Spring is almost here!

It seems as though the weather has finally turned. It was getting hard to believe that spring would ever get here with temperatures not getting out of the teens most of last week, but it is going to be 50 by Thursday! That's how it happens up here, and now we get ready for mud season. Hopefully it will be a short one.

With the changing season comes the big spring clean up. Things that have been under snow all winter are going to start being seen shortly and will have to be dealt with. We were rarely without snow cover this winter and so things that I can normally chip away at during warm spells or snowless periods couldn't be addressed this year.

First and foremost of those is poop. Yes, that thing that is 90% of horse care. I have a giant pile of it behind the barn right now that has been growing bigger by the day. Thank goodness for my dump trailer that should make short work of it when I can get it back there. It should take a month or so of hauling out to Green Mountain Compost almost every day to get rid of it.

That's not the end of the poop though. Then there is the paddocks that haven't been picked since last fall. I tried picking them most days last winter, but broke forks, shovels and very nearly my back, so this winter I decided to let them sit until spring. We will see what state they are in when the snow melts, but it should only take a week or two to get those cleaned up.

Lastly, besides just cleaning up the yard and putting snow mitigation equipment away, is spreading all of the stone back on the gravel portion of the driveway. That's a job for the tractor and a rake. Piles of stone built up at the end of the plow route and in the grass need to be put back where parts of the driveway are practically bare.

The next couple of months will be the busiest of the year, but keeping the place looking nice and the horses happy and healthy are worth it!