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!

The Blessings of a manure pile.

A great thing happened today. I've been reading a book about composting and have learned that one of the most important agents/activators at work in a compost pile is nitrogen and that one of the most important sources of nitrogen is manure (cow, horse, sheep, goats, etc.). Whenever I put in household food scraps, I need to cover them well with manure and earth, enough to cover the smells and keep out the critters. Well, it just so happens that one of our closest neighbors has a horse farm. So I walked down and asked if they would like to part with any of their manure. The very nice young lady who owns the horses immediately said, "Help yourself to as much as you want." We had a really pleasant chat and she left to go pick up a pizza. I came back to the house, did a few things, then got my garden wagon and spade and walked back down the road. She and I got to her driveway at the same time. I walked up behind the stable to the manure pile and she came out the back of the barn doing her chores. And we talked some more. We discovered that we both like the smell of horse manure. I told her to let me know if she needed help mucking out the stalls and she said anytime I wanted to I was welcome. I think I will go down soon to help. That is good work. I remember as a kid, shoveling out the cow stalls at my aunt's farm. I loved her and the farm so much that I loved even doing that. Maybe only a true horse lover would feel the way we do, but there you are.

So now, I have an endless and very close supply of the needed nitrogen and I've met a very nice neighbor and hopefully made a new friend. If that's not a blessing, I don't know what is.

Next, I need to get a paper shredder.

STUFF and nonsense

Cloudy and cool and supposed to rain. Got new glasses today and I still have to zoom way in to see what I'm writing. Oh well. Here's what they look like:

I had to put them down on my nose in order to keep from getting light glare in the pic. Not easy to do with Photobooth.

So-o-o-o, I finally got my ebay account set up and have two items listed. They are vintage magazines, The American Woman, from 1921, published in Augusta, Maine of all places. The cover art is fantastic, wish I could post a picture, but for some reason, the upload doesn't work. Not supporting the new Photoshop software, will have to figure that out. I am still SO computer illiterate. Maybe I have to send the photos to iphoto first. Whatever. They can be found on ebay under Collectibles>vintage magazines. Worth a look.

Maybe my life can become a little less cluttered by getting rid of some of the STUFF collected over 64 years. It has to, especially since J wants to go to the auction every weekend and get more STUFF!

Spring work

My goodness, I can't believe it has been so long since I posted. Time really flies when you are busy. Our peas are up about 3-4" and the swiss chard and lettuce are up. The radishes never came, so I bought new seeds and replanted. Have to wait and see. Have put in a couple rows of spinach as well. Today we spent all morning building a compost bin and starting the pile. I started with the turf that came off the garden area, putting the clumps in upside down, then a layer of grass and weeds, then food scraps (peelings, eggshells, coffee grounds, etc.), then another layer of turf, composted manure, a thin layer of wood chips, and loam. I raked up a pile of old leaf mold from just inside the woods behind the back yard and am letting it dry out (as it rained yesterday) before adding it to the pile. This is going to be a lot of work, but it will be good work and good for me.

Everything is so green and lush already. If it had not been so cold today, one would think it was summer. The lilacs are in full bloom. We have enjoyed one bouquet already; now it is time to cut another. J brought home a bunch of asparagus for me today from a house down the road. Happily he doesn't like it, so I could eat the whole bunch myself and I did. I can't believe how much better it tasted than what you buy at the grocery store. Delicious. last year I started an asparagus bed at the farm, but have to wait another year before harvesting it. Last week I weeded and remulched with composted manure and a thick layer of hay, and stalks are already shooting up through it all almost a foot. Really looking forward to next spring and being able to eat my own fresh asparagus.

Happy Mothers' Day ladies!