Getting it all together

As we’ve been here almost 10 months, it seems that I should have it ‘all together’ and of course I don’t.  Oh, ya, I never will, but I keep trying and sometimes I try hard on stuff that if sort of futile.  There is only so much poop that can be cleaned up in the snow, cold and below freezing temperatures.  The farm truth is that this is a really messy time of year.  When it was snowing, the snow worked pretty well at hiding the poop, but even that only works for so long

Elsie Gump is one happy cow.  She only has to move about 8 feet to go from her feed trough to her water trough and so that is exactly how far she goes.  This of course means she also makes a very big mess in one spot.  I do try to clean this up for her (not that she minds it at all), but I do, so I try to clean it up and scoop it out and add lots more wood shavings and straw to basically cover the mess which also only works for a day or two, but it at least makes me feel better.

I also tried cleaning up the dog yard, because it was gross.  Frozen dog-doo is not too bad as it doesn’t smell, however, it is stuck to the snow so it is hard to get up.  I finally worked out a system where if I kick it with my (muddy farm boots) it loosens enough to be collected.  Since I was working hard, head down going around the yard kicking poop to pick up, I didn’t notice that I was going to ram my head into a snow-covered tree branch, thereby loosening the snow enough for it to fall down the back of my neck.  Yes, it was cold.

I think this is one of those ‘opportunities‘ to practice patience.  (Not really my strong suit).  The frozen farm-yard is a season of yuckiness, I should look somewhere else.  Today there is a pretty blue sky and frost on the trees.  If I look at it, it will serve two purposes, I can focus on the beautiful and avoid running into anymore snow-covered branches.