - rub salt into the honeycomb, wash it mostly out, cube into tiny bits, and stew roughly forever, which works with pepper pot anyways because you're stewing the tougher cuts of beef - I particularly like heart. The tripe comes out like the little bit of pork fat in Pork-N-Beans, but tastier.

I gotta confess, ain't done much in the shop but clean up today, and that because I was working on an old Honda Civic and couldn't find some of my tools.

Frosty, I was born in the 70s 

And we run Boers with a little Spanish in the mix. A couple of seasons ago, I decided to introduce a Kiko buck into the herd because they have excellent parasite resistance. But they grow out extremely slow even being half Boer. And I just miss the big Boers so that's the buck I'll be getting for the next season's kid's. 

Nobody, I have heard that about wild rabbits. That you can starve eating them but I think it's because they are so lean. Domestically raised rabbits I don't think you'd have to worry about that. In fact, when we first started butchering them, we decided they were eating too much and were full of fat and rabbit fat is kinda gross. Since then, we've found a good balance

Maybe, what do you think? Rabbit rarebit puns, ME!?

Yes, fat or not rabbit is almost cholesterol free and without cholesterol we can not metabolize proteins properly so we die. (I think it's proteins but I'm not gong to look it up) It is a necessary nutrient. I forget which famous mountain man was found dead with rabbit in the pot and the bones of dozens around him. I don't know how long it's been common knowledge but certainly millennia. It's one reason tallow candles were valuable on the frontier, they were made from sheep, cattle, pig etc. high cholesterol fat. Sheep fat was probably the most common, they we've been domesticated since the Mesolithic as were goats, a while after the dog. 

I graduated high school and started my first semester of college in 1970 and Dad got me a job where he worked. I was really busy but had pocket money and bought a 62 Vette the next spring. The old 59 Dodge hoopty just didn't cut it, nobody wanted to ride in it and I replaced it soonest. It was terrifying going over the old winding Santa Susana pass road, the freeway was too narrow, crowded and fast for that old boat. Once I had my Vette I drove the Santa Susana pass because it was less crowded and a lot more fun.

Good times.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

I was born the year you graduated. My copy of The Who's Meaty, Beaty, Big, and Bouncy album was actually may dad's that i, uh, borrowed. 

So on to smithery stuff. Working on a problem. I need to make some corner caps, protectors, not exactly sure what you would call them. But they go on the corners of things like a steamer trunk or a field desk. Or at least figure out how to do it. I have a friend who is working on the project and it is he that actually wants to make them. 

So what i am thinking so far is to start with material that can be worked cold. Cut a circle then cut 3 half circles around it. Use a dishing form and a ball punch make a round impression in the middle. Flatten out the "petals" if you will. Then using a round form bend the "petals" back up so they form a triangle. 

A quick sketch i did, dont really make much more sense, but the one on the left is how to cut the material. The one on the right is how is should dish but unfortunately my artistic skills are a bit rusty. The botton is a top view of the finish from the top. The middle is the indent, a small flat, then the "petals" folded up. The small traingle things sticking out is where i would have to compensate for the material wanting to buckle. 

A quick inter web search for "steamer trunk corner protectors" will get you a pic of exactly what i am wanting to do. 

I was also thinking get a cube of steel grind the corner to a radius and form around it. But i think he wants the bubble kind of thing in the middle. 

Billy, 

why not form a fairly sharp triangle cap from plate steel by forging each bend into a V swage, then forming the ball protrusion last by pushing a bit of metal into a half round with a ball?

it may end up thinner but unless you need a huge amount of thickness the bulge can’t be that big, right?

Ridgeway, that is kind of my thinking on using a cube with a rounded corner. 

So I'm working on a pole ax, last night I got the main body of it rough forged, punched and almost drifted to size.   I also had to start making a larger drift.  It's out of a piece of mild but it's what I have.  I'll use a sledge to get the final size of the drift.  I still have a lot of work to do but I was fairly happy with getting the drift through and the blade roughly shaped.  Main body is old wrought.  Hammer face is giving me pause to figure out how I want it shaped. 

Billy, making corner protectors is simpler than what you've devises. FIRST if you forge a dome first you'll stretch the metal and have to upset it to get it to lay flat again, adding maybe 5x the time and work. 

Instead measure how much of the corner you wish to protect, say 3/4" per section and lay it out on the sheet stock you're going to use. 16ga is kind of heavy but not bad at all, 14ga. is a brute to do this kind of thing. Plate is crazy! I'm back editing this, 18ga. or maybe 20ga. should be plenty. Heavier is NOT better.

Once the triangle is cut and cleaned up, lay out the lines from corners to center, mark the center dimple GENTLY with a center punch, JUST A MARK YOU DO NOT WANT TO DEFORM IT AT ALL YET. Scribe a circle for the dimple. 

Using a straight chasing chisel with a rounded edge go around the triangle and give each corner line a gentle tap in turn. Rinse repeat, the triangle sections will lift. Once they're started to move in the direction you need use the ball punch to make the corner dimple. Repeat till it's a corner protector. A little bit each round. The faces will probably need flattening but keep up with it over the corner edge of your anvil or handy block of steel. USE A MALLET, wood, plastic, rawhide or ? so it doesn't stretch the face of the corner protector.

The knob on the corner is a wear surface to keep the face of the trunk off flat surfaces so it doesn't get scratched up. The triangular faces reinforce the corner joints. Corner joints being the weakest even in welded structures.

To complete a trunk chest type box, you'll need to make curved corner protectors for the long edges. The process is similar but you'll be using a wider radius to down the center of a strip of sheet till it matches the side corners. Remember to leave a flat flange on each side so you can punch or drill and tack or screw it to the corner.

IIRC the 3 sided corner protectors overlap the long 2 sided corner protectors but it's been a long time since I even looked at my trunk.

That should be close to how it'd done. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Chad, you can get away with a mild steel drift a couple times if what you're drifting is screaming HOT say mid yellow and you use a good lube, say graphite. And that of course has issues with grain growth so remember to normalize regularly maybe even do a full anneal before hardening and tempering.

Frosty The Lucky.

Added some bending forks to my vise stand:

(Full description HERE.)

Chad J., that's gonna be awesome when you get done with it. 

JHCC, I'll hop over to your post to read about your vise stand mod.

Meanwhile, still practicing nails. I tried drawing the shanks on the face instead of over the horn like I've been doing and I don't like the results. It even took way longer so no more of that for me. It's starting to get darker earlier and it's cloudy so I ran out of light quickly and that doesn't help. I played with a couple of other things, but they look terrible. Lol it just wasn't my night but here is the result.