The Mobile Home Woman

Feeling Good…

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Mobymom

Wow… woke up this morning, and lo and behold, I had the very best number I’ve ever had for my blood sugar! Still not perfect, but I had to sit and reflect on the last year… I’ve lowered my average score by 200 points! Awesome! And my A1C by 3 points! (That’s nearly 30% reduction… the score range is 1 to 11) and have dropped a total of 75 pounds in the last two years. I feel pretty darn good.

And all from just diet and exercise. No meds. Not against the idea but just haven’t got insurance (and it’s tooooo high now because of this diagnosis) and so I decided to give it a try with a lot of education, reading, and huge life style change!

Really, I’m mostly just cutting all the pop and excess carbs from my diet. And hardly anything processed. Only whole foods… not a lot of sauces or coatings, etc… I still eat fruit (just carefully) and bread (again, carefully) and I even have a treat now and then, (if my day is going well with eating well and managing my carbs). I know I still have lots of room to improve and that’s super exciting because so far, I’m not feeling deprived in any way. I eat mostly of veggies, meat and dairy.

I know there are more radical eating styles and things I can be doing. But I decided that I know myself and that super extreme changes would result in me being an old mule and finally baulking at it all. So, I just started to make changes I could accept and deal with, one or two at a time. They say it takes 21 days to establish new habits. So I would just try and make changes at month intervals… I concluded that ANYTHING was better than nothing. It surely took me a while to get to that awful high a year ago, and it will take me a while to get back under control.

Like I said, still have room for improvement, but I’ve slipped into the “good” control range, at the high part, but still, better than “TERRIBLE” control range! I want to make it to the “excellent” control range, even if it’s just one point below the mark! Because I know I can only get better and better at it. I want to be around another 50 years!!!

After all, I’ve got farming to do!!!!

And apparently Air Truck Driving with my buddy Bill! (hahaha)

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Homemade Creep Feeder…

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Mobymom

All this lamb stuff is new to us. We just assumed that when it was time, the little lambs would just belly up to the feeder and nibble and taste new food and enjoy.

We just didn’t factor in the fact that their own mothers would be hogs and push, shove and head butt their own sweet little pumpkins of fuzz love outta the way for anything food related.

Apparently, motherhood builds up a powerful appetite.

And a few brave ones will try and eat from the bucket, only if their crazy moms are busy skarfing down feed at the feeder and two other ranch hands are blocking them from the vittles.

Harley and Pearl have figured out the bucket but no one else really. It’s got good yummy lamb nibbles in it. Good stuff.

Well, I did a little reading and found there are these things called creep feeders. They basically are a cage of sorts that has a little opening for the lambs to get in, but the ewes and others can not.

And of course, the commercial ones are a bit pricy.

Well, I just kind of got to thinking… I found an old crib in the trash last weekend… and I was going to use it in my garden as a trellis… (the side do make GREAT climbing supports…) But I thought, hey, upside down, that is a little cage! So I put that bad boy together, flipped it and cut one slat out. Just big enough for a lamb to squeeze in.

And as you can see! It worked!! Little Saro Jane is inside nibbling lamb chow and Uncle Fergus is outside, disappointed beyond belief.

Yeah!

Luther has learned that people mean chin rubbies. And he likes that. A lot.

Oh, how cute! Two of them have figured it out!!! I wired it to the fence to prevent any shoving and other ovine tom-foolery.

Hey, it even works for goats! Daisy is in there with three of the lambs, chowing down! Yeah!

And I was so pleased with myself until Momma Noel finished up at the big sheepy feed trough and decided she could help herself to lamb chow dessert. She just pushed her head into the opening and shoved her big body until she collapsed the darn thing and could reach the bowl of feed. And frightened the little ones until I had to dash in and stop her.

Jessy was taking this all in with her camera.

As you can see, most of the critters are watching as I try and dislodge the sow… er… I mean ewe from the crib. She was sure acting like a pig. No wait, pigs act better. She was being a miscreant. And look how the other animals know it. They do. Even Buttercup is watching and shaking her little goat head with a sort of “tsk, tsk, tsk… bad bad ewe…”

Luther just wanted more chin rubbies. He’s learning to seek attention from us when his mom does bad things. Improper things. I can’t say for sure if he was embarrassed, but gee, none of the other moms behaved so poorly.

I finally got her to leave it alone by taking the food out. Only then did she stop trying to wreck it. Shesh. Back to the drawing board. I thought about adding 2 x 4s and making it stronger and so on and so on, but I decided it was just too flimsy for a real lamb creep feeder and gave up. It’s going back to the garden. It will be cuter there anyways.

