The Mobile Home Woman | Our journey from urban homesteading to rural homesteading at Windhaven farm…

Second Litter Gone!

Posted on August 4, 2014 by MobymomAugust 4, 2014

I will admit it. I will miss the little boy piggies! They were cute on their little escapes into the middle yard where they would run about like a little gang and just were adorable.

Of course, until they tore up the yard and rooted up stuff and got into the chicken coop yard.

Still, boys will be boys!

They were sold and will help out the homestead. It’s their job in life… unfortunately! Or fortunately! These little guys are lovely examples of a fine endangered heritage hog.. the American Guinea Hog! We are proud to be able to raise these fine little pigs! Pedigreed and registered! Hopefully they will go on to help the breed to grow and flourish! We love our American Guinea Hogs!

The last picture of them all together with their mom, Ebony and two half sisters Cheyenne and Shawnee… Now it’s just three girl hoggies sharing the pen and their lovely dirt hole bath tub they dug out to wallow in. They love it. Helps them stay cool.

When Daddy Onyx comes back soon… he will be able to frolic with his lovely wife Ebony and eventually, one of the girls. The other girl might be going to a new farm home as well! She may or may not get a chance to play the Hokey Pokey… still kind of working that out. It’s all good!

Love our little piggies!

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Hair Cut Time on the Ranch…

Posted on July 23, 2014 by MobymomJuly 23, 2014

Justin came over to test his new clippers on our bunnies and Dreamy, the pygora buck. The bunnies were easy to shear, they actually are pretty comfy with it all. They just sit on your lap and let you trim away. Miss Tora really had some nice length on her fluff! It will spin nicely… blend in with the other Windhaven fibers…

Dreamy is such a sweetheart of a buck. He doesn’t act all “bucky”…. in fact, he’s just a very laid back and sweet boy. He just stood quietly with his head up against my leg, and hardly flinched a bit. This was Justin’s first attempt at a larger animal, so he was going very carefully, learning how to handle the big shears.

Some folks shear pygoras like you do sheep, which is sort of flipping them on their rumps and working downward and through a series of very systematic cuts and trims. Dreamy is pretty little and frankly, he was fine with just standing.

His pygora fleece is very nice… he has type A fleece, which is very much like angora goat fleece. It’s very nice… Even if he wasn’t here on the homestead to make babies, he makes such nice fleece, he certainly has a way of paying his keep. This lovely fleece went to Justin for his time and effort.

Since he’s so small, and it’s hard to work low on the ground, we popped him on a cooler and he was just so fine with that. The boys were giving him pretzels and he really enjoyed that. We left his little manly beard because it’s just so fine… the ladies love it on him. He was so happy to be shed of his heavy coat! He’s a little off schedule with the rest of the flock. When we got him in November, he had to be shorn because he was just so overgrown. So by the end of February, he hadn’t grown his fleece long enough! So he got sheared now, and hopefully by the end of February, he’ll be on track with everyone else and can get sheared then. Still, I think for his first large animal… Justin did better than I would have! And Dreamy was quite satisfied! He has been trotting around and frolicking in his pasture with Harley, all clean shaved and cool! Easier to itch, too! Life is good for our little man!

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Swamp Coolers Work!

Posted on July 23, 2014 by MobymomJuly 23, 2014

Maggie’s bedroom upstairs is way cool, but unfortunately, way hot in the summer! She has a couple fans and we are watching for an air conditioner for her, but have not had luck.

Being the ever resourceful young lady, she saw these nifty swamp cooler designs on Pinterest and You Tube and decided to give it a spin. The ones online are a lot more elaborate… including sytrofoam inserts and such and tubes, but she just made it easy to see if it would work.

She just froze a couple empty plastic gallons of water. Leaving about a quarter of the jug empty for expansion. By using a couple, she can rotate them out of the freezer.

She got a nice clean 5 gallon bucket and cut a few blower holes in the side. Eight I believe.

And she took a piece of cardboard because she couldn’t find a lid and cut our a little hole for an old fan to fit on top. Pop a frozen milk jug of water in the bucket, turn on the fan and WOW! It really works!

She’s been using it for a week or so now and she likes it. It’s very quiet unlike a big air conditioner. A jug will last a few hours, like 4 to 6 hours. It really doesn’t cool the WHOLE room, but you can set it near you and it blows lovely cool air on you as you read or work on a computer or watch TV or games. And she says it’s lovely to sleep with. Just set it aside your bed and it will keep nice cool breezes drifting over you.

And I’m quite sure it doesn’t waste as much electricity as those big air conditioners do. Give it a try, make a simple swamp cooler. You don’t need much, just a bucket, a jug and a fan. And a drill bit to make some big holes.

Pretty darn cool! Haha… yeah… cool!

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