15 Tuesday May 2012
Posted in Photography
Last year for my birthday, I became the very proud new Momma of two pot belly piglets! They were so tiny and sweet.
This is me and Javelina Bacon on her first day home. We call her Lena for short.
Needless to say, the piggies, grew, and grew, and grew. Continue reading
07 Saturday Apr 2012
Posted in Photography
Tags
Children's Hospital, Dontations, Fund Raiser, Hunter, Nowata, Nowata County, Nowata High School, Oklahoma, Sick Child, Student Council, WE BELIEVE
Hunter was diagnosed with a rare auto immune disease about a year ago. He and his family have been struggling with all the ups and downs that come with the disease. There is hope for Hunter in the form of a bone marrow transplant. Continue reading
01 Thursday Mar 2012
Posted in Photography
Tags
Goat, Kid, Nowata, Nowata County, Oklahoma, Pygmy Kid, Winter 2012
Grey Eyed Momma finally had her kids early Monday afternoon.
There was a boy
And a girl
They are both eating well
Right now they are inseparable
They love each other
And are just about the cutest things on the farm right now
21 Tuesday Feb 2012
Posted in Going Green, Photography
Being determined to do every possible thing that I can to save money, I recently decided to give a go at making my own homemade laundry detergent. I figured I would purchase the items and make a small batch up and see how we liked it.
With list in hand, I headed to town, hoping that I would be able to find everything locally. Between both dollar stores, I only netted a 3 pack of Ivory soap. My last hope was Homeland, and they did not fail me. Home I headed, excited to make my first batch. I was greatly disappointed to open the soap, and to find it damp, and the paper sticking to it as I unwrapped it. I went ahead and tried to shred it up. This was a colossal fail. Disappointment shrouded me, as I decided that I had no choice but to let the soap dry out for a few days. In the end, it never really reduced to the powder I was hoping for. Ever inventive, I skeezed a bar of Dial soap that I found in the cabinet under G-Man’s sink, and tried that. Viola! It ground down to a very fine powder, now I was in business!
I used the detergent the first day with apprehension, not sure what the results would be, and sincerely hoping there would not be any itchy butts in the house. I was very impressed. The clothes came out clean and completely odorless. I decided I really needed to give this detergent the hardest tests that I could throw at it. Even the dog rugs, and the blankets we are using for the baby goat in the bathtub came out clean and odorless. Let me tell you goat pee and poo definitely has a stench to it, so I was impressed. I also stopped using liquid fabric softener, and went to using just straight vinegar in it’s place. The final test for me would be the whites. I knew they would be the next biggest challenge, beings that I cannot use bleach in conjunction with the vinegar.
Here are my disgusting socks prior to the wash… Yes, I know they are gross. Hey, we live on a farm with carpet in the house, and no matter what amount of cleaning I do if I don’t wear slippers my socks end up looking this way. UGH!
I used two tablespoons of detergent, added my vinegar to the fabric softener dispenser, then added the same amount of vinegar as I would have bleach to the bleach dispenser and let the washer fill up. Once it started agitating, and had released the additional vinegar into the machine, I turned it off and let it soak for an hour, as I always do with whites. Once the wash cycle was done, I was anxious to see the dried results.
Ok I know they are not perfectly white, but I think they came out pretty darn good for what they looked like to begin with, not to mention they have seen almost two years of wear. I think I will get some bluing and see if that doesn’t help.
In the end, I am extremely pleased with my homemade laundry detergent, and very proud of the fact that I am making every effort to save the G-Man money.
There are a lot of recipes out there for homemade laundry detergent, I mixed mine as follows.
1 Bar Dial Daily Care soap – Ground to a powder in my handy dandy food chopper
2 C Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
2 C 20 Mule Team Borax
1 C Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (I did this for deodorizing)
I use 1 Tablespoon of detergent for normal loads, and use 2 if the load is very dirty.
09 Thursday Feb 2012
Posted in Photography
Per Wikipedia, Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon, or the Moon Rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse.
I see a woman in profile
A Calla Lilly and a hatching Phoenix
A bird in flight
The letter “M”
An Angel Fish
A Pterodactyl
Gumby in flames
I guess I suffer form Pareidolia, I see “things” in everything I spy each day. To the point that it is annoying sometimes. 😉
17 Saturday Dec 2011
Posted in Photography
Tags
Goat, Kid, Newborn Kids, Nowata, Nowata County, Oklahoma, Pygmy Goats
Since my last post, we have had even more babies!
