Mike Piazza

Currently I feed my herd of buns a mix of hackberry tree hay and alfalfa. Pellets are not worth what you pay.

Jacob Brad Johnson wrote:Can you share details about the process?

Did you tan your own leather or pre-bought, or barter?

Did you dye it or also in the bre-bought?

Tell me about the fiber used to hold it together.

I’m not nearly cool enough to tan my own leather. I have tanned in the past but for my first footwear project I was pressed for time and I wasn’t sure enough in my abilities.

I got a veg tanned (the natural color stuff) half hide, and some discount dyed quarter hide (is “hide” even the right word here?). Tandy Leather is very close to us so  it’s pretty easy to find what I need.

The fiber is artificial sinew that’s sold in spools, real strong stuff. As far as I can tell, real sinew isn’t all that common. As well as it’s use just being far more involved than a novice such as myself really needs/wants to be messing with.

The design itself is just loosely based on ideas from random YouTube videos then freehand marking and cutting. I’m not good at following recipes and much less so for making custom items, so I just kind of make things work but without really following a good repeatable process… I’m not a great example of how to do things the right way…. Just MY way lol

Lookit! I made shoes for working outside. Got tired of the Crocs but couldn’t force myself to buy another pair.

I’m no expert, but I sure do like to experiment, if I had a giant brush pile and no other good uses for it…

I might try and plant an insane amount of very large vining plants all around the perimeter and let them climb all over it in wild fashion.

Maybe I’d get a harvest of some sort of squash or something, who knows.

Seems like a fun side project.

As far as breeds Californians do well for us and New Zealand whites as well. I personally raise mini Rex rabbits because I just love them but they’re not exactly a meat breed size wise, they max out at around 6lb.

Texas A&M has done some good work with their tamuk line from what I hear but i don’t have a ton of experience with them.

I would look into using the earth to insulate the buns.

I’ve been doing it for years in TX and it’s a much more productive and cost effective means of keeping rabbits cool in a hot climate.