A Wet Summer

It has been quite a rainy summer.  It's always wet.  We average almost 70 inches of rainfall (almost 6 feet!) of rain annually.  This year, we are on pace to break rainfall records.  It rains every day.  It is a muddy mess.  Let's look at the positives, though.  We have plenty of water catchment containers.  On the back of the house, I have empty 30 gallon tubs on the drip line.  After a one inch rain, I can catch 300 gallons of rainwater just from there.

I also have big water troughs that catch rainwater falling off the barn roof:

It doesn't take much of a rainfall to fill them up.  The cows and goats drink from them.  

The chickens will fly up to the trough, stand on the edge and drink water.  It gets dangerous, though, and we check the troughs every day.  When the level gets low, the chickens sometimes fall in.  We have to rescue them from time to time.

These are the 30 gallon tubs I was telling you about that line the back of the house.   I'll take a couple of five gallon buckets and transfer the water from the tubs and to the water trough in the pasture.  I just pour it over the fence to re-fill the trough.  Cows will drink about 18 gallons of water each day.

Amazingly, I've never had to turn on the water to the animals this year!  They have survived just on rainwater.  That's never happened before.

Rubber boots are a must-have necessity around Our Maker's Acres Family Farm!

It'll dry up eventually, but you can tell the cows, goats, and chickens really don't like slogging and sloshing through the mud all day.

Oh, What A Web We Weave

Do you remember the book, Charlotte's Web, written by E.B. White?  It was a children's story about a pig named Wilbur who was the runt of the litter.  Because Wilbur was such a runt, the farmer was going to kill him.  The farmer's daughter, Fern, however, talked her dad into saving the pig.  Fern cared for Wilbur, fed him with a bottle, put him in a baby stroller, and became very attached to Wilbur.

Soon Wilbur became too large to keep.  Mr. Zuckerman, a farmer nearby, purchased Wilbur.  Wilbur arrived at his new home and had no friends at first.  Then someone spoke to him.  It was Charlotte, a big grey spider.  Wilbur and Charlotte become close friends and all is going well until it is discovered that Wilbur will be killed and will turn into Christmas Dinner. 

Charlotte?

Charlotte hatches a plan to save Wilbur's life by writing notes in her web above Wilbur that say, "Some Pig!" and things like that.  People in the town flock to the farm to read the messages and the pig about whom they're written.  Wilbur's life is saved!

What a story!  I left off the sad part and the end.  You'll have to go read it again for yourself.  As I walked out to the barn this weekend, right above the barn gate a banana spider had spun a web.  She had caught breakfast and was wrapping it all up.

Her web looked out over a mud hole that Rosie, our Jersey cow, likes to lay in each day in order to cool herself.  Each day we have to give Rosie a bath before milking her.  We don't have pigs on our farm, but each and every day, we call Rosie a pig.  The spider above our barn gate hadn't written "Some Pig!" in her web, but her web gave her a panoramic view of Rosie in her mud hole, and I'm sure that she (like us) certainly thought it.  Hopefully the weather will cool off soon so our 'pig' will stop laying in the mud all day.

Piddler On the Roof

On the eastern side of our barn, there is a walkway right past a gate that runs between our barn and the goat barn.  It is a low area, to be sure, but what exacerbates the problem is that when cows walk through a narrow, low spot, it becomes a boggy mess.  It became so muddy that the cows (and their humans) hate walking through here.  This swampy mudhole has claimed our rubber boots on more than one occasion, causing us to step out of our boots and insert a socked foot into the mud.  Not good.  Something must be done.  We moved in fill dirt, but water stayed and the clay became sticky and even more muddy.  If you notice on the right side below, 4x4's have been cemented in the ground.

The south side of the barn looked exactly like that muddy mess before we put wings on both sides of the barn and brought in some fill dirt.  Now the animals lounge high and dry in relaxed comfort in the shade.  We were hoping to establish those same amenities on the east side.

