Rabbits Anyone?

I'm still running in high gear here but I sure am looking forward to things slowing down just a bit.  Fall is around the corner even if we did have 102 temps today.  The tomatoes have slowed down some thankfully, since the beans are starting to come in.   I've given the neighbor tons of tomatoes and peppers as well this year. I get the feeling she's tired of tomatoes too! LOL   Someone mentioned checking with the food bank in our little town to see if they could use some tomatoes.  I've taken them a couple of 5 gallon buckets of them so far. I'm DONE with canning them for the year.  I just can't stand to see them go to waste and the chickens aren't nearly impressed with them as they were at first either.

I was out feeding the rabbits today and once again I started thinking about what was supposed to be happening with them.  A little background for you guys that haven't heard my rabbit tales.  (And no talk of "that guy" either)  One of the very first things we wanted to do out here was to be able to raise rabbits to supplement some of our meat.  I've made some rookie mistakes that ended up costing me two does.  I learn from my mistakes most of the time.  (Stop calling me "Rabbit Killer" !!!)   Anyway... here it is over two years now and I haven't had a single litter (do rabbits have litters?)  Last spring I found a lady who raises rabbits on a large scale not far from here.  I bought a 5 month old doe from her.  Once she was 6-7 months old I tried to breed her with one of my bucks.  Nothing.  So I tried her with the other buck. Still no babies.  I called the woman I bought her from and she was just so sweet.  She told me to bring my girl over and she would breed her with one of her "stud stars". If, for some reason she didn't get knocked up , she would take her back and give me another doe.    I waited the 30ish days... still nothing. I tried breeding her with my buck .... nothing.   And then things around here got busy. So the whole rabbit thing kind of got put on a back burner.  And that brings us up to today.

I got to thinking how I have been feeding and watering these guys twice a day every single day for over two years and have nothing but feed bills to show for it.  I remembered what the Rabbit Lady had said last year.  So I dug around till I found her card and gave her a call.  She remembered me.  Or she remembered the weirdness of bunnies not making bunny babies.  She told me I could bring her my doe and she would trade her out for a "proven" doe.  Cool. We can do that.  Then, out of the blue, I asked her if she ever did any bartering.  Much to my delight she said yes.  Now some of you will think the next part is funny.  I asked her if they liked tomatoes and would she be interested in doing some bartering for a second doe. I just happen to have a 5 gallon bucket full of them at the moment.  She immediately said we could strike a deal.  So I'll take her some tomatoes next time I have to go into Little Big Town and we'll work out the logistics. To say I'm happy is an understatement. Get rid of some of my tomato overflow and maybe... just maybe this time we'll have some luck.  It's kind of embarrassing not to have had baby bunnies after all this time.
Just so you know, I just cringed a little when I wrote that!  I can just hear some of you laughing already!!!