The dream was to raise Angora rabbits, pluck their wool, spin it into yarn, and sell it. And rake in the money. After all, Angora fur sells for $6 – $8 per ounce! I stumbled across a purebred French Angora doe for $30. She quickly produced an equally purebred litter of eight kits. I fought to keep the kits alive, fostering them out to a nearby breeder of Mini Lop rabbits. I had a lot invested in those Angoras, especially emotionally. But they should have been able to easily pay for their keep, and so they fit in our carefully crafted homestead plan.

But then that plan hit reality. And this week I butchered three more of my Angoras, leaving me with only three of my original eight.

It was the right thing to do. Really, I know this. But letting go of plans is always difficult, isn’t it?

But I was out of cage space, and had to make some decisions. I had to choose between keeping my Angoras, or keeping the does from my recent meat rabbit litter. The Angoras are small, they’re not show quality, their fur is half the length I needed it to be to bring a good price, and they are apparantly sterile (no live kits in a 16 month time frame). And the meat rabbits are large, beautiful, bricks of muscle from wonderful genetics known for large litters and a mom that successfully raised them all.

So I decided that it no longer mattered how well I had laid my plans for the Angoras. The plans were really dreams, and the actual animals I had did not work to change that dream to reality.

Without another source for inexpensive French Angora rabbits, the rabbit plan itself must change so that we could continue to work on the homestead plan. The homestead plan does not allow freeloading livestock!

And so we had rabbit for dinner. And lunch. And dinner. With more in the refrigerator.  It does take a while for two people to eat three rabbits. But at least they’re finally producing something, even if it is just a reduction in the grocery budget. 🙂

And the meat rabbit kits look great in the rabbit hutches. Best laid plans – take two!