Almost Worth It

The snow turned to rain overnight.  What a mess.  The pasture is a lake that extends right up to the cow shed.

The shed is dry, but the area in front of the feeder is part of the flood.  We just couldn't leave our cows to stand in that water all day long, so we dropped everything and moved sand.

The truck delivered a big pile out front two days ago.  After the compulsory eye rolling, we all bundled up and started working.  We started with wheelbarrows but quickly got out the baby tractor and trailer.

Neither the tractor nor trailer had been touched since last fall.  Three tires were flat.  My 14 year old daughter is a master at using the compressor and kept the tires filled.  They needed several refills to get through the morning.

While we were working, some chickens supervised.  Most spent all of yesterday in the coop and today too.  A few made a run for the cow shed.  This one has her foot tucked up out of the cold.

My husband dug out the holes and we dumped sand right into them. Both sides of feeder got it.  Some water had worked into a low spot in the cow shed and it a got a bunch of sand too.  We had the cows tied up in various spots in the shed while we worked.  They seemed to enjoy the show.

After four loads we called it good enough.  Working in the wet and rain is no fun, and it's a homeschool day.  Our schedule is all messed up.  But now the cows can eat without getting fungal infections in their feet.

When it dries out, we'll finish the job, but for now we're done.  As we put the last shovel away and began disrobing the wet clothes, we found the fire had gone out.  Within 15 minutes we had the fire going and hot chocolate simmering on the stove.  Hot chocolate with fair trade organic cocoa and Christina milk and cream is so good.  It's what hot chocolate was meant to be.  It made all that hard work almost worth it.