Spring chores...

 Although it was frosty this morning, the sun soon warmed things up. Chris and I tackled cleaning out some of the animal houses. The goat cozy has two "rooms." Both horse, donkeys, and goats used the larger front room when we still had those sweet spirits here. We added on a smaller room that only the goats could access, so they could have their specialized minerals and supplements away from the greedy equines. Now that only the goats remain, they have both spaces all to themselves. In late winter, when we had weeks of freezing weather, I kept the shavings in the smaller room cleaned up and replaced often but let the bedding in the larger room build up a bit. This "deep bedding method" allows a thicker cushion of shavings and straw to build up and hopefully insulate the goats from the cold ground. If done correctly, it even provides a little heat at the lower sections begin to compost. I just kept adding fresh bedding in layers. This way, the goats could choose which was more comfortable, the thinner layer of clean shavings or the thicker layer of built-up stuff. They seemed to prefer the thicker part. At any rate, today was the day we decided to tackle cleaning out the larger space. We filled 6 or more loads into the giant contractor wheelbarrow we have (a gift from the wonderfulness of my friend JCA.) Working together, we had the whole thing done in about 35 minutes. Chris recently gifted me with a beautiful new broom for the livestock houses, and it was lovely to sweep up every last soiled shaving, exposing the smooth rubber mat floor.  I knew the weather was turning towards spring when I had to stop working to hang my coat up. That felt so good.

The goats got fresh new bandanas, too. They went from Christmas red and green to springtime yellow and blue. 

They got locked into their room while we worked because otherwise, they get precisely in the way of where we want to shovel.

We moved on to the big chicken coop and got it all freshened up. I was pleased to note that all four nest boxes had hens in them, cranking out fresh eggs. Can you see them under their fancy curtains? Chickens slow way down producing eggs in the winter, but they step it up as the days grow longer. I collected 14 cackleberries today! 

The ladies are always inquisitive about what is happening when we clean the coop. Here is one giving me a stern look as I worked. She stayed just outside the door, supervising. 

There may be more days in the near future when I will have to zip on my winter coat to work outside, but not many. Spring chores outdoors are happily anticipated.