Time to get busy.  I get off of work between 4:30 and 5 and have roughly an hour commute home (give or take).  That leaves a skinny minute or two before the sun goes down, so my wife and I screwed the header into the barn, put the 2x4's across the 4x4 frame and screwed the rafter supports into the header.  It was not an ideal place to work with all the mud.

Then we cut notches into the rafters and began screwing them down.  This canopy is approximately 16 feet long by 8 feet wide.

Then 1x4's were screwed across the top on the rafters.  These will serve as supports for the corrugated tin roof.

Finally, this afternoon I climbed up on top of the new roof support structure and installed the tin roof and screwed everything down tight.  I am not a skilled carpenter, so I was a little concerned that it wouldn't hold me up - but it did!

We'll add some additional dirt and perhaps some wood chips to the walkway beneath the new roofed in barn addition.  Pretty soon this walkway will be nice and dry.  Oreo the goat is already checking things out, giving us her seal of approval.  Mission accomplished.

Lord Plant My Feet On Higher Ground

I’m pressing on the upward way,

New heights I’m gaining every day;

Still praying as I’m onward bound,

“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground." 

Refrain:

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.

At our church, we often sing the hymn whose lyrics I've posted above.  It teaches that we are to aspire to be closer to God with no desire to stay living a "low" life, but a life that reaches above to new heights everyday to a place where God wants you to be - A life unencumbered with fear, doubt, temptation and sin.  Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

That has been a prayer in both the spiritual and secular sense this past few months with all the rain.  We have been slogging through mud for much longer than I would have liked.  To alleviate a portion of our struggle, we purchased 3 loads of dirt to build up the area around our barn.  Here is an update on our attempt to get out of the mud and "plant our feet on higher ground."

Between the rains we've attempted to build up the area around the barn with dirt.  It has been a slow and arduous process as we've done it with wagons and wheel barrows.  The piles of dirt are way over by the house and the barn is in the southeast corner of the property.  I installed a new garden gate and Russ and I labored to cart the dirt down the garden path and out the gate.  We learned quickly to latch the gate as chickens kept darting through to eat on the tender winter grass growing in the garden.

Immediately upon exiting the garden, we were mired deep in the mud.  Tricia and Russ suggested that we build a corduroy road but not with logs.  We made ours with leftover tin from the barn and landscape timbers and 2x4's.  This ended up being a great idea! We no longer sunk in the mud but were able to pull the wagon and push the wheel barrow right across to the ultimate destination.

After many trips the level of the dirt around the barn began to rise!  I estimate the soil level is 10 inches higher than it was previously.  The dirt is not quality topsoil, but is "fill dirt."  It has a high clay content and tends to pack down really tight.  We learned as the cows walk on it, they compress it.  As a result we've hauled more dirt as the cows compact it.  The cows and goats really like having a high place on which to stand, out of the muck and the mire. 

Once we finished with the north side of the barn, we began filling the south side of the barn.  We got that completed on Saturday.  In so doing, we eliminated two of the three piles of dirt.   Since rainwater flows from east to west on our land, the rainwater will run between the barn and the hen house.

With the one remaining pile of dirt, we'll build up the level a bit more on the south side and then fill in the east side.  If any dirt remains, I'll spread it out evenly in the barn in low spots against the eastern wall and southern wall.  It will be a happy day once we are done with this project!

I want to scale the utmost height
And catch a gleam of glory bright;
But still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground." 

An On-going Project

When we built our barn, we went about it all wrong.  Don't get me wrong.  We LOVE our barn.  It's just that we didn't start things off right.  We didn't do our homework.  We decided where we wanted our barn and just began construction - without building up the level of the ground.  When you start with a poor foundation, well, trouble follows...

We noticed early on that we placed our barn in the lowest part of our property.  That's okay if you build up the area with dirt PRIOR to building.  Especially in the fall and winter, if rains fall, you have mud and lots of it.  This creates problems when your milk cows and goats have to walk through the muck and mire every single day.  The holes get bigger and deeper.  You can actually see that the cows DREAD walking through the muddy gauntlet. When you go to milk them, mud has splattered all over their bags, legs, and tail.  What a mess!

