It's all about WATER!

WATER....we cannot live without it. We need it to survive.

So do all the animals on our farm.

Every few days dams are checked all over the farm.

Dams are slowly shrinking away to puddles of mud.

When it gets to this level the animals cannot get in to drink water, without getting stuck.

Stuck in the mud and unable to get out.

Most of the dams on our farm are bigger than this and the animals can still get to water easily.

But the dams on our new farm are much smaller and very old. 

Over many years the dams collect alot of mud, and need cleaning out.

So a VERY MESSY job begins.....silt scoopng.

It is a little like a game of tug-o-war using....

two tractors, a very long wire rope and a big, big scoop!

The scoop is dragged back and forth through the dam, each time removing piles and piles of sticky, icky, gooey MUD!

A tractor on each end of the rope pulls the scoop in and out of the dam,

UNTIL all the mud is out. 

Once the mud dries out PopPop will bring in his bulldozer to make the dam even better.

I spent some time in the small tractor with Dad, but after a while it was time to explore.

Look what I found!

I also found another little playmate...my little sister came see what was going on.

I think she had better stay away from that big pile of mud!

Moving on, the pipe into the big dam that feeds all the water troughs needs replacing.

My own private beach...

Now I just need to master the swimming!