WI Farm Life: Again, ahead of the storm, well kind of

The forecast was for snow and ice to move in over night so we were surprised to wake up to nothing going on. Ed called early, offering to start cleaning his yard since it too was stomping through and the ground was still open. While we were milking last night and after Ed got done, he realized his key had been left on in his truck. Since it was still here he walked the 1/4 mile over and got the skid steer to start piling. The cattle got fenced on the back side of the bunk so the gates can be wide open and he could just work. Since the dog was here he used the next best thing to get them where they needed to be, bribery with corn! There are a number of reasons we are so excited about the opportunity to get this done. It has been a very long winter. Normally we would have had opportunity to do this at least a month go. The ground is open so we can get it where it needs to go. No piling and reloading etc. Cattle comfort, it will now be easier for them to get around, eat and lie down. The build up of manure and bedding was making it much more difficult to get the feed box under the elevator. Since getting that silo empty is pretty important we will be able to continue that process with the yard cleaned. While we were milking Ed came to get the tractor and they decided to put the chains on since it had started to mist and the road was slippery. I milked while Bruce helped and as soon as we got done milking Bruce headed over to run the skid steer so once again they could make great progress. By the late afternoon and 22 loads later they had the yard totally cleaned. We had sleet for most of the day instead of the foot of snow in the forecast. Both barns cleaned. Bruce is ecstatic! Final tally, 45 loads x 6 ton per load = 540,000# and 9 acres ready to dig and plant corn, 16 hours on the spreader tractor, 14 hours on the skid steer.