Farm Entry #3: Cleaning up before winter

It’s the time of year where I start to notice all the junk I have left out during the summer when I was too busy to pick up after myself.

I always seem to be scrambling to get everything under cover or it’ll be lost under the snow until it melts in spring.

This weekend I had a busy agenda for the farm. I planned on getting all my electronet out of the field and wrapping it up (hopefully not tangling it!) to store for winter. I made the mistake last year of waiting too long and it got buried in snow and I couldn’t get it out of the field till it all melted. The snow bent a lot of my stakes and the weight of the snow actually broke some of my netting!

It’s especially essential for me to get things out of the back area of the barn because I had two newcomers join me this Sunday!

Can anyone guess what animals I’ve gotten now?

I’m planning on keeping them in this back paddock behind the barn until they get acclimated and I can introduce them to everyone else on the farm. I really like this new setup because it allows me to keep new animals separated (and if I wanted, completely quarantined) from the sheep and ducks.

I have big plans for this barn and I’m slowly implementing it step by step. It’s not until I started using the space that I realized what’s working and what’s not working.

The main portion of the barn is 12’x16’ and I had separated it into two different stalls. Once I started getting more sheep, I realized it would work better as one big space. The only problem with that is now I didn’t have a separate “milking parlor.” My milk stand is outside for now covered in a tarp, but I’m actually hoping to move it into the chicken coop.

Right now the chicken and ducks have a 10’x20’ space(!!!!). They have a 10’ x 10’ run and a 10’ x 10’ enclosed coop. I’m thinking of moving the milking parlor into the enclosed coop and letting them have only the run with free access to the outdoors in spring/summer/fall.  The run has two wooden sides up against the barn and two sides covered in hardware cloth. My plan is to cover the hardware cloth in plastic, but leave some venting space up top. I think that should keep them sheltered from wind and snow and warm enough in the winter with fresh, dry bedding.

I’ll see if I can get all this done before the snow flies! We are scheduled to muck the barn one last time at the end of November, but not sure what Kyle will be able to help with since he fractured his scapula. Hopefully, he’ll be able to operate the mini excavator.

Anyway, you can see my plans below.