The north side of the barn is only slightly better, due to the fact that the walkway is spread out.  The whole area needs to be built up six inches or more with dirt.  If this can be done while leaving drainage for the rains, our barn can be rescued and both animal and human will be happier.

A couple of weeks ago I had 3 loads of dirt delivered to the house.  This isn't top soil.  It is mostly clay that will settle and form a hard base - a solid foundation that should have been done prior to the barn construction.  Better late than never, I guess.  The dirt was $90 per load.  Two loads were delivered right in front of the garden gate.

And a third pile was dropped about 30 feet away to the north and east.

Now the really labor intensive part of the job commences.  Since it is way too muddy to drive any sort of tractor or truck to the back, we'll have to move the dirt by hand.  We used a Gorilla Cart, which is simply a big wagon with big rubber tires and a dump bed.  We shovel loads of dirt into the wagon and pull it to the back and dump.  Then we repeat the process.  And again.  And again.  The progress is slow, but it is still progress.  We watch as the level around the north side of the barn rises.  (Compare the photo below to the second photo in this post.)  The cows and goats help to pack the dirt down.

If we could go back in time, we would have moved soil in from the beginning.  Speaking of going back in time, this post reminded me of another time we ordered loads of dirt.  The photo below was taken almost 11 years ago.  I ordered some topsoil to build up the level of the garden at the time and our boys discovered (as I did 40 years ago) that one of the best things in the world is a pile of dirt.  You can play king of the mountain!

King Russ watches as Benjamin rolls down the mountain.

You can dig tunnels, play with tractors and cars, and of course, wrestle and relish victory over your vanquished "foes."

"It's good to be da king!"

You can dig foxholes or pretend your pile of dirt is a volcano.  There's just no end to the fun that you can have with a pile of dirt!

Except 18 years later, our pile of dirt doesn't seem like it is as much fun as Russ' and Benjamin's pile of dirt!

Ol' Rosie - Almost Time!

What are some things that catch your eye in the photo below?

The first thing, I'm sure, is that I've taken the photo facing into the morning sun.  You're not supposed to do that.  It gives the picture a hazy appearance.  The second thing is likely the muddy ground.  The cows are standing in ankle deep mud to eat their hay. They slosh through the mud and walk around the hay ring to eat.  What a mess!  The goats absolutely hate walking through water and mud, but they'll eventually get there.  As you can see, they are small enough to fit through the hay ring and they stand on the pallet I place underneath the bale to keep it out of the mud and water.  Behind the hay you can see the remnants of the water oak tree we took down this summer.  I'll eventually get that cut up and stacked.

What may be less evident from the photo is Rosie's girth.  She is very pregnant.  I think her due date is in four days.  We can feel her baby kicking in her belly every day.  Rosie's vulva is becoming 'flabby,' which is a sure sign of imminent calving.  We've also begun to see mucous discharge, but her bag hasn't really begun to 'bloom' yet.  We'll be keeping a sharp eye on her.  As usual we are praying for a heifer.  Our freezer is full of meat, so we don't really need a bull calf right now.  A heifer would be ideal.  We could either use her as a replacement or we could sell her and make some rare farm income.  One thing I'm a little concerned with is the deep mud due to all the rain we've had.  If it doesn't dry up soon (and that doesn't seem likely), a little calf will have its work cut out for her/him walking in all the mud.  We may have to keep them in the barn for a while until things dry out.

Anyway, we'll keep you posted when Rosie goes into labor and delivers the newest arrival at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.

Barn Expansion - Mostly Completed

This Saturday at 7 am we started working feverishly to finish up our barn expansion project.  Last Saturday we put up a lean-to on the north side.  This Saturday our goal was to finish up the lean-to on the south side.  As the photo below evidences, there is a very good reason we are putting up additional roof area!  It is a mud-fest back by the barn.  Yes, we will move some additional dirt in to lift the elevation a little bit, but the roof expansion will help as well.

Inside the barn it is nice and dry, but just one square inch outside and you are immediately in ankle deep mud.  The goats absolutely hate walking in the water and mud and the cows literally have to be dragged out after milking.  Tricia actually fell into the mud Saturday morning as her boots got stuck in the mud and she stepped out of them.

