It's mucking out day!

So while I was busy out and about this morning, David set about mucking out the other side of the main barn while the weather was dry and the ground fairly hard.  The huge amount of straw and muck has to be transported down the road to be dumped in the field behind my house where it will sit and rot until next year when it can be spread on the field.  Problem is that as the tractor comes back out of the field, it drags a lot of mud out onto the road and it can get quite messy, despite David's best efforts.  So, he prefers the weather to be as dry as possible to minimise the amount of mess.  I think he did pretty well today!

I always enjoy the final part of mucking out when the hayracks are filled up and the fresh straw spread all over the floor.  Then the gate is opened and all the goaties dash across, eager to get to back in after being confined to the other side of the barn all day.  Although, apparently, most of them did venture outside for part of the day as it was dry and sunny for most of the morning.

As David opened the gate today, I had my video phone at the ready to capture the mad dash across the barn.  Stand well back - here we go!

 

 

And Kitty jumps straight up on top of the bale of haylage:

 

 

Eventually, the excitement passes and everyone settles down.  It's exhausting, this mucking out business!

 

 



And the food for the day - tomatoes!  How about this for a range of colours?  From the Isle of Wight Tomato Stall at Wimbledon Market yesterday:

A feast for the eyes!