Probably too much information
Posted on February 21, 2009 - Filed Under animals, compost, donkey, farm maintenance, fertilizer, food safety, goats, horse, ick!, manure, pasture, vegetables, weather
Oh today was a lovely day filled with cool, but not cold, temperatures; clear blue skies; no pestering bugs; birds singing. So how did I spend it? Shoveling sh*t. Sorry, I suppose I could have used a “nicer” word (I do consider myself a G-rated site), but when it comes down to it that particular word truly fits the job.
Today, I focused on donkey droppings (there, an euphemism, better? Let’s see how many I can come up with, that’s 1). Donkey doo (2) is obviously similar to horse hockeys (3) just not as large. The nice thing about Sonic’s bathroom habits is he drops in a few piles (4). BIG piles. He doesn’t like to just drop ‘em wherever he is like the goats. The goats leave a trail wherever they happen to be walking at the time — they don’t even stop. Sonic has actual bathrooms (about three of them in his pen; it’s a spacious one bedroom/ three bath with a view). All in all, it took about ten wheelbarrows full of manure (5) to clean out his area. Unfortunately for Sonic, although he has good bathroom habits, his cleaning service only comes once every few months.
It’s not all bad though. Thankfully, as our animals are mostly grass-fed, there’s really not much smell. And most importantly, those ten wheelbarrows of “waste” (6) will not go to waste. They are now in our pasture garden waiting to be tilled and become much needed fertilizer for the upcoming spring garden. Thank you, Sonic.
Tomorrow, I tackle the horse area. Although not as bad as the goats’ trails of mini-marshmallow size pellets (7), the horses have a loooooong strip of bathroom area. It stretches from one end of the fence line to the other in a pretty straight line about three feet wide. EDITOR’S NOTE: I JUST SPENT THE LAST 2 HOURS RAKING HORSE CRAP (9). I EITHER LIVE IN A DREAM WORLD OR HAVE NO CONCEPT OF SIZE. THE AREA IS ACTUALLY ABOUT 25 FEET WIDE (NOT THREE). OY. And their dung (8) is much bigger both in particle and in pile. Well, I guess that just means much more fertilizer.
One important rule pops to mind: even though they may be chemical free, they come from composted and naturally fertilized dirt, people, so always wash your fresh veggies before eating!
9?
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