Enough Rain Already!

We've had three floods in the last couple weeks, the one last night being the worst of all of them. The water came up very quickly around 11 last night, luckily Joe went out back to feed the puppies and saw the water at the bottom step already. We've never had water this high in our five years here. The current washed some of the puppies under the deck where they were struggling to keep their heads above water.

These pictures are from the floods on Memorial Day and the Friday after. The floods from last night were gone by morning, so all I got was after pictures. After saving the puppies, we had to move the older dogs to the garage because their pen was also underwater. Then I looked in the hog lot at the front of the barn and saw about a foot of water. I ran to the barn with a flashlight and we moved all the baby goats to the camper. The older goats we left because they were standing on a ledge and were only knee-deep in water. The horses were in the back of the barn and were also knee-deep in water.

The two horses in the back were too scared to come into the barn because they couldn't tell where the big step was, so I had to wade out in hip-deep water in the pasture to get them. I ended up tieing them in the barn so they wouldn't go back out there. One of the goats went out and almost drowned when the current caught him where it was really deep, but he managed to swim out of it without my help. I put all the chickens on the wall in the barn- they were soaked to the skin.

This morning when we woke up, the floodwaters had receded. We were fine and all our animals were safe, but we lost a lot of stuff. All our firewood for next winter is gone, though we found a small portion of it down the road about a half mile, along with one of my big cages, which is in the ditch. About a mile away in the ditch we found one of my raised beds for the garden. Our big farmgate from the backyard is nowhere and our big plastic barrel is really far away in a field. (We think it is- it's too far away to tell for sure.)

Our roads are all but washed away and the gravel from them fills the ditches. Bridges have huge holes in them and a lot of roads in our county, including ours, are closed, ours has been closed since Memorial Day. We have more rain in the forecast this week, which is about the last thing we need right now. No one has had a chance to clean up and make repairs much from one flood when the next comes along. I think eastern Iowa deserves a break!

More Babies!

Glory finally gave birth on Monday, surprisingly enough, to a singleton. Glory was huge and I thought she would have twins or triplets. She had a little doeling, who is pretty good-sized. She seems almost as big as Avenger's babies, who are a month older! She is very pretty and I've never had one this color before, so she's definitely a keeper! I've decided to call her Durango.

I let Joe name Avenger's two doelings: Rubicon (Ruby, for short) and Sahara. So now we have a couple Jeeps to add to the Dodges! They are growing like weeds, but can still slip out the cattle panels to munch on greener pastures.

They are very comical to watch when they're jumping off things and butting heads. They also like to sleep in tires like Durango does. Gives them a little buffer from the horses and other goats. At least until it gets dark and the chickens roost on them like they are in a football huddle.

I moved Hermione's kittens to the barn after she killed one of the chicks. She left them there for a week or two, but the other day moved them under the front steps. I took them back to the barn, but she brought them back again, so there they stay. She puts them inside a hole in the landing before you go in our front door at night because there is insulation for the trailer inside to keep them warm.

Their names are Sugar, Spice, and Henry. Henry is the one that was almost dead when I found her. She must remember that I was the one who saved her, because she's the only one that purrs for me so far. Henry is silver tabby and white. Sugar and Spice are dilute calicos.

Mother's Day Presents

Here are my two new additions I got for Mother's Day! The brown and white pinto is a gelding named Elvis and the brown with blonde mane and tail I named Diamond. Elvis is so tiny- his back only comes to mid-thigh on me, and I'm pretty short. They are both sweeties.

They both lead very nicely and come right over to me whenever they see me. I have them separated from the other horses for a few days while they get used to each other. All the horses meet at the shared fence and "chat." Stetson is wound up about the newbies- I need him to calm down a bit before I mix everyone together. Stetson thought he could sneak in with me while I was feeding them, but I was onto him. He wanted to see the new horses more than he wanted his grain, which is very unusual for the horse I affectionately call "Big Butt."