We took our measurements and made out cuts and quickly put the header and rafters up.  With the experience gained last Saturday, we were moving faster and more efficiently this week. 

By noon we had the tin fastened down on the roof and the cows were already checking out the new construction.

We were almost done.  Believe it our not, my calculations were off by one sheet on tin.  I'll have to get one more sheet of tin in order to finish it up.  It is kind of disappointing to not be "really" finished, but we're close enough.

We still have a few "punch list" items. The tin is all used material that came off of an old combine shed at the farm.  The tin has nail holes where it was fastened to the other barn.  I will need to get some caulk and patch all of the nail holes so that we don't have a leaky roof when it rains.

Here is a profile shot of the new, improved barn.  As you can see, we doubled up on our square footage under roof.  This will make the animals happy during rainy, cold weather as they'll be able to take shelter.  We can put up temporary walls, if we wish and store hay or other items in the new areas.

We're ecstatic to have this project completed.  As soon as we get a few days without rain, we will get a load or two of dirt moved in to build up the area around the barn.  The extended roof on either side of the barn has made it considerably darker inside the barn and as we only have 3 light bulb fixtures currently, we may have to look at additional lighting. 

"I compare myself to a good barn. You can have a good barn, and if you paint it, it looks a little better. But if you take the paint off, it's still a good barn."-Dolly Parton

Starting our Barn Expansion

We didn't exactly plan out the location of our barn in wise fashion when we built it ten years ago.  We didn't consider elevation and as you might imagine, we happened to build it on the lowest part of the property.  When it rains (and it rains a lot here), the mud is ankle deep and it is an absolute pain to walk out to the barn.  You can tell the cows are not happy about it either.  Goats don't like to get their feet wet, so you can be sure they hate all the mud around the barn. 

We are going to attack this problem in two ways.  First, we are going to build a 12 foot roof extension off of each side of our barn.  This will give 12 additional feet on either side of the barn for the cows, goats and chickens to get out of the weather.  We milk IN our barn and like to keep it clean.  We don't like to leave animals inside the barn after milking as they are NOT good housekeepers.

We are going to put four 4 x 4's exactly 10 feet out to allow for a 2 foot overhang.  The first thing you want to do is ensure that your building will be square.  We verified this by using the 3, 4, 5 method.  This method is used to find a 90 degree angle and is based off of the Pythagorean Theorem.  This simply states that if you create a triangle by measuring 3 feet out and 4 feet down, when you connect the long side of the triangle and is measures exactly 5 feet, you have a right angle.  ( I should have paid better attention in Geometry class!)

Therefore, we got stakes, string, and a tape measure and staked out where the posts are going to go.  Tricia helped me (as my strong point is NOT math) and we got things squared up and marked.  We marked where the corner posts will go as well as the ones in the middle.

Although I am not a math whiz, I am a PhD. In this case that stands for "post hole digger."  I began digging with the post hole digger until they were buried 2 feet deep in the ground.  My neighbor showed me once how to use a Sharpie and tape measure to put markings on the post hole digger so that you don't have to stop and put your tape measure down the hole to see how deep you are.  This a a good 'hack' that saves lots of time.

It didn't take long.  Once the posts were in the ground, I used a level to make sure it was true and then put cement in the hole to anchor it.  One by one, we got them done.

The real tricky part is keeping the posts true until the cement dries.  Cows love to scratch on posts and I didn't want them to scratch against the posts and knock them all out of whack.  We remedied this by locking the corral and leading the cows in one at a time.  By baby-sitting them like this, they don't have an opportunity to get into mischief.

Now that the posts are in on both sides of the barn, it is time to move forward to the next step.  That step is fastening a header to the barn.  That header will support the rafters.  We may be on hold, though, as more rain is forecast for tomorrow.    We will keep you posted on progress.

