joe craw

If the bobbin is not hooking the thread usually this is an issue of the needle bar needing to be adjusted. An easy way to check this is loosen the needle and and lower it in the groove a little bit and re tighten it. if that works there is typically a screw that holds the needle bar in place loosen this and and drop the needle bar a little bit. Be sure and raise the needle to it's original position!

I've been reading about surround wp and it seems like an effective deterrent for cucumber beetles and bean beetles which I have in abundance. The problem I have is the price. Has anyone attempted to make their own? It seems odd to me that the literature talks about the clay being centrifuged to get a very small particle size and this is the key to success. If a small particle is desired why start with kaolin clay which is renowned for it's large particle size? So has anyone tried ball clay which has a much smaller particle to begin with?

The diyer can get very fine particles at home doing the terra sigillata process of slaking the clay for a certain period of time. This allows the large particles to settle out and leaves the finest at the top. Of course this would waste a lot of the clay.

Well if anyone has done this please let me now how it worked out.

thanks

You can absolutely do this. 3 to 1 sand to Portland use some old fencing as a reinforcement. You need a temporary form to hold up the mortar. We used plastic sheeting over boards between the rafters. This was an irregular shaped roof so we went with the ferro cement style roof. It was cheaper than painted metal. We did a rough coat let that cure overnight then a finish coat. Finally a coat of pure cement painted on mixed like heavy cream to waterproof. It is still standing and waterproof.

Check out Larkin refractory in the Atlanta area. Also harbison walker which has a location in Knoxville and charlotte ad well as many other cities in the usa.

We figured out it was rats the whole time. Last week i noticed that the buck kept pulling his food out of the feeder onto the ground then he started shitting on top of it. After a closure inspection I realized the poop was a giant rat turd. We got hardware cloth and dug down a few inches laid this and covered it back up paying close attention to the edges and overlaps. This held for a few days before the poop started showing back up. The walls are hardware cloth for the first 3 feet then switch to 2" chicken wire. So that's not going to keep them out unless we redo it. Right now I'm opting for poison if I can get the land mates on board. Man i really hate some rats.

how many rabbits do you have?
3 does one buck
how old are they?
1 and 1/2 years for the older two 6 months for the fine young cannibal

have they been raised on their own in cages their whole life?

The older two shared a cage the younger was in an adjoining cage with a shared wire wall.


as to the 'cannibal doe' I am thinking there is something else going on. it is rare to find a doe who will just eat all the kits from her litters for no reason.

what do you have for hiding spots?

Besides their warren I have put couple of plastice bins with lids in the ground for alone time.

what do you have for nests?

Just the ones they make

is there areas where rabbits can hide or get up away from the other rabbits to separate themselves out for alone time?
In the warren and in the bins.

We moved our hutch rabbits into an on the ground rabbit area. The breeding females are in the center pen which is 5 x 20 and has roofing tin buried vertically around the peremeter to a depth of 3 feet. The male area has a chain link floor with dirt on top. Since moving to this system one of the does has consistently eaten her young and the young of the other does. The babies have burrowed under the 3 foot tin. So it is pretty much a failure. I have read that canabalism is a reaction to fear so we skirted the pen to a height of 24 inches to add a visual barrier. This did not help. We have now seperating the cannibal back into a raised hutch by herself. We are thinking of wiring the floor of the brood hutch. It is all been rather discouraging. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Thanks for the advice! I guess I'll need to wait for warmer weather to do any lime work. Do you have any advice for trimming around windows and covering wood. I have read about using drywall mesh but have no experience with it. Also I assume I will need to score the existing plaster to get a good key for the lime coat. One more thing I have been using human hair in my lime plaster. Is this acceptable?

thanks again

My slip straw walls are around 7 years old. I have a yearly problem with gaps opening at the tops of walls and some but not all vertical wood to plaster seams. Most years I will mix up a small batch of plaster and repair this gap only to have it open back up by the winter time making for a cold and drafty house. My typical repair mix is pure clay to three parts sand with some fiber. It is hard to say if this change is due to humidity changes or an ever shrinking wall. I should mention the walls have an earthen plaster. I have tried the burnt sand mastic recommended in one of those books it is a real ass pain to put up. I'm thinking of re coating the walls with a lime plaster. Does anyone have any advice? Will the lime perform better?

thanks