Manure Management

With the first dry week of spring, It was high time to scrape the barnyard. Let me just warn you that this is a long post with many pictures, because this was a long project and it involved spending a lot of time with the animals.

Which means mommy was immensely happy.

Which means she took a lot of photos.

Which means she might not have really been helping all that much (except I was wranglin' animals in order to keep everyone safe, which is valuable assistance, right??)

So, let me tell the story about a barnyard full of poo.....

It was the first official release of the horses into the hillside pasture. How far did they get before they were heads-down? Not far at all!

This shot gives you an impression of what it was like. There was a pile of manure created in the wintertime that we had pushed off to one end of the paddock, and the first order of business was going to be to remove that and get it out of the way. The theory of operations was that one guy (Daddy) on the tractor would fill the bucket and dump into the special trailer, and the other guy (Kenny, to whom we are indebted!) would drive through and take the manure up the hill to be dumped in the woods.

But the plan was challenged. More on that in a bit. Because in the meantime, Mommy was spending quality time with critters...

There was the sweet little girl we call Teensie, who smiled for the camera.

There was Quigly, who looked so wonderful on the hilltop.

But once he saw me, he wanted to investigate more closely.

So he got closer.

And closer.

And then it was an up-the-horse-nose shot. We have a lot of those.

Wanted to get a shot with all 4 enjoying the grass.

It's been good for Jake to be closer to Shorty. The old-timers can relate to each other.

Oh, and the dog had a lovely time too.

The girls watched from their favorite spot on the hillside.

Meanwhile, back at the barn, there had been some issues. We thought we had waited for enough dry days that we could navigate the yard without an issue. But the pile-o-poo was so heavy that the trailer was sinking and getting to the slippery stuff underneath. So they tried a few things. They let air out of the tires to get more grip. They put rocks down for traction. They used the tractor to help the pickup pull the trailer. 

But it didn't work.

So they dumped the manure a few feet from where it was and.....

....came at the problem from the other direction. Why not let the forces of gravity assist?

And then they proceeded to really move some shit.

Meantime, things out in the grass are getting really good. They have romped and trotted and bucked and eaten. Now it was time for Jake to lay down for a quick nap, like a colt in the sunshine.

He was still for a very long time, and I was starting to get worried. So I made a loud noise to rouse him. Whew, he was fine. Just snoozing.

The ickiness was really deep. Not healthy, not good. Must go!

Tiddlywinks on the left and Little Pink Riding Hood on the right brought the guys some much needed refreshment!

After about 10 trailer loads, they were just about done.

Wow, what a difference!