Rain, mud and the barn. . .

I guess this answered my question about whether to put sand, gravel, dirt, etc in the barn! This morning it started raining, a lot, and it still is raining and is suppose to rain for the next 10 days... fun. I guess it's good for the grass to grow though :). BUT, this caused a big problem. When we cleaned out the barn, it made the barn a little lower than the ground above it (the ground is sort of slanted there anyway). So a few hours of raining and 3/4 of the barn was squishy/mud or had 6 inches of water in it. . . something had to be done then otherwise the milkers could not come back from being milked since it was soo muddy. So out in the rain we go, with the tractor and some rakes. My brother got dirt from a place on the property and dumped it in the barn while we leveled it out. It actually turned out really nice and got the job done (that was going to be done anyway), done a lot faster! It only took us about 1 1/2 hours. . . not too bad. But I was covered in a lot of mud :). Now just when it gets cold, we can throw some straw in there.

It is surprisingly cold for September. . . I kind of hope it warms back up otherwise we are going to have cold weather for a long time!

For an update on the cow - she is doing a whole lot better. The teats that we treated for mastitis are doing great and show hardly any mastitis in the tests. Her production seems to be going up. Last night she gave 4 gallons, this morning 2 1/2. It's still a little weird, fluctuating all of the time. I think she should level out soon though. The machine is working and emptying her udder well. The only "ugly" spot is where she got that cut. It's very dry and hard, not really the udder, as it has kind of "separated" itself. But we started putting cream on it and maybe it'll get soft and heal a little nicer.

We still have 4 does for sale, if anyone is interested.

Hope you have a great day!

Suriyah