On December 15th, one of the brown eyed girls became a new momma. Unfortunately, she had twins, and the poor thing did not know what to do. We gave it as long as we could, but with the babies fading fast, I made the decision to bring them in to the tub. Both are little girls and here they are two days old.
Then yesterday, December 16th, Beulah had twins. I was so frustrated with her. She wouldn’t have anything to do with them. I took a towel out and tried to clean them up some, and kept taking them over to her. She was not a very good Momma with these babies, I must say. Finally, I had enough and decided to bring them in as well. The House Herd just doubled in size. Of these two, one is a boy and the other a girl. Here they are one day old.
Four babies in the tub is just too many. Hopefully we will get them in a pen outside this weekend. They are getting more mobile and holding their own. The little white one is already trying to jump out of the tub.
Then this morning, December 17th, Black Momma had twins. She is one of our very best mommas and will take great care of her babies. Here they are maybe 2 hours old
Then the other brown eyed girl had her baby, bringing the total number of new babies thus far on the farm to a lucky thirteen. Here the baby is less than an hour old.
We sure have our hands full on the farm. Never had so many new babies all at once. I hope they all grow up nice and strong.
13 Tuesday Dec 2011
Posted in Photography
In the last week or so, we have had a veritable kid explosion on the farm.
First came the twins, via Harriet, on December 4th. We named them Nellie and Bandit. Nellie’s name has since been changed to Nels, as he is not a she like I first thought. In these pictures, they are nine days old. Nels is the light one, and Bandit is the one with a black mask over her eyes.
Then on the 7th, Cocoa delivered a little girl. She is six days old here.
On the 12th about mid day “B” had a little girl. Gator’s Girl named that little one Boots, for obvious reasons. She is One day old here.
The night of the 12th, Greedy Gretchen had her newest baby girl. She is not quite a day old here.
Today, the 13th, Pink had her first baby. A great big ole boy.
This is Pink
He is a Few hours old here.
Boots and Gretchen’s kid could be twins
Here are Cocoa’s girl and Pink’s boy resting in the A-frame shelter 
You can definitely tell which babies are Bud’s. Now that the big billys are no longer an issue, the ole tripod goat seems to really be making his mark on the herd.
11 Sunday Dec 2011
Posted in Photography
Back in September, we obtained what we planned to make into our mobile chicken coop. G-Man posted it on his blog here http://ufoznbacon365.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/september-10th-2011/
Of course I wanted to paint it on up, which I did, and posted a photo on my 365 page here http://lanailens365.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/day-209-mobile-coop/
Needless to say, we got waylaid by numerous projects that took priority over the mobile coop. With the onset of colder weather, the coop became priority number one to insure the chickies had a nice warm place to avoid the weather.
This morning after our coffee, we set out to complete the mobile coop. The first thing we wanted to do, was cut the screen out of the window on one side, This allows me to lower the side door, and refill the water we plan to keep inside.
While I made handy with the box knife on the screen, G-Man made short work of removing the lower door on the other side which we plan for the chickens to use to gain entry and exit as they please.
The next step was to build roosts for the chickies to use at bedtime. Here are views from both sides of the trailer.
Next we hung a heat lamp for use on very cold nights, I just realized I did nto get a pic of that, sorry.
Then to figure out the placement for the waterer, hopefully far enough away from the roosts to keep it from being covered in poo.
Next to close it all up, and move into alignment with the covered dog pen. We wired the pen gate open, and plan to line the door up with the open gate.
Proper alignment was a bit trickier than we hoped, but with G-Man’s muscles, and a well placed jack he got it moved as close as we could possibly get it.
Add about half a bale of straw for bedding covering the entire floor area.
We placed a 1×6 across the opening for the door to help hold the straw in. this created a little shelf, or landing for the chickies to jump up onto before coming on inside.
The final step was to see if the chickens would even come into the mobile coop. One of the Others, a Rhode Island Red was the first to venture in, closely followed by Dotte.
What started out as a simple 6×8 open coop has grown into quite the compound. We will leave it like this until spring, when the great move will take place. For now, I think our chickies have quite the spread.
