Raking to recycle

Helped our neighbor muck out 4 horse stalls today; great fun and great exercise. Brought back another little green wagon full of fresh manure for the compost pile. Also they have 5 baby chicks, so cute. Life is good.


Raking up the manure and trying to sift out the cleaner, dryer shavings at the same time takes more concentration than one might think. While working, I was again taken back to childhood at my aunt's farm and shoveling out the cow stalls. We didn't have to worry about being cost-conscious with shavings or trying to recycle as many dry ones as we could.  It was all just shoveled up and thrown out the window onto the pile and new laid down. Probably back then, Uncle didn't use shavings, but hay which didn't cost anything except labor. There was always plenty of it in the barn. I really can't remember. I know there is a huge amount of shavings there now, but whether or not there was then, I can't say. Whichever the case, he didn't worry about saving any of it. Of course, he could never have been accused of being an environmentalist either. Times change and resources become much more expensive, so this method of using a shovel-style rake to sift the shavings from the chunks makes great sense in many ways.


I hope that I did a good job and helped my new friend. She sounded very grateful saying that I had made it possible for her to have a lot more time to work in her garden, so I guess I did.  I just know that I had fun, got to see some beautiful animals and learned a lot. 


While working in the stalls, I had several visitors, Chelsea, the dog and a couple of pretty hens, Blondie and I don't know the names of the others. Also, the really beautiful rooster, Frank, stopped by. They didn't stay long, just dropped in to say hello and then moved on. 


What a great day!