Diamond looks a lot like Cinders- I'll really have to look twice. As a matter of fact, when I brought the new horses in, Cinders immediately ran to Diamond- maybe they are long-lost sisters or something. Diamond one has one eye, but it doesn't seem to affect her at all. Some of the goats were scared of the new horses, including Lester, who is my resident bully. Both horses are very kid-friendly, as they came from a home with 7 children, so my 2 shouldn't faze them a bit!

Barnyard Buddies

When I took a stroll outside to take some pictures of my animals for this post, everyone was laying around in the sunshine. They are as glad as I am to see the weather finally warm up. All the chickens and some of the goats came over to me to see what I was doing. They try to beg treats off me all the time. The other day it was some thawed strawberries that had been in the freezer too long, and the days it was raining, I had been giving the chickens worms I found.I mowed some grass today and threw it in the pasture for the goats and horses, so they were happy. The lawn sweeper picked up a lot of the corn stalks that washed into the yard with the flood, so they got some of that, too. The baby goats are in a dog kennel in the front yard that's on wheels, so when they eat all the grass, I move them along. They are busy cleaning up weeds and grass in my garden for me while also fertilizing. It's a win-win situation!

A bunch of the goats keep escaping the barn through some fencing they tore down, so they have been keeping weeds and grass down in the back near the barn. They don't go very far and always come back on the run when they see me coming. They don't want to miss out on grain! I store my livestock feed in a Rubbermaid garbage can, but they started figuring out how to get the lid off and were helping themselves, so I had to also bungee-strap the lid down.

The other day I found some kittens in the barn. The mother had forgotten she had them and left them laying all over the place out in the open. Two didn't make it, two were very hungry, and the other one was near death. He was cold and couldn't move much. I took them and the mama cat and locked them up in the camper and she started feeding them. The one that was cold couldn't nurse- he was too weak, so I took him in the house and warmed him and gave him some baby formula. That livened him up enough that I could take him back to his mama. She took him back and has been taking care of them ever since.

They are now starting to open their eyes. They are very cute and I'm glad that so far they are doing well. I love calico kittens the best! The calico cat in the picture at the top of this post isn't the mama, she's just one of my favorites. The mama to these guys is a tortoiseshell and the dad, Sheila, is striped and white.

For the time being, I am keeping the mama cat and her kittens in the same camper as my baby chicks. I have been feeding the mama very well so she won't mess with the chicks. I don't think she will- she moved her kittens as far from them as she could. So this is working for now. I guess I've got more baby animals than I know what to do with!

To share with other farm girls and to learn about the Farm Girl way of life visit: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/

More babies!

My thirtieth birthday was April 19th and with the flood I never got around to blogging about my birthday presents from Daisy! She gave birth to 5 adorable puppies in the wee hours of my birthday. What a good girl! They are growing so fast and should be opening their eyes very soon. Chester got the job done once again! He could care less though- once the fun part of the job is over, that's it for him!

They are all very nicely marked and have the cutest little faces! Zelda's puppies are growing quickly too- they have had their eyes open awhile now and are getting around pretty well. They are going to outgrow their home in the bathroom soon! Which is good, because I want my bathroom back!

Last Friday, the same day as the flood, I got my baby chicks in the mail. The mailwoman actually called me from down the road because by the time she got out our way, the road was flooded, so Joe took the Jeep down to pick them up. I had the camper all ready to go for them- I call it Mama's Chicken Shack, though I use it for other baby animals too.

I received 4 bantam cochins, 2 of which are the red ones in the picture, the other 2 are dark. The other five black ones are Barred Rocks. 5 of the yellow ones are Rhode Island Whites and the other 5 are Delawares. I ordered from Ideal this time, and was very pleased with their service and selection. The chicks are thriving and starting to get their feathers. Tate was so excited when the box came because they were all peeping like mad. I asked him what was in the box and he said "Acksuppies!" which is what he calls birds so he was pretty much right!

