Goat door all mucky

Lizza · #1 04/19/06, 06:29 PM

The place where my goats come in and out of their barn is so completely mucky! Is there something I can put down? There must be a foot of muck. Wood chips? I can't move the door. Thanks!

Freeholder · #2 04/19/06, 06:53 PM

Does the door open in or out? If out, how much clearance is there under it? I've been dealing with mega-mud here (gumbo-type), and have been putting flakes of mulch hay down for better footing. After a while it sinks into the bottomless pit and I have to put some more down, but it does help while it lasts.

Whether or not wood chips would help depends on what your soil is like. We have heavy clay here. When it's wet it's soup; when it's dry it's hard as a rock, literally (takes a hammer to break a dirt clod). If your soil is better drained or sandier, the wood chips might work. Here they would just disappear into the mud.

Kathleen

Freeholder · #3 04/19/06, 06:55 PM

I just noticed that you are also in Oregon -- what part?

Kathleen

Lizza · #4 04/19/06, 06:59 PM

My mud is like yours! I put some hay out there and what an icky mess that turned into. I suppose I could put more down though. It opens out. Kind of stuck open right now. It just is one of those design flaws when my husband threw the barn up in a day a few years ago. Kind of just started building. Now there is really no way to move the door.

We live in the Willamette Valley, about 30-40 minutes outside of Eugene

Freeholder · #5 04/19/06, 07:17 PM

Did you put down loose hay, or flakes? What I've found is that the flakes sort of 'float on top' for a while, like snowshoes on soft snow. The loose hay would just make a mess, though, like you said.

Or what about getting pallets to put down, if you could get them there in front of the door?

Looking forward to dry weather! Even here on the supposedly 'dry' side, it's been a wet winter.

Kathleen

trnubian · #6 04/19/06, 08:01 PM

I know this sounds like a lot of work, but it might work. While the mud is stil soupy, dig the door out, and take the mud down to give you clearance in front of the door. then haul in a load of stone and put that down. It might take a pretty big load, but that is what we had to do. and it helps. Eventually it will go away into the ground, after a year or two, but it does help especialy during the muddy spring.

Also what would also help is to dump a load of lime down than put the rocks on top. When it drys it will make kind of like a confcrete pallette.

khowellrn · #7 04/19/06, 08:47 PM

We have low spots through the chicken run that gets soupy when it rains. we will grab a piece of scrap plywood or flat lumber and throw it over the mess. Some boards have remained in place for years, and some get in the way during the dry times and get picked up and thrown back on the scrap pile.