Here Comes Spring, Maybe

Hello, Frank here.

Well, it had to be done, cleaning up the barn, that is. We have three does that are going to have babies within the next two weeks. It is also time to get the garden ready for planting. The two go hand in hand this time of year. This is not a pleasant chore by any means. But it’s either clean the barn, or build a new one. So, here we go.

I know some people clean their barns daily and some weekly. But ours is not one of those barns. Fortunately, we still have fuel. When we moved here to southeast Oklahoma, we purchased a small tractor to help with some of those chores that troubles an aging body. So, the poop and hay in the barn is going to transform itself into garden manure.

First we use the front end loader on the little tractor. We scrape up and scoop up what we can, and very carefully deposit it into the pickup truck bed. Surprisingly, it filled up the entire truck bed. What wouldn’t fit in the truck, we placed in a future garden spot, which was only about two tractor buckets full.

Now, let’s transport ourselves to the garden. With the help of the little tractor and it’s brush hog, we were able to mow down last years leftovers. This would normally have been done much earlier in the year, but it’s been a very wet fall and winter, and we couldn’t get the tractor in the garden. So, now with the manure in the white chariot, the garden very shortly became covered with a nice layer of poop and straw. Goat manure has a lower nitrogen level, so it can be applied directly to the garden, similar to cow manure.
 

Hopefully, in the next few days, we can turn the garden under. It would have been nice to have done this a couple of months back, but again, it’s just been too wet. We will start planting here in two weeks, so hopefully we will not be getting any rain in the next couple of days. It would have been nice to turn the garden, let it sit for a while and get a hard freeze, but it’s just not going to happen this year.

This is one of those cycles in life. In a few days, hopefully, we’ll have some new baby goats. In a few more days, hopefully, we’ll have some baby chickens. A few more days after that, hopefully, we’ll start eating fresh out of the garden. Our work production is about to increase sharply. We are grateful for the mechanical items that we have to help us. We consider ourselves very, very fortunate and we thank God daily. I wish I could figure out a way to get my tractor in my chicken house. But it will have to be cleaned the old fashioned way. Take care all.

We’ll talk more later. Frank