Rocking in the mud

Last winter was the first winter here in our new home during which we had livestock. Before this, we never "tested" the corral behind the barn about how things would hold up during winter conditions coupled with livestock use.

What we learned is the back corral gets muddy. Very very sink-down-deep muddy. We mitigated it as best we could be laying down a heavy layer of gravel, but that only went so far.

Part of the problem is the barn is built downhill from a small slope, which means water drains right to the opening of the barn doors and makes a muddy soup when it's churned up by bovine hooves.

The mud right outside the barn door was so deep, in fact, that moving a heavy wheelbarrow full of barn waste was very difficult. Immediately outside the door, the wheel of the wheelbarrow would instantly sink several inches down, plus I was pushing it uphill to boot. No fun.

To this end, we often laid down boards to bridge the worst of the mud, then take the boards back up after the barn was cleaned. The barn waste is dumped in a pile in the corral. (A couple times a year, Don uses the tractor to transport the waste to a more permanent compost pile.)

Don is in the process of correcting the drainage issue with a two-pronged approach. One, he wants to build an awning that would offer the animals a bit more shelter during adverse weather conditions. And two, he wants to trench and lay a French drain that would divert water from the slope and direct it over the hillside immediately outside the corral fence.

But, this being autumn, the weather caught up with us. After several days of unrelenting rain, the corral transitioned rapidly from damp to soupy, making it impossible to dig trenches. The skeletal infrastructure outside the barn is the support posts for the not-yet-built awning. (Note the outside water tank on the right.)

So, as a stopgap measure, we decided to lay down more rock. Thankfully we have a generous supply on hand of this vital homestead resource.

Don started by building a "road" of rock so the tractor wouldn't sink into the mud and get stuck. He did this by driving the tractor in until muddy conditions prevailed, then dumped the rock and scraped it flat. With the next load, he was able to advance another five feet and dump another load and scrape it flat. By this method, he was able to bring the machine to where he needed it to go.

The first section we tackled was a tight corner where the water tap and water tank are located. Roof runoff renders this area extremely muddy. (Yeah, the barn has no gutters. Go figure.) To the right, where the horse panels fence off the edge of the corral, is a fairly steep dropoff. I started by using a hose to siphon out and empty the water tank, which needed a good scrubbing anyway. I also wanted to level the tank, which was leaning a bit.

Unlike last year when we laid down rock, however, this time we used weed cloth to make a barrier in hopes the rock wouldn't just sink down and get enveloped by the mud.

First load of gravel.

Load by load, sheet by sheet of weed cloth, we rocked in this section.

Finally we were able to pull the rocked area to the front of the water tap, which was as far as we planned to go for this section.

We raked everything flat and leveled a pad for the water tank. Then, while Don started working on the pad in front of the barn, I scrubbed and cleaned the water tank, got it set up, and refilled it.

Much better!

The next spot to tackle was the mud pit right in front of the barn door, through which I needed to push heavy wheelbarrows full of waste up to the waste pile. Don started by scraping a path backward with the tractor bucket.

Oddly enough, he didn't have to scrape very deep before he hit the layer of gravel we laid down last fall, so that was good. Then, while he went to fetch a load of gravel, I laid down the first section of weed cloth.

Dumping the first load of rock.

This is a much finer grade of gravel, the kind that packs down. Coupled with the underlying layer of larger gravel from last year, as well as the weed cloth, we have hopes the area outside the barn door won't become a morass of soupy mud over the winter.

We only graveled to just where the awning will end, where the downhill slope levels off. In other words, we made a graveled ramp. At the end of this ramp, hopefully soon, we'll be able to trench and lay down the drain pipe so water gets diverted away from the barn.

When all the gravel was in place, we raked it flat, then linked arms and waltzed around the pad, compressing the gravel. In country parlance, this is known as a "hot date."

There are still deeply muddy spots between the ramp (left) and the water tank (right), but at least the rocked areas are dry. The cows can either stay in the barn, or farther out in the corral, to find dry spots during wet weather.

Since the tractor was in the corral already, the last thing Don did was to pile and consolidate the barn waste. Come spring, we'll move this waste onto the compost pile, while moving the older compost onto the garden beds.

We have a dry spell coming up next week, and Don hopes to finish building the awning and French drain during that interim.

Meanwhile, another autumn project is done.