I Hate Mud

[Jcran]

I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE MUD.

Oh to dream of verdant hard packed pasture
Like that we had so recent-last year
No clingy icky icy mud
That sucks my boots off-I scream CRUD!
No trails of straw bales for goaty toes
Just springy green grass and clover grows
Today after feeding, I feel like an old fuddy-dud
But dang it all, I HATE MUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I fell in the mud while feeding today; it was cold and icky and I have a bad head cold and I want to win the lottery and buy a big rolling pasture on a hill that has good drainage and no stinkin' mud)

[Janis Sauncy]

Me, too. It's probably my biggest "hate" of the season....and I have lots of it due to the springs that pour out of the hillside behind my house, and the ducks that paddle-foot around in it all day and keep it stirred up.

I'm currently researching a drain for that area but that won't help most of the rest of my environment. To get to the goats, I have to walk down hill and as long as I can stay in grassy areas, I'm ok, but if I hit plain mud (red clay) it gets dangerous.

Come on, Spring!

Janis

[ozark_jewels]

My sentiments exactly!!

[susieM]

This is where outside showers and/or mudrooms come into play.

[vancom]

My buck and his "special friend" live in what I refer to as the "mosh-pit." It's a total mess this year since we've not had more than a day or two of below freezing weather. The girls and uncle max have it easier as they roam the woods and it is leaf-covered this time of year...I almost wish it would be colder just so I wouldn't sink quite so deep when I visit the boys each day...January is our coldest month so it's just around the corner.

[jordan]

Originally Posted by Jcran

I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE MUD.
(I fell in the mud while feeding today; it was cold and icky and I have a bad head cold and I want to win the lottery and buy a big rolling pasture on a hill that has good drainage and no stinkin' mud)

That's fine until you have to walk down that hill!
We have 25 inches of snow and ice quickly melting off in the last few days of above freezing temps. What hasn't melted yet has turned into a sheet of smooth as silk ice. The run off is heading down alright (I live on a hill), right into my barns and sheds! Did I mention that it has been raining all day???
It's OK though, we have another 8 inches of snow due to hit later tonight (when the temps drop by 20 degrees) that will sit nicely on top of that ice!
At least the mud will freeze again!

[Freeholder]

Originally Posted by Jcran

I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE MUD.

Oh to dream of verdant hard packed pasture
Like that we had so recent-last year
No clingy icky icy mud
That sucks my boots off-I scream CRUD!
No trails of straw bales for goaty toes
Just springy green grass and clover grows
Today after feeding, I feel like an old fuddy-dud
But dang it all, I HATE MUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I fell in the mud while feeding today; it was cold and icky and I have a bad head cold and I want to win the lottery and buy a big rolling pasture on a hill that has good drainage and no stinkin' mud)

My feelings exactly! Right now the ground is frozen and we have enough snow to keep things clean, but when it warms up, it's nasty. I don't mind ordinary mud. It's this heavy, slimy, slippery clay that I hate. It sucks your boots off; a wrong step and you slip and fall as if you were on ice; your boots get a pound heavier with every step. The goats won't leave their pen to go outside, and I have to bring the dogs in the long way around because the short way from their kennel goes right through some of the worst mud on the place, and our vacuum cleaner isn't working right so I don't want them tracking mud in the house. A mud room would be lovely, but it wouldn't solve most of the issues. Oh, and then when the mud does dry up, it's hard as a rock and every footprint left in it becomes a crater to turn your ankle on.

I HATE MUD!

Kathleen

[Goat Servant]

Me too.YUCK!! Im always afraid of being pushed around and knocked off my feet. The LGD has done it a couple of times but at least its a soft landing!

All we have is a sea of muck. Run off from the road above our property. Rain off the roof of a long shed with no gutters that pools in the canopy above one of the hay racks. One doe will not go get fresh water...she stands there catching drips half the time.

We got some more cinder blocks for them to go from one pen to the other in the worst places. But when I to bring hay in I have to walk around them cause everybody is standing on them. Its ankle deep..so far Muck boots have not been sucked off, thank God!

Its so bad I cry during am chores feeling like an unfit goat mommy cause I can't do anything about it. Im always concerned about their feet in this carp.
Then I think of the folks who have lost livestock in the recent floods.

[65284]

Amen!!! It warmed up enough yesterday and earlier today to melt the snow and ice, turning the area around the barn into sea of brown soup. Then it started to rain it poured for a while, then got colder and sleeted for a while, and now is snowing like crazy. The cattle paddock is a horrible mess. I had to put out hay today and nearly got the tractor stuck, and got unbelieveably filthy putting the rings over the bales. Yuck!!!!

[fcnubian]

I hate mud to. And we have lots of it.

[DocM]

After the flood two weeks ago, the river deposited 12" of sticky silt on top of the mud we already had. Combine that with a sopping barn (we deep bed, it got soaked, and we had to remove 12" of compressed, wet, sopping wet, compressed sopping wet, straw). Each fork load weighed 83837583573 lbs. The front end loader wouldn't cut into it and when it did, the wheels simply couldn't get traction. Everywhere we need to walk in the yard or to the garage or to the barns is now a walkway consisting of pallets laid down with 2 X 12's on top of them. And they're slippery. And the goats flat out have no way to get to the dryer (relative term) pasture without negotiating at least 50 yards of mud, which they do, but they hate it. I hate it. Have I mentioned that it's rained every day since? We've had a whopping 24" of rain in the last 22 days (11 of those in one 24 hour period). The cars are parked 150 yards away from the house because of the mud (all the gravel washed away and there's no getting gravel when everyone in the county is screaming for gravel). I thought buying the rhino was a crazy idea, but its the only thing we have that's getting through the mud, carrying feed way out to our stranded sheep and horses, getting back and forth to the cars with groceries, getting the mail. I will be so happy to see spring I will never ever ever again complain about heat, ever. Never. It's so muddy that even the temps falling into the upper teens isn't freezing the stuff - too much organic matter in it decomposing.

[Goat Servant]

Originally Posted by Jcran

I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE MUD.

Oh to dream of verdant hard packed pasture
Like that we had so recent-last year
No clingy icky icy mud
That sucks my boots off-I scream CRUD!
No trails of straw bales for goaty toes
Just springy green grass and clover grows
Today after feeding, I feel like an old fuddy-dud
But dang it all, I HATE MUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I fell in the mud while feeding today; it was cold and icky and I have a bad head cold and I want to win the lottery and buy a big rolling pasture on a hill that has good drainage and no stinkin' mud)

Oh my goodness its a great poem!! (Im a little slow)

Doc its still raining here...at least you have that rhino. I cannot imagine the 8890987468lbs wet stuff, not to mention the stench.

The only time I had to move livestock during a flood was only a few goats. We had a nice high porch. Learned you never bring the mom out first cause she will run back to the barn in knee deep water to her babies. Bring out babies first, then the mom.