The Big Barn is old, really old, its coming into it’s 90th year per the locals and its been repaired, its had add on’s done to it, and its also aging.. always aging, always being putter on, working on..

This is the main people size door to the front half of the Big Barn (or what would be called, the old barn” I love this door, its like stepping into a older time on the farm

The first thing that greets me is Bullwinkle.. as the hot line is off for the winter due to the heavy snow load, he decided that he could just hop, skip and jump the fence and meet me in the yard.. this will not do, so while he does get to have outside time in the corral, he has a big stall, its an nice loose stall but he is getting big enough now that he does wear a Cow Collar and when we do work in his stall, we call him over to his spot and he is clipped on the chain and he stands while we work around him and then we release him again once we are out..  (I learned my lesson well with Girl)

At one time this part of the barn was set up for cows and the big steel parts are there, but we took out the side metal poles and cut them down and ground them flat, so that its now two big stalls and one small sheep jug.. Bullwinkle is growing very well, he is already tall as the half way and his back is level with the metal bar. While I know its normal to use a tie stall for cattle, I just can’t do it, I feel that he needs to the freedom to move.

The big back double stall is Bojangles and he is still using it even with the gate open.. he self-stalls himself even if I don’t..  I had to laugh at it and groan as it adds to the cleanup load in the barn. Bojangles stall is kept cleaned regular, I don’t do deep pack with him,  he likes to watch us clean the stalls, it amuses me, as he seems to think that he must be the judge..

But the main part of that pile, was in fact from a deep-pack pen, I love deep-pack pens, its so good for many reasons, it starts composting in place, creating a deep, softer pack for critters to lay on, as long as you keep adding to the top with clean bedding, its awesome..  the fact that it comes out well into its composting is great, if I had pig, they would have turned that even more for me..  what its not good for, is the heck of a work out you will get cleaning one out LOL

It took hubby and me a good while this afternoon to get it done, but it was a perfect day for it.. it felt very spring like.. Everyone was feeling it.. including the boy’s who were having a way to much fun goofing off in the pasture.. We finished with daylight to spare and a good sweat under our belts.

A perfectly cleaned and ready stall with fresh straw down just waiting for the first of the new lambs to come.. Carmel is the first one on my list to be due.. She could take upwards of at least another week but we have a big snow storm coming in and I find that often with rising or dropping pressure with storms, that we get new babies..  So we will see, which is why we did the push to get it ready today 🙂

The sheep were up on the slight rise, that was drained out well and gave them a nice drier spot to sit and chew their cuds.. The Nanny Goat will be moved from the little barn to the big barn very soon. She is due mid-feb and I need to start her routine for feeding and milking and I want to remove the buck from her area as I don’t want buck taint on the milk.

Lambing Season-Milking Season will on us very soon! I am excited to see it coming..