High and dry
With all the rain these days, we have been grateful for our sturdy barn.
We’re giving our pastures a break during these heavy, wet rains. We’ve generally used our high tunnels for livestock during the winter. This year we had late squash and tomatoes still growing as the rains descended on us, and decided to leave these beds intact to facilitate next year’s spring planting.
Our animals are accustomed to moving from pasture to pasture and up the lane to the barn, so it was an easy and enjoyable transition for them.
We buy our barley feed weekly from Adolphsen’s Farm in Carlsborg. As a result, we have a good source of bedding (barley straw). Long straw is comfortable and warm for the animals, and keeps them engaged. They can burrow under it, explore it, chew it, and sleep dry and content in it.
The straw offers a perfect nest for pigs — and chickens, too!
Straw also gives good structure to our composting piles and then becomes nutrients for our garden soil.
So the cycle continues.