ksalvagno's farm journal - Time for change

[savingdogs]

It is probably the same storm that just passed over me (Washington). Buckets of rain!

I'm so sick of winter, too Karen! I am afraid we will get snow again and I've been so happy to see it melt off.

Everything is one big mud pie here right now. I hate March!

 

[ksalvagno]

This is really the worst part of winter. Not only being the end but also that we get the rain and heavy wet snow this time of year. Everything is a mess and this year we seem to be getting it harder than normal. They are predicting 6-10" of snow by Friday evening. It is very difficult to remove that much heavy wet snow and you can't even use a snowblower on that.

 

[Javamama]

March has always been my least favorite month too.

 

[savingdogs]

Do you guys get this heavy mud?

I'm so tired of washing every outfit I wear to the barn so often. I might as well just smear myself in mud and walk around wearing that.

 

[Javamama]

Yeah - we have clay soil here. It's boot sucking mud

 

[savingdogs]

I was telling glenolam I'm having trouble managing the goat pen this year. I had gravel there in the traffic areas, but mud, hay and nannie berries have now made a lovely slush over the top. Last year we threw down straw and that helped for about a day and then was hard to remove when it finally dried (like adobe!). But at least your boots didn't suck you down.

Glenolam was saying you have to remove the muck before trying straw, she has gravel. Is that what you guys do too? I was looking at our particular brand of muck yesterday and it was rather daunting, our goat pen is just large enough to make that a big project. I think we will need to bring in new gravel over the summer when we can get it back in here.

Do you guys have any more mud strategies for me? I think my climate is working against me here a little (we are essentially living in rain forest).

Sounds like you have a muddy March as well. Maybe I'm just whiney and I need to tough it out.

 

[Javamama]

Or we could all whine together

I don't have a strategy for the mud. When it's really bad in the chicken run we put down concrete pavers topped by 2x8 boards to walk on, kind of like a bridge. It does get slippery though. The goat yard just has a thick layer of hay and straw that is holding up pretty well.
It would take so much gravel that it's not worth it to us. And it would end up all over the backyard and it's not good to mow over. Gravel shrapnel is not fun We will dry up totally by mid June and then everything gets brick hard.

 

[ksalvagno]

We do have mud but luckily we have limestone around the barn and I walk on the driveway to get to the barn. So no one is actually in any mud. But the dogs manage to come in with muddy paws.

Unfortunately, the chickens are stuck in their coop but it is 21 chickens in a 10x20 shed so they aren't crowded.

I'm just hoping I don't have any births during the worst of the snowstorm. I have one girl whose due date is today and another one whose due date is tomorrow.

 

[MsPony]

Where are the cria pics?! :

 

[sekinkead]

Oh, I hope they don't go during this snow storm either.

I almost cried at the stupid forecast for today and tomorrow. At least there are enough of us on here in Ohio that we can all just be miserable together.