October 02, 2015

Mud and Muck....Welcome to the East Coast!!!

The barn yard has some drainage issues we will have to work on.  It didn't take long for the area to turn into a mucky mess.


Standing water in the storage shed leanto will most likely be where we install a french drain to get the water moving away.  The out buildings all need gutters too.  I'm also researching gravel, sand and grids that can help with drainage in heavy traffic areas.


The east has had a lot of rain lately and more to come with the hurricane out in the ocean.  At least it's showing our problems early so we can get a hold of them before icky winter weather comes in with ice storms.


I've been letting Dani on the pastures since they have good drainage at least and are dryer than the barnyard.  Once this truly become a sacrifice area it will be good to let her hooves dry out when it's icky like this.  The stalls are staying pretty dry at least but she doesn't want to stay in one for too long.


One of the fence posts had little yellow fungus growing.  Oh the joy of being back on the east coast where there is more moisture.  We'll get the situations solved and I'm keeping an eye on Dani's hooves.  There isn't much we can do at this point since the rain just keeps coming.  At least it's only one problem area thus far.  The rest of the property seems to drain quite well.  

2 comments:

Camryn said...

Our old place flooded badly, but drained quickly. Our paddock here didn't flood as badly, but didn't drain once it had. Knock on wood all the dirt we've hauled, trenching pipes and gravel put in will have us dryer & draining now.

Mrs Shoes said...

As far as your fence posts & railings - my old Uncle Wally told us years ago to shy away from paint, especially if you live in high humidity areas (as we do) where paint is at constant odds with the weather.
Instead, we painted all the fences with used motor oil - and we redo it every year. Not only does it soak into the wood & lend it some protection from moisture, it discourages idle cribbing to an extent, it's recycling that dirty oil, & our gates & fences painted with oil are very pretty as well, nice and black for a sharp contrast to all the red & white around here.
The best part is there is no running to the store to buy used oil (we collect all the oil from our vehicles & machinery), prior prep (fences are ready to paint on any dry day), or special clean up (wear farm clothes designated as painting gear, pour used oil into an old ice cream pail, use the same big brush every time, it'll never gum up on you; we leave ours in the pail with the lid on it, sitting atop of the used oil barrel), & no special skill required (just slap it on there, oil is far more forgiving than paint). One good coat a year is all we do & the fences look good year round.