The goat barn isn't as wet but everything is moist. The humidity has kept the hay and the free choice minerals damp. The rain made it impossible to clean for awhile and when it finally dried out enough that I could bring the wheel barrow over, the flies were insane!!! Thousands of them. When I peeled back the layer of moist straw which the goats had peed and pooed all over because it's been raining. I found maggots. Tons of them. It made me sick! I'm trying to keep the barn just dirt floor so it doesn't become a breeding ground for flies AGAIN but my goats love to pull their hay and fling it on the ground :/ My baby goat had scours Friday and I'm sure it was from the flies. I felt so bad but how the heck are you supposed to get anything done in this suck muck!!!!!
Friday's maggots, gnats, suck muck, and rabbit fleshing (that's a whole different post) had me questioning what the hell am I doing. This is nasty and not a normal life for a woman. Is it even worth it?
Then the baby goat, whose scours only lasted a day cuddles me. I get to look at my free range bunnies running around the yard and see mamma hens with their babies. Yep, it's worth it :))))
I think the only thing you can do during a situation such as you currently have is grit your teeth to make it through until conditions change while taking note of areas you could some way improve so the same thing doesn't happen again. Each period like this you go through makes you tougher (yes, it really does!) and gives you new ideas to change things so it doesn't happen again. Sure makes it difficult when Mother Nature doesn't cooperate though. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteI would say it has been the norm for most of the time people have been on this planet. Just the last 60 or 70 years it hasn't been and then only over a part of the world we happen to live in. A bit more decline in cheap energy surpluses and it will be the norm once again.
ReplyDeleteI don't know your entire situation but here's what I have found. If soem expert says you can keep X in a Y sized area I figure my needs at X= (Yx2) because the greater area you have the more these problems get spread out. Of course I have the extra space to do such things so it helps.
This constant rain and high humidity is depressing right now though. I can't even get out into my garden again even with mud boots on and running the wheel barrow is impossible until the mud dries a bit. I am afraid now I am going to lose my corn and about a third of my tomatoes to the weeds and morning glory. Even the areas I have already heavily mulched are too moist under neath to walk on. Arrrrrg!!!
Yesterday we got 2 1/2" of rain. We have been so dry here it is almost scary.
ReplyDeleteI know it makes things bad and adds a tremendous amount of work, but
hang in there, it will dry soon.
You could rotate the animals so that the chickens eat the maggots. I eventually got rid of my goats as they were a constant negative. It is a problem unless you can move them around and that takes a whole different system from what we are used to.
ReplyDeleteYea, when it pours, water gets in our goat/chicken barn. Not fun, huh?
ReplyDeleteSuck muck. Yep, got it here too. Total yuck.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the pic of the hen with the chicks peeping out!