I think I might get a cattle panel and cut a small opening in it and wrap it around on itself. So it is like a big circle. And then attach that to the fence. That might work. They are only about nineteen dollars. And after they get better at it, I can always use it as a fence panel. Yeah.

Darn it. Bad sheepies.

But on a lighter note, my other project worked just fine! I put the last dog kennel panel in the big barn, to complete Rana and Rafeka’s stall door. I used a couple rope climbing clips to fasten it when it’s closed. Pretty simple. And they have been content to hang out there at night, just fine. Thank goodness! I would have been a bit discouraged if my two projects for the day were both duds!

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You know you’re rural when…

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Mobymom

When you take your goats to the local whippy dip ice cream joint.

And no one notices…

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The Garden of Eatin’…

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Mobymom

Spent all of last week working on our empire… the online one! Just needed to and it was so nice to finish up late Saturday night with a big redo. (More about that later…) Suffice it to say, today was a rest your eyes days and all I wanted to accomplish was some good hard work in my garden!

I had 10 more bags of garden soil mix to spread on the top of a few of the raised beds. They are filled with good farm compost and leftover straw and such, but there’s something about having a nice couple inches of good garden soil on each that makes me say, complete. Maybe it’s weird, but hey, it’s just what I like. And so I’ve been picking up 10 bags at a time when the budget allows and topping off a few beds and then planting them. It’s actually kind of nice. I started all my colder weather seed crops first and they are starting to burst forward and now I’m working on a few of the less hardy varieties. I’m hoping by the first of June, I’ll be done planting and will be just into tending. Of course, I had HUGE plans of expansion this year but I think that if I can just get all 20 or so beds planted, it will be a delightful success for us. And hey, I can keep planting more and more if the time and weather allows. We had nice weather all the way into the heart of October… that means 60 day crops can be planted as late as August! (Beans and radish and peas and such…)

I’ve been calling my garden, the Experimental Raised Bed Laboratory… It rather feels like it! I got these old shutters at a garage sale for $5… actually 6 of them… and they just screamed out raised bed! So, there you go. Maggie screwed them together for me with a little bit of 2 x 2 in the corners for support. Now I just have to line it with a bit of plastic so all the good stuff doesn’t just leach out the sides and fill this bad boy with something. It’s going to be a bit of a reach for the middle, so I think I’m going to plant flowers in the middle and then veggies all around!

I dragged this old piece of cattle panel out of the big barn and used a couple of the cheap posts to anchor it firmly in the middle of this bed. It’s going to be my pea trellis! I’ve heard it’s perfect and will support quite a few plants. Which is good, because I just love fresh sugar snap peas from the garden! I hope to have a BUNCH this year… want to freeze them for dishes all year long.

Of course, my mint is doing just fine… it’s totally taken over the box that I planted it in. I thought I would try this year to make my own mint extract. I adore mint…

The fall onion and garlic plants are going nuts and even the spring bulbs of each we planted are really going to town. I have chives in that first green half barrel and they survived nicely and are trying to get nice and prolific in there. (Thanks Trini!!!) I think I want to plant mostly herbs in my 6 half barrels, and perennial ones to boot. That would be neat and easy to have coming up each year.

Today we planted carrots, radish, cucumbers. And a bunch of flowers too! Zinnias and daisy and a pack of sunflowers. Those got planted here and there through the beds. It’s from a bunch of cheap seeds that I got last year for 9 cents a pack… so far the germination has been lackluster, but hey, still, something. If I had to guess, about 50% or so. Still, for 9 cents? I just over seed the areas and hope for the best! I have some nice, good quality seeds for a bunch of my seeds and they have really been doing a lot better. I hate to say, but we could really use a little rain! I know everything looks beautiful and green, but it hasn’t really rained for about a week or so. Just a day or two of some spring showers would really bust my seeds open and get them growing nice. I thought about watering today, but it’s supposed to be hot with some afternoon storms tomorrow, so I just held out.

Speaking of water… on Thursday, our water went out! Oh no! But we didn’t panic. Called our handyman buddy Mark, who does plumbing and heating and cooling and he said he could be out on Saturday to take a look. Thank goodness! It turned out to be the pressure switch on the water air tank in the basement. A half hour and a $15 dollar part and it was all fixed and flowing nicely. Whew! I don’t mind a day or so without water because of the wonderful artesian spring just a few miles down the road. But vision of super expensive pump repairs made for an anxious night of sleep! So happy to turn that tap on and see nice lovely well water spew out! Yeah!!!

Well, that’s about the bulk of news around the homestead! A little on the slow and quiet side. Not that I mind, it’s nice to get a chance to recharge and get your focus back on track!!!

