Powerwashing!!!!

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Well, gee jolly.   Are we goofs or what?

Last winter, near Christmas, we bought ourselves a little tool for the farm.   A pressure washer, to be precise.  It was on end of season clearance and we got a HECK of a sweet deal on a good model…  not the cheapest one, but a nice one that was well recommended.  And we tucked it in the mudroom to await the time to get it out and use the thing.   December is not quite the time to be power washing, I don’t think.

Well, we have talked about it, a time or two, and thought about getting it out and putting it together, but we would just get sidetracked.

So we finally said, enough is enough…  time to get that bad boy out and see if it works.

And buddy, let me tell you, that thing is AMAZING!!!!  DSC_0179

How did we ever live without one???

Let me tell you…  little farms, livestock, mud…  it can be a little overpowering.   Yes, it’s very hard to keep up with it all.  I’ve never seen dirtier socks until we moved here.  My goodness.   You city folk just don’t have a clue as to how dirty even a little farm can get.  Whew!   It’s just amazing.  Well, sure, you can use a broom or an old mop and bucket, but there is just nothing that beats the power of a pressure washer to clean stuff up!   OH MY GOSH!   Haha…  I can not believe that we waited so long to get this out.   I think it’s now my most favorite tool on the homestead!!!

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If you keep rabits, you gotta know, they are one kinda dirty animal to keep.  They pee a TON and well, the bigger the rabbit, the more mess.  Jess tries hard to keep her bunnies tidy, but it’s so easy for them to get nasty, fast.  And she would don her rubber gloves and scraping blade and go at it, taking hours and hours, not to mention the nasty potty trays and such…  just a chore that makes having rabbits a little bit of a true love affair.

But now?   Oh my gosh!   I think that kid was smiling from ear to ear.   She popped the bunnies in the courtyard for a little grass and play time and got to it.  Within 15 minutes, she had their cage beautiful and clean!   And the potty boxes?   LOVELY!   We took all our troughs, buckets, bowls and feed dishes out and pressure washed them in the sun.   And then we started on the walls and ceiling of the screen porch and outside on the bricks…  oh my gosh.   I think we were all sopping wet by the time we were done, but everyone got a chance to play with the thing and we were all impressed!

 

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Can’t wait to take it out back to the barns and just get rid of all the years of dust and cobwebs and dirt!   Oh Nelly!   This is going to be a very popular tool!

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The bunnies will like it as well…  I think they love to go and hop around in the courtyard while Jess plays with the powerwasher!

Our friend Justin came over and he and Maggie have been working to clean out the sheep barn of the winter’s spent hay and compost…   whew…  that is some hard hard work.   I just can’t do it anymore for health reasons and they didn’t mind.  Still, it is such hard work and I admire them for staying at task.   All that great stuff is going into the garden!   Such lovely composted material…  we should have a wonderful garden this year!

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They have about a third to go…   Miss Buttercup is inspecting the work so far and finds it very satifactory!   I can’t wait to get in there with the power washer!!!   That will be wonderful!

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We have made a decision, however…  no more straw in the barns as bedding!  It’s just too hard to remove in the spring…  it matts up and makes this hard hard felted layer…  yes, it does break down, but not quite in 6 or 8 months.   Seems to need a lot more time and then it just keeps building up and up.   I think we are going to use wood shavings and saw dust instead.   There are several Amish sawmills in the area and they sell the shavings for next to nothing.   Sometimes, even free!  And as long as we are careful not to get black walnut (which can be harmful to equines)  we should be able to use just about any sort of sawdust available.  And it is SO much easier to clean out and put in the compost pile.  We’ve done straw for a few years now and it’s always such a huge chore in the spring to clean out!   We use the deep bedding method to help keep the buildings warm, and it sure does work… but springtime clean out is just a huge huge chore!!!    We hope that this change will make it a little easier.

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Hard to see, but they are piling it up in the far back…  all the composted straw…  it’s going to be a long long bed about 60 or 70 feet long and we will grown pumpkins, squash and zuccinni along the big bed!   I think it will be lovely!   

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We moved the little chicks out to the poultry barn…  just one more step towards big chicken life in the coop!   They are doing so well…  getting to be nice young pullets!   We are waiting on a new batch in our incubator to hatch…  I candled them last night and they seem to be developing nicely!   Lots of good blood viens, dark masses and movement.   I think they should start hatching this coming week.  

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Oh my gosh!   Look how lovely the rabbits look!   We had this wonderful heavy white plastic material and Jess and I trimmed up a few pieces to make some skirts to cover up their potty pans underneath.   And then we pressure washed the floor and scrubbed it with a brush…  sprayed all the walls and screens, it’s amazing in there.  And we dragged out a bunch of old junk to the courtyard…  this weekend our village had a huge rolloff for spring junk and trash!   We took three full van loads over!  Yah!   It’s quite amazing how much stuff you accumulate in a little homestead farm.  I just don’t know where the stuff comes from!  (Well, yeah, it’s us…  still… it does seem to breed and get out of hand!)  I just love how nice and tidy the rabbit cages came out!  Love that pressure washer!!!   Can’t wait to get out and use it on some other areas!!!  And the house!   And the windows!   And the car!   oh my…   I can see this getting very out of hand!  I can’t believe we’ve gone this long without one!   I think it’s a must have for any homestead.   Just so very useful!   

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About Mobymom

the banjo player for Deepwater Bluegrass, and the editor of BuckeyeBluegrass.com as well as the main graphic designer of the Westvon Publishing empire. She is a renaissance woman of many talents and has two lovely daughters and a rehab mobile home homestead to raise.

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