Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Rain Problem

The Rain Problem
It rained hard yesterday.  The goats were crying all day, the day after the rain.  I couldn't figure out what was wrong.    Goat Beat friends said that they might not like the wet ground, and/or the hay might be too moist or stale- it had been under a porch roof, but not inside.

It is really hard to get hay in the suburbs. I had one bale of alfalfa hay that I got a month ago from Tractor Supply Co. stored  in a large plastic bag.  The hay I got two weeks ago was infested with chiggers.  I have horrible bites all over from it.  I was reluctant to even touch it.  I gave them the month old alfalfa hay.

Thank god they ate it and calmed down.  Then  it started to rain again- heavy rain.  My husband and I figured out that their dog crate is too small.  They are each 10 lbs bigger than they were when  I got them.  Also, they ate all the weeds in the corral, and so they need lots and lots of hay.  Not much can fit in their crate.

I had to go to work the next day, and work three 12 hour shifts in a row, Tues, Wed, Thurs. and it was Tuesday. Not much time to address their shelter problem in the next three days.  Did I want loud goat calls for three days in my neighborhood?

Tues morning, I went out in the woods to meditate, and after about 30 minutes, the solution was clear. I skipped my yuppie workout and got down to farm business.  It was pouring rain; thunder and lightning.  Fortunately over the weekend I had been inspired to salvage 10 wooden pallets from the local bike store. earlier that week.   I went through my selection, found  one which had the boards close together- my floor- Goat Beat (the source of all relevant goat related information) folks say that goats don't like to get their feet wet.

Wood Pallets are heavy.  I made three trips with two pallets each trip on my wheelbarrow from the road back to the goat corral.  I found some baling wire (I didn't even know what baling wire was two months ago) and my handy Wave combo tool, got a tarp from the basement, and started.  I had 30 minutes before I had to get ready for work.

Goat Beat folks said use your imagination.  So I did-I  used the wire to wire the pallets together with the torquing action of the pliers to make it tight (baling wire is totally awesome, the way you can bend it and it won't break!).  Since it was pouring rain, I could see where the tarp roof sent water down in rivulets, so I used the wire to tighten the tarp in a way to avoid letting water run into the shelter.  I got straw for bedding and hay for food, put them in a garbage bag and ran out to the shelter through the rain.

25 minutes later I was cleaning up and getting dressed- I work as a professional psychologist, so having dirty nails and feet is not good.  I got out my fake hair and used a dremel on my nails to clean them.  10 minutes later I looked just fine.  No one would ever know what I had been up to that morning.

On my way out the door, I glanced in the back and there were the goats, QUIETLY  chewing hay in their new shelter!  One more potential neighborhood disaster averted. 

1 comment:

Tonia said...

One month old hay is okay as long as its not moldy, wet or otherwise not any good.
Alot of people keep hay in the barns and its good for at least 2 years if not longer. They also have hay in a bag for horses that may help in your situation. Usually its alfalfa.