The Bovine Bugle

From the heifer barn to the pole barn and a little pick and shovel work

Mom had pretty much taken care of closing up the heifer barn, so I turned my attention to the pole barn that we use to house the older heifers and steers through the winter. The major thing to do for the pole barn was to make a ditch along the east side of the barn to divert any water away from the inside of the barn. This would, of course, keep the bedding and the animals inside the barn drier and cleaner.

I used the loader tractor to move the bulk of the dirt and rocks. I moved about 3 dump trailer loads, 7-8 yards, before I had to do some hand labor. I used a pick and shovel to finish the ditch, making sure that it sloped the right way so that the water would flow down and around the perimeter of the barn. Noah was already at his afternoon kindergarten, otherwise he would have been glad to run the pick for me. He would have pretended he was mining for diamonds and jewels.

Tomorrow I'll head to McCuin's to buy some 16' X 52" wire panels to close in the east side of the barn so that the animals won't tread around where we did the ditching and screw up the flow of the runoff. Then we just need to add some bedding to start the pack and the barn will be ready for the animals. I'll feel better once the animals are over here on this side of the road with access to some better shelter against the weather.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Posted by Blogger Chris at November 23, 2004 04:23 PM