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

Enough with the Rain!

Posted on June 28, 2015 by MobymomJune 28, 2015

Saturday, we were hit with a day long rain storm of significant amounts of rain! Our area got over five inches of rain in just under 10 hours! And since we’ve had two weeks of excessive rain, this was just the thing to put up over the flood point.

Last year, our wonderful farmer neighbor had done extensive work to his fields near our property and that helped up considerably. However, this was just too much rain. So we started to flood in the afternoon. First it was the low laying areas, like the western middle yard and this front pasture. Thankfully, no one is up there, so it was fine.

The hogs were in heaven… out in their new yard, digging it up and hunting for nice big earthworms that were escaping the water soaked ground! It was kind of funny to watch them… very happy piggies!

But everyone else was huddled together in the teeny sheep shack because their big barn had begun to flood. Since we removed all the bedding pack in there, it’s low enough that it just became a big soupy sloppy mess and then was underwater.

The eastern side of the middle yard was pretty badly flooded. The chicken live in that building but they are about three feet up on these concrete tables. The floor of the building flooded but they were safe and dry. Of course, going outside was a bit of a problem for them… swim floaties, anyone?

At one point we thought it was going to crest the road out front, but it finally stopped. Thank goodness! However, many small towns and roads in our county were closed and under a lot of water! We are about five miles from the St. Joseph river and it’s a pretty big flooder when we get this kind of rain! And buddy, it’s wide now. Our local dollar store was flooded out! Oh no!!!

At one point our basement flooded… the sump pump got clogged up from the yucky water. Jessy waded in it all and got it cleaned out and running good again. Thank goodness! We sure don’t need 2 feet of water down there. Especially with our new furnace! They did put it up on blocks because that space often floods a few inches, but we have about 18 inches until it starts to flood the furnace!

We went to sleep with the sound of the sump pump running pretty much nonstop! By morning it was coming on every 2 to 3 minutes, so that was something. Now, it’s running about every five minutes. It is just sooooo wet out there! And we have more rain coming on Monday, Wednesday and through the week! It’s just too much! A break would be nice!

So we decided the best thing to do on a rainy day is to get our looms up and warped… Jessy got little Ikea all warped with some beautiful long yarns to make some lovely fashion scarves. I got the rug loom ready to go again. Going to get some nice two footers done… two foot wide, that is!

The waters are starting to receed and I hope we don’t get too much more rain… not sure if we can handle it! We are getting very saturated, that is for sure! I think I’m going to get webbed feet soon!!!

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Buttercup Dairy Products…

Posted on June 27, 2015 by MobymomJune 27, 2015

Now that we have weaned off Thistle, our bottle lamb, we have a lot of milk available! Nice good fresh goat milk! Miss Buttercup is giving us about 3 gallons a week! Which is a lot for a family of three that normally doesn’t go through a lot of milk.

Don’t dispair… we have been busy finding other good uses for our goat milk bounty!

We have been working on learning to make caramel candy! And caramel sauce… The candy is tough, our first batch, though yummy, turned out a little hard. More like a hard butter candy to suck on… which of course is not bad at all! Our second batch came out too soft and is like a thick sauce. Which is just find on ice cream, apple slices and I suspect, apple pie!

We are going to make some cajeta… Mexican goat milk caramel sauce today, I will let you know how that turns out! Stinking good, I suspect.

And we are making goat milk cheese! I learned how to make the classic Chevre goat milk cheese and it’s fantastic! And so easy! Now I have made several kinds of cheese so far… Fromage Blanc, Ricotta, Mozzarella, and a failed cheddar. I am much better at soft cheeses then hard. Now the chevre is a semi soft cheese… pressed and molded, it does slice, but it is a little crumbly. It has a taste that is like a tangy cream cheese, at least from our goat! I like to mix in a little spice and sea salt, or garlic and sea salt and it’s fantastic. Good on a salad too! I want to try it with some slices of ham and avocado on some nice crackers… There is a lot you can do with this easy and quick farm cheese.

