Rural Revolution: A dirty job

It’s been a dry summer, and our pastures – already limited in size to begin with – are pretty much eaten down. As a result, we’ve been supplementing the cows morning and evening with oat hay.

We only started purchasing oat hay from a local farmer as a stopgap measure last year, and the cows adore it so much that now we prefer to buy it over any other feed source. In fact, we have eight tons being delivered this upcoming week.

But oat hay – or at least last year’s batch – seems to pick up a fair amount of dirt clumps in the process of being baled.

When we put flakes of the hay into the feed box, these dirt clumps migrate to the bottom of the feeder and accumulate.

It was on my mind to clean out the feed box from this accumulated dirt. Yesterday afternoon I locked the cows out of the corral (so I wouldn’t get any “help” from curious critters), collected a few tools, and got to work.

It became apparent within minutes that this was a far, far bigger task than I anticipated. I don’t know why, but I had it in my head that there was maybe a few inches of accumulated dirt. What I’d forgotten is that the angled feed box actually extends to the barn floor. What I was seeing was an accumulation of dirt about 22 inches deep.

Conditions for removing the dirt were cramped. I had to bend over, put my head through the slats (like a cow!), and remove the dirt one-handed. This small broken-handled shovel proved perfect for the task since I could wield it with one hand. The three-pronged garden cultivator was helpful for breaking up packed-down material.

It was like digging a ditch, but a ditch that could only be tackled one-handed while bent over between slats. Because it was hard going, I ended up alternating sides – ten scoops with one arm, ten scoops with the other, etc. I scooped everything into the wheelbarrow.

When the wheelbarrow was full, I wheeled it out of the barn and dumped it on the pile of barn waste.

Progress. (I can still smell this photo.)

It took five full wheelbarrows and an hour’s solid work to empty all that dirt. Then I filled another wheelbarrow with the material that had fallen on the barn floor between the feed box and the wheelbarrow.

Task finished.

And look how clean that feed box is!

After all was said and done, my skin was caked with dirt, and after my evening shower (which required the vigorous application of a washcloth) I consigned everything I was wearing to the dirty clothes basket. I woke up this morning with sore arms … but hey, a dirty job is now finished.