Higher Ground

Lord, lift me up and let me stand,

By faith, on Heaven’s tableland,

A higher plane than I have found;

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. 

That is the refrain from one of the hymns we sing at church.  It certainly rings true in the spiritual realm, but at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm this past week, it has been true in the natural as well.  Recent rains, coupled with overcast skies and cooler weather have contributed to a mucky, miry mess out on the pasture and around the barnyard.  We are all tired of the mud, man and beast alike.  

Where's the Higher Ground?

We always wear rubber boots out to the barn and slogging through six inch deep mud is a real workout. Yep, that is a view looking down at my feet in the mud.  To add insult to injury, sometimes the cows will lie down in the mud to sleep and I'll have to give them a bath before milkingthem.  Rosie is notorious for doing this and she and I had a long and animated discussion about this just this past week at about 4:30 in the morning.  I'm not sure she understood what I was trying to say.

Lord plant my feet on Higher Ground!

In another area of the pasture, though, things are looking better.  If you look below you can see some of the grass in the pasture is beginning to show a tinge of green amongst the mostly dull, brown, frost-killed landscape.  This is what I push the chicken tractor over so that the chickens can clip some of the new, green growth.

Green grass is coming on!

Here is a picture of the meat birds in the chicken tractor.  I have to push them one chicken tractor length every day, because their poop covers the green grass that I want them to eat.  That poop, however, will fertilize the pasture and cause lush, green grass to grow in this spot in a few weeks.  Even though it looks bad, the chickens do eat some of the grass, though, and we'll see evidence of that grass in their crops and gizzards next weekend when we butcher them.

Poop filled landscape after just a short time

The theme of today's post was about the ground in and around the pasture and I've got one more thing to mention.  Down below, you'll see Big Boy, our Great Pyrenees livestock guard dog manning his post in the pasture.

Big Boy

He is such a good dog, barking at varmints and taking very seriously his job of livestock protector.  We haven't lost a single bird to a predator since Big Boy has been on the farm.  We like having him around.

No varmint is getting by me, chief!

Every rose has its thorns, though.  Big Boy has a bad habit.  The photo below is not a crater left from an incoming mortar round.  It is one of Big Boy's many holes.  He likes to dig and I don't know how to make him stop.  Holes like this are not conducive for pushing a chicken tractor or walking in the pasture.

Pot holes in the pasture

I'll have to get these filled in come Spring.  If I could get Big Boy to stop digging holes, Rosie to stop laying down in the mud and the sun to shine and dry the rain saturated landscape, it sure would be nice, but those are all nuisances, not big problems to worry about.