I am going to give soap a try as well! Why not? Buttercup loves to milk, it’s her favorite time of the day. She will risk life and limb to jump the paddock fence and linger near the screen porch until I come out to milk. She loves the snacks! And I think she likes the interaction time as well. She gets brushed and patted and she just loves it. So we might as well get her milk back as a thank you! We will probably milk up until it gets tooo cold and then we will dry her off. It’s very unusual to have a doe go into milk without having a baby, but we will probably give motherhood another try next spring. Because having a milk goat rocks!

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New Pig Pen!

Posted on June 25, 2015 by MobymomJune 25, 2015

For a good long time we have wanted to upgrade our pig pen. It worked but it was a hobbled together mess of old, new and used fencing and the hogs are tough on things like that. It was just an eyesore and we were ready to upgrade it and make it nicer. Our American Guinea Hogs are some of the best animals we have here at the ranch. Easy to take care of, good money makers for us and just pleasant to visit. It was a big project but we were ready.

Our first litter of the year are all doing great, growing bigger and soon will be all over the yard. We wanted to get this done before they were big enough to run around and that is going to be soon! They are almost a week old now.

We knew what we would be doing. We are using nothing but hog panels and good solid tposts to add a lot of area to their enclosure. We have it, nothing is using it and it would be a good thing for them.

I love how the three adult hogs are watching their favorite human start to work on the remodel! They love Maggie and Maggie loves them…

First up, we cut and removed all the old fencing. It was a chore. Some was old and it was just all a big mess, wired in, zip ties, you name it. But we just kept clipping and pulling and finally got most of it off. We left the posts because some we would use but others were just anchored into the ground in cement and it just wasn’t worth the effort. If we ever want to subdivide the area, they might come in handy. For now, I think I might make them some little hog flags to fly from the posts!

Miss Buttercup, of course, has to supervise. She was out for milking and just decided to hang around and watch. She like the pigs.

I think this picture is kind of funny as well. They were free to go, but were very hesitant. Pigs like their own area. But finally, they decided if it was okay, they were going on a little walk about.

Onyx was the first to get into trouble. He thinks all five gallon buckets are food.

Miss Ebony had a plan and took off for the paddock. I guess she wanted to visit.

Bonnie and her lambs are so funny… the little ones were so surprised! What is that???

You can see the middle hog, that is Cheyenne…. she is still waiting on her litter of piggies. Soon, I would think… soon! I think she is waiting for the new remodel of her house…

Buttercup finds their muddy wallow to be very gross. Of course, that doesn’t stop her from exploring and checking the place for left over snacks. You just never know.

The girls returned to help turn over some dirt and dig for earthworms and grubs. They love them both! They are like little high powered backhoes… grass does not last long around them.

The first panels are up! Yah! Actually, it did not take too long. The ground is very damp from all the rain we have been having, so the posts went in very easily. And the sixteen foot long panels make easy work to the fencing.

Maggie went and got a bucket of sweetfeed to lure the hogs back when we were just about done paneling. Another funny picture… Ebony has missed the turn. Don’t worry, she stopped and corrected her flight plan once she realized she had missed her exit. They really love sweet feed and would follow Maggie just about anywhere for it.

Ebony loves to make a mess out of her water buckets. We have a big fifty five gallon barrel that we installed a drinking spigot on, but it has been leaking. Maggie is going to try and fix it because that is much better for the hogs. Lasts longer. With Ebony around, water in a bucket lasts about 10 minutes, max. Because she loves to play in mud. She is a pig, after all.

We still have to do a little clean up and just make it all nice and pretty, but for now, the hard part is done. And the pigs are very very happy. Of course, they will root up all this grass in no time… I bet by this time next week, it’s all dirt. But, that’s the way they like it, so who’s to say its a bad thing?

I’m just happy that they have a lot more space and can wander about a bit, enjoying more of their lovely yard. And as the babies grow up a bit more, they can enjoy the space as well. Maggie is making them a little sun shade building to put out in the middle of the yard for them. Something they can make a nice wallow under and lay in the shade. It’s sunny there for most of the day, but in the late afternoon, the tall pines do give them a nice shady place. But I’m sure they wouldn’t mind something for early in the day. And they shall get it!

Happy happy hogs is our goal. And I think we’ve achieved it.

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