The chickens loitered around all day trying to figure out what the humans were up to now. On a final note, we took down all but 2 of the roosts in the dog pen, all twenty seven birds were making quite the ruckus trying to all fit on those 2 little roosts. Hopefully they will wise up soon and start using the place we put so much work into.
03 Saturday Dec 2011
Posted in Photography
Tags
Fall 2011, Family, Home Improvement Project, Mobile Home Skirting, Nowata, Nowata County, Oklahoma
With the threat of winter fast approaching, we have felt the undeniable pressure to not only start, but complete a project we have talked about for months. The problem was how to go about it? We spent many an hour just driving around looking for inspiration. Still, how to go about it all? We were venturing into unknown territory here, and at times the trying to plan and figure it all out quite literally became so overwhelming the entire thing just got put on the back burner so to say.
Then came our answers all in the form of one very special man… My Daddy, who in my eyes can make anything happen. In his words, “If you want it bad enough, figure out a way to make it happen, and just do it!”
Daddy came up with all the answers to questions we had for months, and answers to some we had not even thought to ask ourselves.
What is the project you ask? Installing a new skirting around the bottom of the house. Thank goodness the rentals love projects, and helping out! In their view, these are prime opportunities for those most cherished memories and “bonding moments”. We tend to agree wholeheartedly, and welcome the knowledge we try to soak in as Daddy works at his normal non-stop pace.
This is what we began with… A bit tattered and temporary band-aids put in strategic places where the goats ripped the vinyl apart with their horns… Durn goats!
First things first…. DEMOLITION! Now who doesn’t enjoy demolition?
With the old skirting and band-aids removed, we have a nice clean slate to work with.
As with any home improvement project, however, there always seems to be unexpected snags we encounter, however. This was problem number one….
A bit of water damage behind and on the south side of the deck at the base of the siding. Not at all good!
But the answer man was not deterred and quickly came up with a great solution!
With a bit of paint, it will look just beautiful!
Problem number two was that once all the skirting was removed, we discovered a break in the drain line coming from the kitchen sink. I was sent to Orcheln Farm and Home to get a “union” for the pvc pipe I had in tow… Mental note… These are called couplers in today’s society. Once corrected, we were back on track and ready to rock and roll.
Once the stringer board was installed, we were building the framework to hold the metal skirting.
Daddy’s plan to stabilize everything is really quite ingenious. A hole strategically drilled through the bottom of the frame, then level it all up. Once level, drive a piece of re-bar through the hole into the rocky Oklahoma ground. Drill a hole in a block of leftover 2×4, which is then beat onto the re-bar from the top. Nail to the framework and that baby ain’t goin no where!
The deck area was problem number three. I quite literally saw no way to put skirting between the deck and the house. The deck stands independent of the house, and is in effect it’s own structure. Not a problem for Daddy though.
Just remove some of the deck boards closest to the house… Such a simple answer, why didn’t I think of that?
Framing behind the deck was also problem number four. Not impossible, just very tight quarters in there.
We couldn’t wait to hang some metal, so before day one was complete, we put just a few pieces up to get an idea of how great the place was going to look.
Daddy ripped 2×4’s down like a pro to create the trim piece that we placed on top of the installed metal.
For five days straight we worked hard, though Daddy worked the hardest of all of us. Thanksgiving was spent working on the framing and the hanging of the metal.
We made great progress each and every day.
Then we encountered problem number five… Rain rain rain all day Saturday. This stopped all work on the rentals final full day here.
I have to be honest in that I was thankful for that day of rain on the final day of their stay. It allowed for a fun filled afternoon of the girls kickin the boys butts in Marbles… And for the record, three games were played in full with the girls coming out victorious!
The G-Man, Gator and I were able to get a good full day work in and completed all the framework for the backside of the house. Then this morning the G-Man and I leveled it all up, and drove our last three pieces of re-bar in the rain. We will be hanging metal in the cold tomorrow, and ready for the snow they are calling for Monday.
I couldn’t ask for better family than I have been blessed with. The old farm has most definitely become home to me. So I hope it is ready for me to settle in and stay a good long while. I do believe it will take someone chasing me with a stick to drive me away from this place and the happiness I have found here!
31 Monday Oct 2011
Posted in Photography
Had fun shooting the FFA Girls yesterday morning. Thought I would share the photos here for anyone who might be interested.
