Crispy Morning

It was pretty chilly out there this morning. All of the waterers had two inches of ice on them. So I got to use my little red wagon in earnest this morning. Since this was my first icy morning, I didn't have everything that I needed in my wagon on the first trip. It will take some planning and organization to be really efficient with my feeding schedule.

Let's see, I need a bucket of Chicken feed, a bucket of goat grain, two scoops of dog food, two flakes of hay and two buckets of warm water. I don't think that it will all fit, I will have to make two trips. I want to take the hay at the same time that I take the grain, so that I can fill the hay feeder without any assistance from the goats, they will be distracted by the grain.

I will have to come back for the water, that way I can take more than two buckets, I carried about five buckets this morning but they are small, it is the number of trips that wear you out.

This sounds like a good plan but it will change from time to time with the weather. If it is sunny then I will be taking Calico outside for the day and she will have to be fed and watered out there.

If it is raining, all of the feeding has to be done inside the goat/chicken shed and that is a mess. Just getting into the shed through the slick mud with buckets and hay in your hands with the starving, welcoming committee in the doorway is always a treat, if I can even make it without falling before I get there.

The ice in the water offers another challenge. I wouldn't have to haul as much water if I could effectively remove the ice from the water buckets and troughs without using my hands. I take a small hatchet or splitting maul (whatever is handy) to break the ice, then if I could pick out all of the ice chunks most of the water could be preserved, recycled, it would be the green thing to do, I could save the planet! Usually I just go ahead and grab the ice with my fingers and pitch it out but this is not the wise thing to do on a crispy morning. I need some type of small crooked pitchfork device or a small holey shovel for ice removal.

For those of you playing the home game, I have only smacked my head one more time on the nesting boxes and my DH ate a Wheat Thin last night, just one with no problems, he will probably insist on eating two or three tonight.