Several years have now passed wherein I have obsessed about my obsessions and how to control them. I have come to the conclusion I will be forever bound into this process of PTSD.  I believe that PTSD is a natural occurring phenomenon that is a normal process the brain uses to protect itself, and utilize the event learning experience to enable one to cope in future similar experiences.

Over the past thirty years at this rural location the brush and trees have grown up. Along with the return to nature the predator population has increased: that includes coyotes, coy dogs, raccoons, bob cats, and assorted lesser creatures of the night that are inventive and determined to kill and eat your domestic animals-even if they are enclosed.

I am not inviting any rabbits to dinner yet, so I have to clean houses and stuff hay in the nest boxes so they can keep warm. Yes, rabbits feel cold just like us, and need to get out of the wind and cold. My nest boxes, built into the hutch complex so that each bunny has a cage, self feeder for pellets, heated water bowl, and a nest box 1’X2’X1’H. I place cardboard in the bottom plastic grate (see building hutches) in the wintertime so the hay is not pushed through the holes.   I find it takes a repacking every few days until they get it just right.

With modern comforts we seldom think about what it was like before…. As a history refresher, say 1930-1940’s here in Appalachia there was no, or few outdoor “privies” to deposit human waste. I had asked an old-old timer what did they do. He replied: “ We used foot boards”. It seems that the footboard was a panel that you carried outside and back in the trees to keep your feet dry. The pigs cleaned up the mess in time.