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

Jelly Beans First Hoof Trim…

Posted on June 10, 2014 by MobymomJune 10, 2014

Hmmm…. What’s this all about? My feet? You want to look at my feet? Why sure!

Hey, wait a minute… what’s that thing you have? Why, what… what… MAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

It’s call hoof trimming, darling. You just stay still and they use the sharp pointy thing and they trim off a bit of your hooves… it doesn’t hurt, it’s just uncomfortable the way they hold you for a bit… Just relax and it will be over in no time.

NooooooOOOOOOoOoOooooooooOOOO!!!!!!

OH MY GOSH!!!! MAAAAAA!!!!! I’m dying! They are going to kill me!!!! I’m sure of it…. OH MY GOSH! MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Oh, there is nothing in the world like goat drama.

No goofy little goat bucklings were harmed in the making of this post.

In fact, after he was done, he stared at us with a great deal of mistrust for about 10 seconds until he realized there were raisins as after trimming treats and then he wanted us to do that again and jumped right up on the spool. And when his mom was getting her pedicure, he was trying to get a little extra nursing time in, which ticked Daisy off. Haha…

Rana and Rafeka are easy, they are hard to catch when they figger out what is going on, but once caught they just lay there and are resigned to the task at hand. Buttercup is a royal pain… she’s almost as bad as Jelly Bean. She figits, she bawls, she kicks, she lurches about… shesh…. the five minutes turns into 20 minutes and usually involved a smart kick to the head for me or Jess. I would like to say she’s getting better but my mom told me never to lie.

Dreamy is the most laid back goat buck in the world. He just lays there and says “do whatever you want, I’m probably going to die anyway.” He also got a belly trim because he gets pretty long haired and it can get a little nasty down there… Thankfully, no potty area rash! Yeah! We try and keep our two boy goats neat and tidy in the bikini area… just helps a ton. And helps to keep them smelling a little less buckish… haha…

Hopefully Jelly Bean will think fondly on the good boy treat and not focus on the few moments of drama and next time it will be a little easier! Goat’s hooves grow very fast. The sheep are good once a year at shearing time… but the goats, they need trims just about every month or six weeks or so. They love it when we are done…. gives them good traction and the ability to leap around and frolic. That is very important to a goat.

We are happy to report that Miss Daisy had a clean bill of hoof health. Last trimming, she had a back hoof that was a little icky… we trimmed and cleaned it good, and dosed a bit of hoof med… she’s the very first one we’ve ever seen with a wee bit of hoof rot. It was after the spring rains and the mucky muddy nature… we are very careful and watchful and I’m happy to report its all cleared up and lovely. Not a single sign of anything wrong. I really hope we were mistaken and she had just stepped in something icky, but it just didn’t look quick as good as the others, so we decided to err on the side of being proactive. Hoof rot in goats and sheep is just no no no fun! I’m so happy that all our gang has lovely good hooves!!! Yeah Team Windhaven!

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Jelly Bean and his Womenfolk…

Posted on June 9, 2014 by MobymomJune 9, 2014

Jelly Bean is getting to be quite the handsome little buckling.

He is so fun, and so sweet. He’s not quite as sweet as Aunty Buttercup, but he’s darn close.

He pretty much thinks he runs the place. It’s a goat thing.

I just love these pictures that Jess took of Jelly Bean and his mom Daisy and Aunty Buttercup. They are all good buddies. He loves his women. Even Rana sort of likes the little bugger. She won’t admit to it, but you can see her wag her little tail and sometimes even give him a little sweet nuzzle behind the ear.

How can you not love Jelly Bean?

The little twin lambs, Eowyn and Arwyn, they are very bonded and stay close to each other all the time. I love this shot of them resting in the shade of this big sugar maple. They are so beautiful, these little lambs of Iris’s…. She’s off grazing somewhere but the little girls are tuckered from running all over the place and have settled down not too far from JB and his ladies.

It’s good to be the Jelly Bean King!

Isn’t he just beautiful! He is just want we wanted. A little pygora half breed with beautiful fiber. He can stay and help with the fiber fund. His fleece is so beautiful and soft… can’t wait to see if it continues to be more and more like his father! So far, so good!

