Rainy Days and Mondays
I would like to be a Weather Reporter in the Pacific Northwest this winter of 2016. I know there is more to it than it seems….but, really, unless you are predicting a day of sunshine, you are practically guaranteed to be right. Rain, rain, and more rain every day. I am totally NOT complaining.
An unexpected break in the rain
I like the rain. I like how it sounds, I like how it feels, and I like the freshness that it brings. Right now, we have had about 7 days of pretty constant rain with maybe a few short breaks on a couple of those days. Otherwise, rain is the order of the day, as it has been for about a month. As I look at the extended forecast….the next 15 days show rain….everyday….at 60+ percent which, up here means one thing….it gonna keep right on raining!!
The goats are mostly hanging out, inside their house and do not venture out unless it is a very light mist….or less. This makes for the need of a deeper kind of cleaning everyday. Their bedding is deep in straw, and hay that they have decided wasn’t good enough to eat <sigh>. We need to remove the wet, urine soaked straw mixed with poop…which makes like a poopy mud. I do not like nor intend for my little herd to spend their days and nights housed in dirty digs. So I rake out the wet straw in the places they seem to like to pee, down deep into the layers, until I hit mostly dry material.
Sprinkling a product called, Zeolite, over the now damp…not wet….exposed areas helps to control the formation of ammonia. This powdery product really does help. By throwing down a new, thick layer of straw, our year old whethers have a dry place to bed down for the night….tomorrow afternoon, I will clean it all up again…and at least for the next 15 days….it will be the same routine. When they stay inside all day there is more to do. But, it makes me feel good to give them a clean, dry place to hang their hats at the end of the day. This routine will ease up a bit once we build the small, but larger barn, hopefully next month.
Sometimes, I wish they were chickens!! Hahaha
Thank you for visiting on this rainy Monday. I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful week ahead.
Your friend from Oregon,
Tami http://haveadanehilldanes.com
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