Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

We got our first real snow of the winter season today.  When a person realizes that the new snow is marking the beginning of winter, they don’t always think right (I freak, Carol celebrates).  Carol and I came to the realization that we are not ready – we have too much stuff to do.  And of course, when you freak-out, you don’t always think straight.  We are no exception… well… with one exception.  We did do some winterizing last night.

Winterizing with poly tarps - temporary walls.

Yesterday afternoon, Carol and I installed some cheap plastic tarps around the lower half of the hay loft addition.  We had found a few 10′x12′ tarps on sale at our local home improvement store and decided to use them as wind breaks on the west side of the building.  We tacked them in place with a stapler, but secured them by nailing 2″x4″s along the posts.  Carol and Madison have a good number of their rabbits under the loft.  The tarps will keep the wind and snow from whipping though.

Today was a different story.  With the snow, mixed with drizzle, Carol and I took-on the overdue task of cleaning the barn .  I still had the skid loader from the Heavy Use Area Protection (HUP) pad project I started and completed yesterday morning.  Carol and I have talked about cleaning the goat pen, in the barn for weeks… maybe months.  In and out of the barn… out and in the snow and rain.  Load after load.  Carol cleaned under a few rabbit cages, throwing the bunny poop in the ally-way of the barn for me to scoop with the skid-loader.  I chose to bring the manure to the compost pile instead of dumping it into a manure spreader and taking it out to the field.  Why?  Because it was raining and snowing out and I’m sort of a cry-baby whimpy man.  The compost will be used for the gardens next year.

Carol took this photo this morning before the real snow came

The barn cleaning really didn’t take that long.  Before bringing back the skid-loader, I went out east of the place to retrieve a round bale of straw for Carol and Madison to spread in the goat pen.  Since it’s so late in the season, we wanted the goats to have a thick layer of bedding.  Usually, by this time, we have a pretty good bedding pack developing for the goats… this year we don’t.  Cold cement can be pretty hard on the knees and joints of animals.  Thus, the need for the thick straw bedding.

With the bale in the barn, it was time to load the skid-steer onto the trailer and bring it back.  Just as we didn’t have a pick-up to bring Curly the bull back to his home the other day, we didn’t have a truck to bring the skid-loader back either.  I hooked up the trailer to the open cabbed tractor and headed down the road.  Rain and sleet, sleet and rain – I was soaked.  Then back home again with the tractor and trailer.  Since I was already wet and dirty with wet, cold road grime, I decided to start up the motorcycle and take it for a short spin.  It was a fun final ride.  It’s not everyday one gets a chance to go riding cycle in the snow.  I told you I wasn’t thinking right.

Related posts:

1. We Have Goat Hay For The Winter
2. Spring cleaning
3. Baling Straw Is Done For The Season
4. Opening A New Winter Pasture
5. A New Baby Goat Arrived