We’re pretty sure that Rana and Buttercup are carrying babies too! Just going to be later in the summer… Howdy’s babies. SInce he didn’t come on the scene until the middle of February, and both does are finally starting to develop little udders, I am going to say anytime after the middle of July… We probably have a good six weeks before we see any more little Howdy babies on the ground… he’s got four beautiful babies over at our friend Jess and Erin’s farm! It would be lovely to have a few here in July! Can’t wait….

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Big Office Redo…

Posted on June 9, 2014 by MobymomJune 9, 2014

On of the best things about decorating your home is that one gallon of paint can really change a whole room around for the cheap! And when you get that gallon of paint from a friend or a $5 mistint… it’s even more wonderful! And that just happened to us! Our friend Kerry and her family recently moved into a new home and while they were working on colors and painting, accidently got a gallon that just really didn’t work like they wanted it to. Too close in shade to another color that they hoped would be more of a contrast… so she asked if we’d like the gallon! Why sure!!! We were very thankful. It was a nice light gray and if we didn’t use it somewhere special, we could always find SOMETHING that it would be great for on the homestead.

But as we decided quickly, it would be wonderful in our big office because we were kind of sick of the strong blue color! Once we opened up that big hole in the living room wall, the strong blue of the office and the pale mossy green of the living room, well, they didn’t really match nicely. And we were just ready for something lighter, brighter and a touch more modern.

So we got to cleaning, organizing and getting things moved around a bit. Jess and I are the master organizers and the place really needed a little touch up in that department. Hey, it’s a working space and well, it can get out of hand now and then. Maggie got out the paint tray and after wiping the walls all down nicely, she got to work.

I like it already! Brighter… lighter! Of course, the ceiling tiles are so old and dirty…. one thing at a time, right? We’ll worry about that later…

Getting there! Looking so much better! Love the nicer lighter tones…

Wow! Much more complimentary with the mossy green in the living room… Why is that whenever you are doing a major clean and paint job, the room looks HORRIBLE until about an half hour before it’s done? I guess it’s a condition of decorating… the storm before the calm?

I thought we should paint that raw opening and help to blend the two rooms together a bit more. It worked! We are going to put real trim up there and all, just have to get the boards and all, soon… soon! The budget is a wee bit tight so this will have to do. It was really amazing how much better just the paint made it look!

Haha… Jess is taking a break. Caught her goofing around with her ipod while we are working. Oh, I was taking photos. I guess I was goofing around as well.

Once we were done painting, we were looking at the old, but sturdy work desks and how worn they looked. Well, we had some extra stain and sealer… no time like the present! We cleared them off and got to work. It’s amazing how much nicer stuff looks with a new coat of stain and varnish! We gave them both a good sanding and cleaning, and then went to work. I just love how nice they turned out!

Maybe not perfect, but sure a lot nicer! The darker walnut stain goes nicely with the wall color. It’s very nice…

Wow! How nice! We love it. All cleaned up, organized, and painted! We have to make some new drapes or shades for the front windows, but gosh, it’s so nice! We love it. Maggie moved her fancy desk around and that really let a ton more light into the space. It’s all so nice and neat and clean. Wish we could do something about the ugly ugly ugly carpeting, but that’s another day and another dollar. I looked up dying it and all, but in the end, it’s probably best to just wait and some day get all the flooring in the main part of the house fixed up and nice.

We replaced a couple of the really bad ceiling tiles, and that is nicer. Of course, it opens up a whole new can of beans because the other tiles are kind of yucky. Been reading on line and such on how to clean them… so we might either clean them or paint them or both! A nice crisp white would be lovely and bring more light into the whole place! Still, I love how it looks and the girls did an awesome job of getting it all done in just two days!

We have more painting, organizing and fixing planned throughout the summer. Our plan is to mostly deal with the outside projects and needs while the weather is still nice and comfortable! When it gets too hot and muggy to work outside, we’ll start working on the inside and get some little projects done around here. Sounds like a good plan, doesn’t it? Can’t wait… bathroom needs help, the dining room does… we need to finish all that free trim we got… lots of fun stuff to do!

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