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Rabbit vs Cavy - backyard meat production

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Over the years I've raised both rabbits and cavies (guinea pigs, cuy) on both commercial feeds and free gathered forage.  I've eaten cavy in Peru but only in the last year started breeding and raising them for meat. There are pluses and minuses to both but I far prefer the taste of cavy.  It's like comparing dark fatty chicken or pork (cavy) with chicken breast (rabbit). Cavy are easier to raise in movable pens for grazing my lawn and require less supplemental feed.  I have less issues with cavy production in extreme heat and cold, although I've been very successful breeding both species year-round. Rabbits require more skill to deal with containment, weather extremes and year-round breeding. For me, rabbit processing is much quicker but maybe that will change as I get more skill with scalding, scraping or burning cavy hair. Rabbits Harder to capture after they escape. Require more secure caging. Typically kept in individual cages but can be kept communally. Burrowing, ...
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Why I run far, very far

"You can't outrun a bad diet" - Vinnie Tortorich One of my earliest memories is seeing my grandparents and parents bring out their tray of prescription drugs every evening.  I was told how when we get older we get sick and the drugs help.  My great-grandmother lived to be 102 and her daughters all lived into their 90's.  My great-grandfather died in his mid 50's and my uncles were lucky if they made it past sixty.  The men that I inherited my body type from all died much earlier than their sisters & spouses. The women tend to get the same metabolic conditions but generally lived with it longer.  We were told, "it's just part of getting old". Even now most medical doctors will tell you as you age it's normal to suffer from metabolic diseases. Depending on your genetics you get diabetes, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, and so on.  It is normal if you eat a modern diet.  We have much more control than we are led to believe. I see my children a...
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Italian study indicates ketogenic diet may help ICU patients survive

 A pilot study was just completed in Italy using similar diet changes that we tried with my wife Analiza Scholes .  Kudos to Dr. Samir G. Sukkar and his team for taking on this research. The results do clearly show lower inflammation markers for those on the ketogenic diet and suggest changing ICU feeds away from the standard high carbohydrate/sugar feeds may save lives. The study focuses on COVID-19 patients. As is well known, cytokine storm can happen for a multitude of infections and is an ancient phenomenon.  This research could literally save millions beyond just the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm looking forward to others continuing on with this research and the eventual improvement in ICU and general hospital feeding protocols.  The following quote from this study gives me hope that eventually the medical community will move from symptom treatment with medication and also include dietary interventions. " Differently from other studies in which nutrition is considered...
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Weston A Price and the link between diet & immunity

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According to the World Health Organization (WHO) one-quarter of the earth's population is infected with tuberculosis (TB). Only 5-15% will become ill in their lifetime and spread the disease. TB is a bacterial infection and is now very treatable yet around 1.4 million die yearly from this disease.  This raises a few questions: Why would this bacteria remain dormant in an individual?   What could trigger TB to eventually grow out of control? Could the same be true of other bacterial and even viral disease? Back in the 1930s a dental researcher Weston A. Price suspected dental health and cavities were related to diet.  He traveled the world and studied indigenous cultures not yet exposed to the modern diet and compared their health to relatives and neighboring populations that had switched to modern diets high in white flour, sugar and canned foods.  He took over 15,000 photographs and slides. He noted huge differences in dental carries, facial growth, and suscept...
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BioHack 3: Ashley Warren

 Ashley caught COVID-19 in November and was hospitalized. She was never intubated but had serious respiratory issues.  Even after returning home, she has had to have oxygen and even then is not able to keep her saturation high enough to even do simple household chores.   After returning home Ashley researched diet options and decided to try a fairly strict ketogenic diet due to it's reported benefits for being anti-inflammatory, boosting the immune system, and losing weight.  She used ketone strips to test if she was in ketosis and also included ketone salts. Her diet is high fat and low carb already and she's taking Vitamin C & D supplements. Ketone salts are not as fast-acting or concentrated as ketone esters. Ashley got a small bottle of KE4 ketone esters from KetoneAid.com . She already has a spirometer and before taking the esters demonstrated what she was able to blow, which has been stable for weeks. After taking the ketone esters any benefit was very...
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BioHack 2: Suzanne Freeman

 Suzanne Freeman caught COVID-19 back in mid-September 2020.  She was having severe fatigue, some loss of taste, smell, and worse of all breathing issues.  Suzanne was diagnosed with viral pneumonia and tested positive for COVID-19. The lung issues were bad enough that she went to the emergency room twice but luckily her oxygen levels were good enough that she didn't need to stay.  Suzanne recovered from the virus but continued to have fatigue, brain fog, and respiratory issues.   Suzanne is my younger sister and had been following my wife Ana's case in the ICU.  At Ana's funeral in December Suzanne complained of still having lingering "long covid" symptoms. I suggested a strict ketogenic diet based on my own improved health with a low-carb high-fat diet and my wife's drastically improved oxygen levels after trying ketosis induced by fasting after her doctors gave up. Suzanne had tried "keto" before but had issues with "keto flu" and hunger...
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BioHack 1: Myself

 I've been eating a fairly consistent ketogenic, high-fat low-carb diet for over 5 years now.  I've seen several definite improvements in my health that happened in both the short and long term.  Here's a list of what I've seen so far and some explanation. Short Term Benefits Respiratory Issues Disappeared Exercise-induced asthma issues went away. I no longer had chronic coughing and breathing issues for much of the year as I had throughout the first 53 years of my life. Immunity In five years since starting a ketogenic diet I haven't been sick with any viral or bacterial infections with the exception of COVID-19.  Even when I had COVID-19 it was just a fever and chills for one night and felt lethargic for 2 days. Zero respiratory issues. The majority of the immunity benefits seemed to kick in within the first few weeks. Energy levels improved Stopped feeling tired later in the day. More consistent energy level and clear thinking throughout the day. Sleep improved S...
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