Around here we do a lot of improvising (stay tuned for a post about what we are doing with a garbage can and a roofing nail… experiment currently under way in the laundry sink…).
And, I also do a lot of schlepping. With my critters living in various locations up and down the road, I am constantly hauling loads of feed from one place to another. I had been improvising with one of those folding luggage carts onto which I had fastened (with bungee cords and binder twine) a sturdy plastic vegetable crate. I don’t have a great photo, though here it is in use hauling pumpkins and squash from the neighbor’s place up to the pigs.
The capacity was a bit limited and on uneven terrain, the whole contraption was very tippy. The handle also tended to collapse at the most inopportune of moments. Worst disaster with this unit occurred when I foolishly tied the dogs to the handle and stopped to pick up a broken bottle from the road. Mistake! The dogs spotted a squirrel and took off, scattering buckets, grain, carrots, and hay all over the road. They terrified themselves when they realized the clattering disaster was chasing after them and tried to flee into the brush. The whole dreadful incident ended with the dogs cowering in the ditch and me standing in the middle of the road with my mouth open, still holding the broken bottle.
For larger loads, the wheelbarrow came in handy.
This worked ok here at our place (and, as long as I didn’t tie the dogs to it), but wasn’t so good going up the hill and along the road to where I keep the turkeys, mostly because I never did figure out a good way to deal with frolicking dogs, laden wheelbarrow, and the hill all at the same time.
Wheelbarrows have also come in handy during the annual winter schlepp of water containers down the hill…
Recently, I procured a new schlepping device, a garden cart that is quite stable, has plenty of capacity, and can be dragged along behind the frolicking dogs.
This has also proven handy during the recent cold snap for hauling water (I can get more into the cart than I can into the wheelbarrow).
What I hadn’t anticipated was it’s usefulness as an ambulance for a turkey who was a bit under the weather.
Look closely at the thing that’s wrapped in my coat behind the empty feed buckets…
After a few days of TLC up at the turkey spa, the patient recovered fully and rejoined the flock.
The other thing that I found a bit surprising was how challenging it was going to be to navigate my way through the goat pen with the cart. I know better than to attempt such a maneuver with goodies in the cart, but coming down through the goat pen with a couple of water jugs shouldn’t have been a problem. Those goats can sniff out a spilled morsel of any sort of grain or seed or fleck of carrot from fifty paces. They charge the cart and surround it, oblivious to my shouts and threats.
The goats swarming the cart in search of spilled treats…
Electra is a bit on the short side, so her solution is to jump right in, all the better to sniff around and lick up anything that might be lickable.
So far, the cart has proven to be worth every penny and probably gets used more than any other single item on the farm. If only all my tools were so darned satisfying…
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