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Beautiful Raven Roo…

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Mobymom

Raven is one of Bucka’s sons… a beautiful Maranacuna, as we like to call them. He gets more and more beautiful with each molt. He is gentle with his ladies and doesn’t attack little Parsley, the D’Uncle Banty Roo in with him. Yet he is protective if anyone should get too close to his domain. A perfect rooster!

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Good Deals…

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Mobymom

You know, I got to thinking… I don’t think we’ve bought much of anything “NEW” lately. Just food and feed, mostly. Because I don’t know of any “thrift” stores for those kind of things.

But when it comes to “things”, we always look to garage sales, thrift stores, eBay and Craigs’ List… And yes, the occasional thing on the side of the road or in a dumpster… We just save a ton of money that way. Some hardware things we don’t have much choice on… nails, screws, etc. But even a lot of our wood and such is found, donated or bought on the cheap. I really don’t mind at all. It’s always fun to be on the hunt and when you get a great deal, you just feel good.

Like yesterday… it was our town day and I had many hours to spare for some reason. No practice, mostly. And we had done our big egg run on Friday, so no eggs etc. So I made a beeline for a couple of the good thrift stores in town that I haven’t been to for awhile. And caught a garage sale in the travels as well!

I really needed a new pair of shoes. I have my WONDERFUL half boots from Lands End. (Now to be fair, I did buy those new about 2 years ago. Best investment I’ve made in a long time! Those mocs are DREAMY….) But they are farm boots and are oft to have chicken poop and straw incrusted in the tread and goat milk slobber and other unidentifiable stains on the lovely light brown suede tops. (Note to self… see if they have black whenever these ever wear out…)

Now I do have a pair of black leather slip ons, my “fancy” shoes. My girly shoes. Go to church, weddings or the occasional bluegrass gig, shoes. And of course, my black cowboy boots… which are ONLY for bluegrass gigs… And kind of hurts my one toe since I broke it about 3 years ago and it healed up a little funny. So I don’t wear them day in and day out. Without a bandaid. On the funny toe.

Oh yeah, and I have a pair of rubber farm boots with roosters on them. But they don’t have much in the way of a sole and frankly, are only for those days when you want to consider building an ark or the yard is flooded up past your calves. On your legs.

So, you can see… I need another pair of shoes. Go to town shoes. Not wear in the muck shoes. LIke tennis shoes, though I don’t play. Tennis, that is. And they have to be good support shoes, because, well, my feet are a little sensitive, that whole diabetes thing. I try to be careful. I usually end up buying some nasty sandals for the summer, which I love, but always end up hurting my feet by the end. I hope not to do that this year. So I was so pleased to find these lovely, once-expensive, hiking tennis shoes. Good soles, look brand new! The tread was pristine as was the shoe and the insides looked like no one has ever really worn them! Yeah! And the $9 price tag was superb!

I don’t normally shop for shoes in the thrift… just always feel a little funny about it. I hear my mother’s voice ringing in my ears about used shoes destroying your feet, or giving you foot cooties or what have you. But gosh, these were like untouched by human soles… And I’m getting over that whole cooties thing. I gave them a little shot of Fabreeze… and was ready to go!

Now, I was also in the market for a new pair of go-to-town jeans. Because, farms are tough on jeans. Even little farms. And all my jeans are way too big. Baggy. Ill-fitting. I’ve tried to alter a few, but after loosing 75 pounds… (yeah me!) Im afraid my old jeans really look pretty awful on me. Or so say the goats. (They notice things like that…) So when I stumbled upon a pair of perfect new size, decent new looking jeans for a measly $6? Well, those came home with me too. If they had had a friend, I would have got them too, but no, alas…. just one. But that’s okay. One is better than none.

And then, at the garage sale, I found two awesome books! In beautiful shape for $1 each. Storey’s guide to draft horses and mules… hardcover and beautiful… and Horse, Follow Closely… an interesting book on native American horsemanship with a DVD… still in the pouch! Sweet! I wonder if it will work on Cody Pony? I can just see me shooting arrows while ducking behind him as a equine shield. Can’t you? Ah… well… we’ll see about that. If anything, the pictures are beautiful in the book and I just love to read anything about horsemanship. Even ponymanship.

Well, those were my little treats for my searching efforts. I’ll post later about the cool things we found in the big item trash day scouting mission. I need to take a few pictures first. I just love hunting down awesome deals at the thrift stores and garage sales. It’s really amazing what people buy and then don’t use or just give away at a fraction of the original cost. And I’m kind of picky… you don’t have to be scraping the bottom of the barrel to find really nice stuff. I know, I remember the days of mindless shopping and spending dumb money on things only to have them sit around and collect dust. Just a phase I think we all go through at some point and some never leave! And folks like us reap the benefits! Yah! And it’s just nice that this stuff gets some decent use out of before going off to a landfill somewhere. I like that too.

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