They Huffed and They Puffed

We finished stacking the straw bales for the exterior walls of our house today.  The straw bales raising was one of the easiest parts of the house - we finished in just two Saturdays, with help from 3 friends at a time. The roofers also finished installing the roof last week, a standing seam metal roof.

DIY Rabbit Butchering Station

We started our own rabbitry this year, trying to find a more sustainable way of providing meat for our family and keep it legal, since we live in the city and by law aren't allowed to have livestock or poultry.

There are some really cool tools out there for butchering rabbits. I was on the lookout for some because the first two rabbits that I dressed took over an hour each, and I was hoping it would take far less time. The tools that I've found are:

• The Rabbit Wringer (http://www.therabbitwringer.com/)
• The Rabbit Wringer Butchering/Processing Station (http://www.therabbitwringer.com/)
• Never Without 1 dressing knife (http://www.neverwithout1.com/home/knife_msrp)

Unfortunately, we're trying to finish building our house and money is tight, so I built one myself. I got the idea for using a 55 gallon plastic drum cut in two by reading an article somewhere (Mother Earth News?) and I added the wringer after watching a You Tube video by prepper "Survival Doc" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXAhzfqhMNE&feature=plcp). I built this into the same unit with the parachute cords to hang the rabbit while I'm dressing it.

I used scrap 2x4 that was too warped to use on my house, some scrap cut-offs of 1x6 that I ripped down the center for the wringer, and some parachute cord. This project took me about an hour to build, including the design time. In case you aren't the design-type, here are the parts I used:

• (2) 2x4s cut at 62" for uprights
• (1) 2x4 cut at 26" for the vertical piece at the top
• (2) 2x4s cut at 11" to hold the 1x3s
• (2) 1x3s (or a 1x6 ripped through the center) 22.5" long
• (1) 55 gallon plastic barrel, cut half way through at 12" from the bottom, then cut vertically on both sides, then cut the rest of the way through horizontally at 12" down from the top (this will make two butchering stations if you want them, as long as you have the bungs for the top). I found mine used on craigslist for $7.
• (4) bolts with nuts, 3" long to bolt the uprights to the barrel.
• (4) wood screws, 3" long to fasten the top 2x4 to the uprights
• (2) wood screws, 1.5" long to hang the parachute cord from
• (2) pieces parachute cord 16" long (I found mine for $2.99 at a local camping store)

With the scraps that I had lying around, I spent about $10 on this butchering station.

To replace the "Never Without 1" knife, I just used a curved hook blade in my utility knife. These blades cost me $0.50 each at Harbor Freight.

In addition to all of these tools, I also splurged and bought a nice bypass pruner for $25 to cut off the head, feet, and tail.

I used it the first day, and it worked great. Slaughtering and dressing took me around 30 minutes this time, but much of that increased speed is probably due to having more experience.