In the cow barn, that is.
Took two days of sweeping, but I got it done. The entire floor was covered in a solid layer of rat droppings and oak leaves that the critters brought in. I also swept the feeding alley clean, and swept cobwebs off the walls.
The perimeter fence is almost completely unburied as well. I've left that job to my sister, and it looks like she might only have about sixty more feet to uncover.
It's tiring work, and that's the gospel truth. But it's coming together. Slowly, but surely. We'll carve a farm out of this forgotten patch of land. It'll just take some time and sweat. But we'll do it. We'll do it...
8 comments:
Was this the barn across the road or?
Yep, the barn across the road. :) We call it the "cow barn", since it was built specifically for cattle. The barn over here on our property is just "our barn", or "my barn". ;)
Please tell me you wore a respirator or at least a good dust mask? That said, getting something like that cleaned out is so satisfying!
Don't worry! I wore a dust mask! ;)There is no way you would catch me cleaning that barn without one!!
I don't have goats so this might be a idiot Q but I thought that goats were superb brush tamers. If this is true I am curious at why you did not use animal power to deal with the Blackberry bushes? Is the job so big it was quicker to do it yourselves?
Nah, your question is fine. ;) A lot of folks have been asking that, actually. First off, goats only eat the blackberry leaves, and the really small, green shoots on the plants. These are 50 year old dead canes out there. The plants are dead, and the circumference on some of those canes is a good 2" around! The only animal that would eat that would be a beaver...
And then second, I don't own goats, I own hoighty toighty snobs. :P LOL. My girls don't like to "forage". That, and I don't like to let them get into blackberries because it can scratch up their big udders. So if I wanted to put goats into a blackberry patch, I would have to buy some meat goats. *rolls eyes*
Once the fence is uncovered, and I've fixed what needs fixing (a fence post here... A hog panel there... Small stuff), then I plan on putting some hogs in there, since they'll dig up the blackberry roots and get rid of the whole problem. Goats may eat young plants down to the ground (and they have to be really young plants for them to do that), but that plant will keep coming back unless you get the roots out.
Cool - the animal power is yet to come! I want to read the new book that came out in Feb/13 - Plowing with Pigs and Other Creative, Low-Budget Homesteading Solutions-my library doesn't have it yet though. Perhaps you will favor us with before and after pictures of their work in progress - hint hint ;)
Thanks for the tip on the book!
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