Mud Season: 6 Survival Techniques for the Farm Family and Beyond

I’m not sure what it’s like where you live right now but for us, here in our little piece of God’s country, it’s mud season. We’ve had a couple of good snows. The last one still in the process of melting. And we’ve been blessed with rain. A lot of rain. Leading to So. Much. Mud. Jokes about mud farming are prevalent. So what can we do?

Tips to Survive Mud Season

Wear Dark Socks

So when your boot gets stuck in the mud and you inevitably must remove your foot from the boot and place a socked foot in the mud to have enough leverage to pull the boot from the mud’s sticky grip… At least the sock washing will be easier.

Use the Hose

Clothes, especially farm work clothes are gonna be muddy. There’s really no way around it. Coveralls cover jeans, but then the mud collects on the coveralls making them weigh a ton. They have to be washed. Pants can be tucked in mud boots but they never seem to stay. For a short family like mine, the bottoms of pants get walked on, stepped on, and drug through the mud. BoyChild has a tendency to “fall” a lot, creating even muddier clothes. It’s inevitable. So take a calming breath when one of your crew comes to the house covered head-to-toe with mud and hose those garments off before you let them hit your washing machine.

Let It Go

That dream of clean floors, just let it go. In this kind of mud where you just walk in the grass and the sticky brown sludge squishes up around your shoes, not to mention what happens when trying to complete farm chores, mopping is truly a losing battle. Short of making everyone live outside until the land dries, mud in the house is unavoidable. Do your best, but don’t stress yourself silly about magazine-ready floors. And if you must cry about the mess, at least you can use your tears to fill up the mop bucket.

Embrace the Spatter Look

Prepare to exit the ATV/UTV/RTV wearing mud-brown polka dots. Wear a hat, glasses, wild rag… Cover anything you don’t want to be peppered with over-hydrated dirt.

Make Mud Pies

When God makes mud, make mud pies! Lemons and lemonade and that whole thing. BoyChild loves playing in the mud. He can’t resist a mud hole, mud puddle, muddy cattle or sheep lot. He’s not super fond of pig lot mud. It has to be the stink because the kid will waller in the mud just like a pig. Wintertime mud. Summertime mud. Doesn’t matter. Mud is like a magnet to farm kids, all kids. 

Hold On!

The fastest, wildest, rockiest roller coaster in the best amusement park has nothing on a feed truck going pedal-to-the-metal through ruts and muck; sliding, tires spinning, trying to avoid getting stuck. Bouncing. Slinging. Buckle up & Hold on!

Try To Be Thankful

Sure it’s muddy, slippery, sticky, and inconvenient right now. Yet old farmers say to be thankful for the rain when it comes because one day when it stops, we’ll be praying for it once more.

How do you survive mud season?