Trying to Save a Muddy Chicken

The month of September was abnormally wet.  The rains fell every day and turned a water-soaked landscape into a swampy morass.  Goats don't like to get their feet wet, and you can tell they are unhappy.  After healing Annie up from hoof rot, she's been mostly staying in the barn.  The cows are usually okay with the rain, but the onslaught of swarms of mosquitoes that like the tall grass have chased the cows out of the grass.  They tromp around in the mud, creating deep holes.  You can tell they are miserable.

Tricia went out to do chores yesterday and discovered a barred rock hen that was stuck in the mud.  It couldn't get out and was very weak.  She had struggled and was absolutely covered in mud.  Tricia sprayed her off with a water hose to get the mud off, but the poor hen was water-logged, shivering, and weak.  We thought she may die.

I picked her up and put her in a bucket and brought her to the back patio for 'therapy.' 

Water-logged chicken

I put a heat lamp over the bucket to warm her up.  Even though it is hot and humid outside, the bird is weak and cold and needs to be warmed and dried.  I have to be real careful as I don't want to put the heat lamp too close or else I'll burn the chicken.  Too far and it won't help her.  We positioned the light where we felt it was best and continued checking on her for several hours.

After just a little while, you could see the chicken starting to perk up.  We did notice, however, the cats taking great interest in the chicken in the bucket.  They were circling the bucket like vultures.  We had to keep a close watch on the bird.

Just before going to bed, I checked on the bird again.  It wasn't perfect, but it was much better than when we brought it in.  I brought her back out to the pasture an let her roost where the others were settling in for the night. The jury is still out on whether the hen will survive, but we gave it a good try. 

Rosie is a HOG!

I know I've talked griped about this before, but today I have documentation so I'll show you a pictorial presentation of Rosie's preoccupation with mud holes.  Rosie is pregnant and it has been hot.  We do have shade for the cows in all of their paddocks that we rotate them through, but Rosie has found that laying in a mud puddle beats the pants off of laying in the shade when it comes to cooling off.  Here is Rosie's favorite mud hole, complete with Rosie's imprint of where she laid.

We would empathize with her and just let her be a hog on these hot days, but it is not hygienic to milk a muddy cow.  If the mud is dry, you can brush her off and get most of it off.  However, you should do this outside of the barn.  The resulting dust will fly all over the barn and contaminate the milking buckets.  Lately, Rosie has been coming in covered in wet mud.  That leaves us no choice but to tie here up by the fence, get out the hose and give ol' girl a full bath.  I got Tricia the big push broom in the barn and she turned the water hose on and soaked her.  I think she like it - Rosie, that is.

Tricia uses the broom head to get in all the "nooks & crannies" that harbor mud from the mud hole.



But the job is not done.  Tricia dutifully dries Rosie and uses a squeegee to really get her completely dry.  You don't want her to be wet.  There's nothing quite like being swished across the face with a wet tail.  Speaking of tails, washing the mud off of Rosie, though necessary, is kind of like chasing your tail.  The run-off from the water creates a bigger mud hole that Rosie will lounge in tomorrow, and that necessitates another bath.  And on and on it goes.  Come on, cool weather.  Get here quickly!

She Can't Take the Heat

It is July 1st today and I was telling Tricia that we have a whole lotta summer left!  It has been pretty hot, but we can take it.  Well, except for Rosie.  She does not like the heat.  Not one bit.  Today all the rest of the cows were out in the pasture eating grass.  Where was Rosie?  She was in her favorite spot - it is a mud hole between the two barns.  It is a shady spot and the mud must be cool.  She likes to go and sit in it.

Hey, whatever floats your boat, Rosie.  There's just one problem with laying in the mud.  It forces us to have to give her a bath before we milk her as her belly, udder and legs will be very, very muddy.  This exacerbates the problem as the run-off from her bath creates a new mud-hole in a different spot.  Then she will lay in that one and be even muddier!  Bathing her wastes a lot of time.  Milking usually takes about 10 minutes to get everyone in the barn, separated and feed buckets prepared.  Rosie's penchant for mudholes adds another 15 minutes to the milking process as you have to spray her down and then take her in the barn and dry her off. 

