The cow pad has taken a bit of a pounding with all the rain but a few days ago we dug out several drainage channels which helped enormously and this morning, after over 24 hours without rain, we actually had a frost and so for the first time in ages, there was no standing water in amongst the woodchip! Feeling inspired, we had a bit of a tidy up in that we totally emptied the half round 'hay catchers' of spent hay and then re-arranged the mats, some of which had slipped around a bit. The whole system is working out well, it’s great the cows have the mats to stand on as they much their outside hay and having the rest of the space covered in woodchip gives the opportunity for a quick run around, which, we have to say, all four cows seem to do daily. Caraway is the liveliest, being the youngest, and she literally runs around in circles at times – why - just because she can. Then there are times when Thyme gets all frisky, often because I have brought in a new bale of straw which usually gets all of them very excited. The game then is to rush in and out of the shelter and round the woodchip twice before rushing back into the shelter, panting away. It is actually a joy to watch, although with care because it is a small space and they are big cows!!
And then we get scenes like this: tired cows who don’t move at all so we have to muck out around them!!!