Tis the seaosn to be mucking out - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 16 March, 2015

by Rosemary Champion at 5:50pm in General livestock Comments closed

At this time of year, I spend most of my time with a wheelbarrow and graip.

John, digger man, was here today and mucked out the barn where the cows have been. I'll finish it tomorrow with the wheelbarrow and pressure wash it; pens up on Wednesday and sheep in THursday. The weather forecast is good for Wednesday and Thursday, so they'll be nice and dry.

John's back tomorrow to scrape out the Triangle, where the twins' hay racks and feeders have been over winter. The sheep are pretty picky and a lot of "reject" hay drops into the trays under the feeder. As it accumulates, it spills out, gets trodden on and dunged on and becomes a damned mess. Dan told me to clear out the trays every day - the cows and the ponies eat it perfectly happily - but I didn't and it's a damned mess. So next year, I'll be clearing the trays daily. I hate it when he's right :-)

The plan is to cover the area in woodchips. SSE were here today cutting down trees that were fouling the power lines and they left us a pile of wood chips; the bloke said we could have any amount free of charge. Plus the bloke that does some tree work for us can get us woodchips too. It's a waste product for them. Ideally, I'd like to concrete the area, but we just can't afford it this year, so woodchips will have to do.

I cleaned up the hay the cows wasted in Home paddock. Well, most of it. I've let the hens on it so they'll scrape it up and make it easier to lift. Note to self - avoid feeding hay on the ground if at all possible. Of course, if Bonnie hadn't surprised us with Clyde, there wouldn't have been cows in that paddock, but best laid schemes and all that.

Finally, I cleaned out the green hen house and bedded the chookmobile. I hope to get the chooks moved into it on Wednesday night (Dan's curling tonight and tomorrow night). There were five spare perches in it that can be used in their old house, ready for the new hens next month.

And that's it for today - well, apart from the SRDP Small Farm Grant applicatio form that is haunting me from the desk. And the SAF, that needs to be completed. Can I be bothered?