Spring Cleaning Anyone? General Farm Maintenance

[Marty]

Every fall I go to great lengths cleaning up the entire outside yard and inside the barn. I clean my fences, paint my gates, paint my barn doors, rake etc. I fix everything that needs fixing; Maybe a hinge or a fence line that needs tightened up, whatever, I go into winter feeling like its all good. In my feeble mind that's so when it gets cold and snowy I can look outside and not say this place looks like a broken down mess. I over haul my tack room like you cannot believe, clean cabinets etc. grooming tools, dust and remove cobwebs and the list goes on.

NOW..... I have to do it all again. Seems that I'm a bit of a slob. My tack room.......oh dear. I'm too cold to be meticulous in the dead of winter so I guess I get to throwing stuff where it doesn't really belong. If I throw a screw driver or hammer at the tool box and miss, oh well! Its safe to say things got out of control and I have a big mess to clean up on the first real warm day. And now everything needs a new coat of paint AGAIN.

But the good part was that I managed to keep my little Prancers all nice and groomed up all winter long and in their scrunchies as usual. I didn't fuss a lot but managed to keep on top of it. We had days where the temps were pretty decent and that's when I took full advantage of my obsessive groom fests.

I guess I'm happy that I'll be hauling out the paint and sprucing up the place again and before I know it, it will be time to body clip.. I'm certainly not enthusiastic about over hauling the tack room though because I have a feeling, I have a rodent lurking about in there waiting to eat me.

 

[chandab]

When spring is actually here, I'll get started, but we are still too cold for much of anything. My feed and tack building need a thorough cleaning, the cats eat in their during the day (well when I feed) and they are slobs, so there is cat food everywhere. I need to clean out any old supplement tubs that can't be used for anything else, gave half a dozen to my MIL for her chicken supplies, she has chicks coming in 6 weeks. Need to get rid of a couple broken feed pans and bring out some new ones. Tons of outside work to do; lots of painting (I hate painting) and so much more.

 

[amysue]

I hear you. Aside from fresh paint (oh what a difference paint makes) I have "landscape" repair after the giant snow piles melt as hubby usually tears up sod and deposits rocks EVERYWHERE. I always vacuum up cobwebs and rake the whole yard as all winterbthe hay/shavings dropped freeze to the ground and are only now thawing out. The tack room waits till after shedding season as hair gets all over and its a lost cause until its over. The feed room gets vacuumed too as its too cold to organize in winter. We usually haveca big bonfire to burn the heap of shavings bags, feed bags and hay twine. Next on my list....bath time! Dirty ponies need a bath and I doubt they're as excited about it as I am. I have a few paddock fences to put up and two end stalls on the outside row that did not get doje last fall because the ground froze up. I painted my jumps this winter so its one less thing to be painted but the cow barn needs work after the snow piles melt away from the siding. I may get ambitions and plant some flowers like the fancy stables down the road do, but dont anyone hold their breath.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Our corral is nearly 100 years old. The first homesteaders on the property built the wind shelter with utility poles and tin, then in the 40's some fence was "updated" with metal runway panels. We've replaced some of the massive home made gates with metal gates, but now one side of the corral is leaning badly. It was built to hold bulls, but now anything but a miniature horse makes it at risk!

Got the post hole auger installed and now we need to pull out that section of fencing and work on rebuilding it. I'm really afraid it is a can of worms, though, because if we start with one fence section the whole thing may end up as the project.

Anyway, that is our major spring project.

My husband was wanted to tear it all out for years and rebuild, but the property belonged to my dad and I just haven't been able to let all the old stuff go. It is still serviceable, so I've wanted to keep it. But once it is no longer serviceable, then sentiment must go.

If the whole thing goes, do I want to retain the "floor plan"? If not, how would I improve it? It was designed to manipulate a herd of cattle, but I find it's little separated areas useful for little horses also.

The old runway panels make excellent wind baffle. But no way would we reuse them; they weigh a ton.

 

[ruffian]

I had a possum get into the room where I keep my show tack, ribbons, show stuff . . and DIE! NASTY SMELL FOR MONTHS!!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I had a possum get into the room where I keep my show tack, ribbons, show stuff . . and DIE! NASTY SMELL FOR MONTHS!!

Guess you'll be doing a little spring cleaning there! Possums are so nasty.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

We started tearing out part of the old corral. Hope it doesn't take too long to rebuild, as it is inconvenient for my horses.

We have some nice utility poles to use for corners and gate posts. If they last as long as the last ones did, we shouldn't have to do this again in our lifetimes.

Can't alter the layout, because of the water line and faucet.

Sure feels good to get rid of that old lumber. A friend who recycles old wood into furniture and signs is going to take the boards, so we won't have to put them on the burn pile.

I suggested to my husband that I think we should continue the tradition of the first corral builders here and just throw all the old rusty steeples and junk on the ground and leave it. Why bother to pick it up? Maybe we should abandon a tool or two also, just to make it more interesting for someone in the future... It amazes me every day the flotsam and jetsam that is exposed nearly every day in my corral area. Yesterday I found a nice old rusty washer the size of a saucer and a shard of old brown glass. I guess those early folk didn't worry about injuries to their livestock.