Augean Stable

It is raining. It is Raining. It is RAINING.

Our barn is built on a slope and water does indeed flow downhill. I puzzle over the barn-on-a-slope construction every time I splatter through the mud, and Ive come to the conclusion that it must have been built with the Augean Stable Plan. You know the story; one of Hercules 12 tasks was to clean out thirty years of accumulated barn gold for King Augeas in one day. Remember too that this barn held a thousand or more prize ruminants. Hercules did what any farm hand in a hurry would do; first he made a big hole in the back of the barn, then he diverted a couple of nearby rivers to flow through it. Very Efficient. Manure, like water, flows downhill, especially when the force of a couple of rivers is behind it.

The flow of water through our barn is not quite as spectacular as the force of two diverted rivers, but is nonetheless awe-inspiring in weather like this. Mud can be get really deep in a hurry, even when there is only the accumulated waste of 5 ruminants and one season of manure. The dairy goats dont like rain and they dont like sucking mud too much either; going outside to the water buckets was low on their list yesterday. So there wasnt the usual quantity of milk this morning. I braved the quagmire and moved the buckets inside. There will be more milk tomorrow.