I'm gonna tell a little more story about this if anyone is interested. About Missy and her work. She was just - wonderful. https://twitter.com/homemadeguitars/status/1349495636232691719

2. The sled as about an 8 foot long, 2 foot wide, hunk of old corrugated roofing / siding metal, with some wood to give it shape. Here's a pic of Abe pulling it a few years ago, cleaning out the chicken house. Same thing we did yesterday.

3. The great thing about the sled for cleaning up is I don't have to lift the material. Just back the sled right against the doorway, drag / rake the old litter across the floor, and out onto the sled. Then rake it off the sled into the garden.
Saves a huge amount of effort.

4. But yesterday it was harder to get the sled into place. I've got a trailer full of materials for another project parked too close outside the chicken yard fence, and can't just drive her up, turn her 90°, and back her in.

5. instead, I have to drive her through a narrow gap between trailer, gate, and fence, then stop her, unhitch the sled (one hook to chain), drive her up a couple feet, and manhandle the sled into position.
Then fill it with litter.

6. When the sled is full, I can either back her back to it, or walk her forward, around the trailer, into the narrow gap, stop her, re-hook the singletree to the sled chain, then ease her up to make the sled pivot around the gate post & follow her,

7. then around the trailer again, out into the yard where the garden patch is, drive her into position where the next load of litter goes, rake some out, up a couple steps, rake the rest out, return to chicken house.
About five or six loads, all told.

8. By about the third load she had this down. I held the lines to drive her, but just the least hint when it was time for the next turn, she'd do that. She had it down.
G was helping, holding her to keep her from walking off during the standing periods, which are hardest for them

9. Although mostly "holding her" consisted of standing by her head talking to her, telling her she was a good girl for standing, and giving her the occasional goodie. Once in a while reaching a hand to her lead rope & saying, "Stand, now."

10. Before we started we had to pull a bunch of last summer's weed stalks out of the gateway and working space. We piled them aside.
So when we got done with chicken litter, G asked me to take the pile of weed stalks across the road and put them in a spot where they were useful.

10. I told her that would work better with the cart, and went to put the sled away & hitch up the cart. G went to one of her summer gardens & began pulling old weeds.
By the time I had Missy hitched to the cart & the weed stalks loaded, G had a pile of stalks over there.

11. So I went and added her pile to what I already had. Missy & I took those across the road and piled them in a gully we're working on slowing water flows through, where there were already some old round bales to hold them.
When we got back, G was still weeding.

12. So I drove Missy over to G & said, "Here, she can stand here and graze while you work. Pile your weeds on the cart. I'm going to go work in the chicken house - call me when you're done or the cart is full."
Didn't tie her, just dropped her lead rope to the ground.

13. She worked another half hour to hour out there, with Missy just standing around grazing lawn grass while G slowly filled her cart. When she was done she called me.
She had such a big pile of stems and stalks I had to tie it down, using a rope that lives in the cart.

14. After tying the load down I picked up the lines and asked Missy to walk on.
We took this second load over to our work spot & unloaded it.
When we got back to the home site I left her, again, to stand hitched, free, and graze for a while.

15. After a while I saw I wouldn't be needing the cart anymore for the job at hand, so I had her back it into its parking place, and go back into her stall.
The other children get treats through all this process too. "They also serve who only stand and wait."