Bedding and Friends

 Do you have sheets and blankets on a bed? I bet you do! 

Cows, sheep, and goats need something to sleep on, too. We call it bedding

We use wood chips and saw dust for animal bedding. I get BIG loads of wood chips from a place called Chip Drop online.

We just got a new pile. I've gone through 7 piles since you started school.
That's a lot of piles to move!

Sometimes we move them with the tractor.

We put lots and lots of chips around our two new apple trees this fall.

I use a wheelbarrow to move wood chips into the stalls.
I put sawdust on top of the wood chips to help the stall stay cleaner, and nicer for the cows and goats and sheep to sleep on.

Once the wood chips and sawdust are full of manure (cow poo)
I use a wheelbarrow to dig it out and put it in a pile.

We don't send the pile to the dump, even though it looks like a big, yucky mess. Lots of families come in the spring and load it into buckets, bags, trucks, and sometimes trailers.

What do you think they want all that manure for?

It's great for gardens and flower beds! Once it sits for a few months it turns into wonderful mulch for gardens. Last year we had 8 families that came to get all the manure. I have bigger piles behind the barn, too!

*     *     *     *     *

Do you have a drinking fountain at school?
We have a downspout that leads right into a barrel.
The roof collects a lot of rain. It goes into the gutters, 
then down through the downspout.
Roof water is the cows favorite water!

https://youtu.be/CfW4RgIbDvQ

Sadie loves to get drinks from our 'farm water fountain' when the water is coming off the roof.

Here are a few photos of my animal friends. They are friends, too!

Which animals are sheep, and which animal is a goat?

Echo (the cow) loves River (the goat).
She licks her through the fence.

Thanks for all your questions! I'll be answering some of them next week. 

Have a great week!