Summer Heat

We've been having one hot day after the next in the past week and I think today was the hottest yet. When you can see the humidity in the air, you know its too dang hot to go outside. But I needed to check on the animals water and see how they were all handling the heat---with camera in tow.

The horses rarely leave their shelter in the heat. Which I don't blame them.

Whereas the miniatures are braver and rarely go indoors.

But when they do, it's a team decision.

The sheep also were keeping cool inside the cool barn.

Along with the breeding dogs.

Well, except for Emma who took comfort from a stoned pillow.

The horse's eventually did come out briefly, long enough to get a snack then hunkered back under the shade of their shelter once again.

Which was pretty much when I too decided I had enough of the heat and rushed back to the comfort of my cool home.

Spring Cleaning

It's a bit early to be spring cleaning however we do deep bedding in the pens and have no tractor or skid steer so have to do to clean up all by hand.

We try to keep up with it so it doesn't get too unmanageable but truth be told, it's too dang cold outside.  However with new lambs on the ground, I figured no time like the present to give it a thorough clean out.

Contrary to the above photo, Farm Girl and I were just horsing around after hubby did all the heavy work.  But we were assigned the cleanup crew.

It took 12 loads of old bedding down to the compost pile but the end result is always worth it.

And of course the sheep appreciate it.

And yes, those are my new ewes and not my new mothers.  We played musical pens again.

And just in case someone was interested...we still have two more pens this size to do.

Feed Storage

Part of organizing my barn has been trying to find how best to store all the feed and hay.  With my head count going up, our hay supplier has discussed bringing along an elevator in next fall's delivery so that we can order larger amounts of hay and stack them up in the loft.  That will leave more room in the barn.

I realized that I was going through grain far faster than usual once my new flock of sheep arrived.  A head count of all sheep and lambs this morning had me at 58.  I soon found myself constantly down at the feed store.  So instead, I came up with the idea of storing all the grain in a deep freezer.  There was an old unused one in our cellar that came with the house.  It took the four of us but we managed to get it up the narrow staircase. I scrubbed it clean and disinfectant it then drove it over to the barn.  As you can see, it easily holds a week of grain. I'm sure I can fit another weeks worth in it if wanted.  That will definitely cut back on my trips to the feedstore.

And a great work surface when not opened.

Across the aisle along the horse stalls, I picked up the two large and fantastic storage containers on the end.  

They hold 42 gallons a piece and are on wheels so can easily be moved around if necessary.  I store the horses grain in one and creep feed in the other.  The two other storage tubs I store loose mineral in one and the other is for any other grain we want separated such as specialty grain for goats or lamb grower.