We woke up one morning last week to a coating of ice on everything from a freezing rain just before dawn. I went out to the big barn, just 40 feet or so from the house, but found myself sliding down the iced-over pavement back towards the house. Time for … ash!
Yes, for conditions like this, we do what the old-timers did — sprinkle wood ashes for traction. Safe, chemical free and well, completely free — our wood boiler produces plenty of ashes all winter long — we've found ashes are indispensible when ice becomes treacherous.
We do wear
cleats, too, for navigating outside while doing chores, but if you just want to get between buildings, or bring dogs in from the yards, you don't want to have to put cleats on every time you step in and out of the house. (Those cleats are just a little hard on the floors!)
So we keep buckets of ash by the doors for spreading pathways as necessary. After taking that photo above, I clawed my way back the house, picked up the ash bucket, and started spreading my way to the barn. Here's what it looked like:
The freezing rain heralded a warm-up in the weather, generating a rapid snowmelt over the last two days of the past week, and then … another freeze-up. So while the pavement is now bare and dry, the last few inches of snow is now covered in ice, especially where there had been any foot traffic (dog or human), so we are cleated for chores and spreading ash liberally where needed!
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New Shelter Challenge Contest — Please Vote for the Farm!
The latest Shelter Challenge started Monday, January 7 and ends on April 28. Grand prize in this round is $10,000, $3,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.
*** You will find us listed as Rolling Dog Farm. The state is NH for New Hampshire. ***
Please remember, you can vote every day … consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.
We just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the last contest, and thousands more in the previous contests. The Shelter Challenge really does bring in a lot of money for the animals here!
You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.
Thank you for your votes!
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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