After a full night and day of pretty full-on rain, we were rewarded (briefly) with this view at around 3pm this afternoon. Blue skies and green fields are indeed a great combination. (No close up views here, in case we show the mud!!!!)
Within the hour the rain returned but the respite was lovely whilst it lasted!! We made sure all the animals had hay and water (not much checking needed for the latter, ha ha!!!) and where possible, we did our usual daily poo clear out. However, we slightly lamented the fact that the cow and sheep field shelters were sodden, not from rain blowing in but from the ground underneath. With more rain to come before midnight, it did not seem worth emptying out sodden field shelters of straw only for fresh straw to get soaked once again. We made an exception for the cows by doing our usual cow pat removal and throwing dry straw back down in the gaps: the cows do tend to sleep in their shelter at night and we did not really want them laying in their own poo!!!
The goat shelters have stayed much drier because they have rubber matting at the back of them.
We have not as yet found a woodchip supplier so we can put woodchip in front of our shelters but we are wondering if we do get hold of one, whether it might be an idea to put it inside the shelters as well and then lay straw on top. That should keep things a lot drier. Or we could get mats for the other two shelters as well!
More ringing round, Facebooking and yet more research is called for...