Spring Cleaning...Farm Style

Folks in town really don't know what spring cleaning is. They clean out closets and drawers, yes. They might even have a garage that needs some clutter removal and tidying up. However, there is nothing like spring cleaning around a farm. It seems like winter no matter how harsh or mild really takes on toll on the tidy, clean and neat appearance of a little farm. Repairs that were quickly made with frozen hands result in tools left where they lay. The huge pile of wood chips in front of the house where the wood was split in need of going into the compost pile or rose garden. The tree limbs laying everywhere from the winter winds. The stuff that you thought possibly still had some use is still sitting in front of the tool shed waiting for your imagination to find some purpose for it. The screened porch that caught everything from everywhere needs to be sorted, emptied, cleaned and tidied. The barns, pens, and sheds all need to be cleaned of their winter deep bedding. Yes, spring cleaning on the farm is a huge and daunting chore. So that is what things look like around here. Kidding season will begin for us in 15 days, give or take a day or two. So we have been cleaning and organizing and de-cluttering so that the farm is once again a tidy little oasis in this vast world of ours instead of the junkyard it gets to looking like over the winter. Today, thunder will be in charge of mowing the yard. The goats will be given the duty of weed eating. They are much more efficient at this job than any gas powered tool sold by the big box stores. My husband is on limb and yard trash duty. All of that will be burned and then the potash spread in the garden and pastures to add phosphorus to our soil which is lacking. We have cleaned out the chicken coop and the horse barn, leading to a great start on a new compost pile that will grow tremendously. The rabbit cages have been thoroughly scrubbed and now the goat barn is getting a good cleaning out. We have a lot of painting to do this spring and most of that duty will go to the children since it is outside painting. The repairs on the roof of the tool shed are still on the list to be done as last year flew by and it kept getting put off. Spring is definitely here and so the work load has tripled. So much for the relaxing days of winter! Hope your spring is just as blissful as ours!