Getting Crafty

Most of my crafting time lately has been devoted to crocheting. I am still very much a beginner, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. The past few days, I have been practicing crocheting in the round, so I made a set of dishcloths for my kitchen. I chose mostly blues in the yarn to accent my cobalt dishware.











These were very fun and quick to make- my kind of project, since I have the bad habit of getting sick of a project about halfway though and setting it aside to eventually melt into the couch cushions. I will probably end up using them more for table decorations than anything.


I made this crocheted kerchief out of nylon twine, which took a little getting used to. It liked to stick to my hook if I got crocheted to tightly. The finished kerchief is a little heavy, but I still really like it. Near the top are a few stripes of different shades of pink, as I ran out of the original twine and couldn't find any more of that brand. So I made stripes in different pinks hopefully so it looks like it was done on purpose. :)



I made the Chic & Simple Belt out of Crochet Today for myself, and of course used pink yarn. I got a little carried away on the length- apparently I'm not as fat as I think I am! I haven't decided whether to just leave it long or to fix it. The buckle is actually a clippy thing I found at the local farm store. They were very cheap, but look really cool as a buckle. I picked up several packages of them for a few bucks. Maybe on my next belt I'll get the length right.



I made myself this bath scrubby from a pattern I found on Ravelry. It looked complicated, but once I got crocheting it, it was surprisingly easy. I will probably make a lot of these for gifts and such. I had almost enough yarn to finish it using one skein, but ran out at the end. I didn't have any more in this colorway, but I had some that had all those colors except the mint green and white, so I used it. Since I only needed a little, it wasn't very noticeable.



Another quick project I have been working on is making crocheted fake food for the kids. Tate got a kitchen set for his birthday and him and Sullivan love it. The main problem with the plastic fake food you buy at the store is that kids are inevitably going to put it in their mouth and chomp down. This makes it dented and pretty much doesn't resemble food anymore, so I decided to make something more durable and easy to wash. This was my first cookie (chocolate chip) and I have several others done, just needing little finishing touches. I also am working on an egg.

You can check out my crochet projects both completed and work-in-progress by looking me up at http://www.ravelry.com/. My name is plumcreekmama on there as well, and I try to keep it updated with my projects.

To share with other farm girls and to learn about the Farm Girl way of life visit: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/

In The Garden

I have been anxious all winter waiting for spring to arrive. This was one of the longest winters I can remember. The weather hasn't been very cooperative this spring either. It's been very cold at night and we've had snow a couple times this April, with more snow in the forecast. Add that to all the rain and flooding and it seems as though I'll never get the garden going! Above is a picture of one of my raised beds containing rhubarb, chives, strawberries, and my runaway blackberries. I can't wait to make rhubarb pie!
Above is a little plot where I had dug out a bunch of rock from the foundation of the old farmhouse that stood there. I used the stone to ring some flower garden areas in the front yard. I filled the hole in and planted a sucker from a rosebush my grandma grew at her farm. Around it I planted some peonies, which are just starting to come up and get some leaves. Peonies and roses are my two favorite flowers and I consider them a must for a farm garden.

In the back I have a raised box with raspberries. The floodwater dislodged it, but I think it will be all right. I need to do a lot of work with the raspberries anyway. They are my favorite fruit and always so expensive in the store, so I want to add many more, with the intention of freezing some.

In the picture above is one of my raised beds in the herb garden. The water moved it and destroyed the stone circle I built in the middle. I'm pretty much planning on starting all over with the herb garden anyway. Last year the weeds really got away from me. I am going to keep the layout of the raised beds the same, but I am going to redo all the plants. I need to make better plant markers this time, as the old ones are missing or unreadable.

My seedlings are doing well. Hopefully the weather will warm up and they can go out in the cold frame soon. I transplanted my honeylocust seedlings to bigger pots last night. Even though I haven't started outside in the vegetable garden, there is still tons of gardening to keep me busy.

To share with other farm girls and to learn about the Farm Girl way of life visit: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/