Rosie wouldn't go out in the sun in the pasture to eat, so we opted for Plan B.  I had the electric fence up in the yard, so I walked her out where she can enjoy eating grass in the shade.  As you can see, she eats just on the fringes of the shade!

So why does the heat bother her and not the others?

Good question.  I think it involves several things.  First, I think she's pregnant.  She's heavy and its hard on her.  Next, we clipped her hooves and she's moving a little slow.  Taking the effort to walk way out into the pasture is probably painful for her, but it should get better soon.  Finally, Jerseys in general don't handle the heat very well.  It may be a genetic thing.  Rosie has always panted in the heat, breathing heavy with her big tongue hanging out

She'll be fine.  I know she's just anticipating fall.  I hate to tell her but she has at least 3 full months of this heat and humidity left to go.

New Water Trough for the Animals

"Watch the little things.  A small leak will sink a great ship." - Benjamin Franklin

This is my 51st summer.  Although I still feel relatively young, increasingly I'm feeling my limitations.  Things that used to be easy to do, require more effort.  The other day I looked at a photo of a strange guy with gray hair posing for a picture with my wife and kids.  Then I realized it was me!  I'm witnessing the Second Law of Thermodynamics at work.  Things move from a state of order to disorder.  Everything is deteriorating.  Sad!

Our old water trough is not exempt.  We have a 150 gallon water trough that was given to us by a dear friend.  It is quite old, but has served us admirably over the past years.  Oh, it sprang a leak or three, but I patched the cracks with JB Water Weld and the leak sealed up nicely.  You can see the numerous places I've patched it over the years.

We had a hard freeze this winter.  Then as it got warmer, I noticed one day a constant drip, drip drip from the water trough.  It kept the ground muddy around the trough.  As the cows came daily to drink, they would carry off mud in their hooves.  Soon, there was a hole around the trough that collected water and the cycle repeated itself.  This is not good.  Muddy conditions are good spots for bacteria to grow.  I emptied the trough and dried it up and patched it and then refilled with water.  Still leaking!  I drained it again and found two new cracks right at the bottom.

Time for a new trough.  With a water valve on the trough, I figured that I could reduce trough capacity from 150 gallons to 100 gallons and still provide more than enough water for my cows, goats and chickens.  The birds like to fly to the edge and drink.  Sometimes they'll fall in and need rescuing.

I got the new trough at Tractor Supply. It was priced $84.99, but I had a 10% Neighbor's coupon.  Pleased with my savings, I promptly spent a fraction of the savings on an Old Fashioned Coconut Slice Candy bar to enjoy on the way home.  You know the one?  It is pink (strawberry), brown (chocolate), and white (vanilla).

I got the new trough leveled, piped and installed.  I'm hoping to get many years out of it. 

Les Miserables - Barnyard Edition

That picture says it all.  We have had an abundance of rainfall and the barnyard and all surrounding areas is a mess.  The cows sink six inches deep when walking.  I swear to you I can see looks of disgust in their big, liquid cow eyes of the mud.  Nothing but mud for weeks on end!  I have a plan to extend a wing on one side of the barn to create a loafing shed to provide the animals with a dry location to get out of the weather and mud.  Right now they all get in the goat barn and that is a tight fit for four cows.  We've tried letting them in the barn with the milking stalls before, but that didn't work.  Let's just say they aren't good housekeepers.

As we slog to the barn in our rubber boots with milking buckets in hand, we try to pick the driest places in the mud in which to walk, but it is to no avail.  The other day I walked right out of my boot and with the next step, I sunk my previously dry sock 6 inches in the mud. 

We were washing Clarabelle the other night at the livestock arena before the show and I noticed that her hooves were showing the beginning signs of hoof rot.  I talked to others at the barn who told me that their animals were experiencing the same issues.  A lot of it is due to them standing in mud for long periods of time around the hay circle.  We'll keep a close eye on their hooves and treat them, if necessary.

We'll also keep an eye on the weather forecast and hope that we have days of sunshine to give us (and the animals) a respite from the mud and muck.