Sunday, February 7, 2010

What do you do with a giant pile of horseshit?

No, no. Literal horseshit.

My neighbors that I shovel goat shit for are planning to reduce their goat flock, possibly getting out of the business entirely, and concentrate on horses. They're buying two more mares, so rather than a quick rake-out of one big stall I'll be required to shovel a lot more horseshit in the future. I've no philosophical problem with this, but there's a practical difficulty in that the corrals are quite far from the shitpile and it would take several trips with the little tilt-tub wagon I haul the shit and bedding with. I've only got one leg and it's no great shakes; for me the only part of the job I find hard is pulling that wagon.

I had this idea: what if instead of filling the wagon over and over, I brought the Jeep's trailer and filled it just once? I'd rather fork horseshit twice than have to deal with that wagon. Then I had another idea: I'm already planning to bring composted horseshit home for the garden and the fruit trees, so what if once I loaded the horseshit into the trailer I brought it home rather than emptying it into the neighbor's manure pile? I'm pretty sure the neighbors wouldn't object. It needs to cook for a year or so before it's good fertilizer, but then it's great fertilizer.

I mentioned it to W and he was all in favor, but there is this nagging little question - where do you put a giant steaming pile of horseshit, where it's not so close you have to look at it and smell it but not uselessly far away? It's something I'll need to discuss with Landlady; I've a feeling she might shoot the idea down entirely. She might be right to. After all, I can always get more from the neighbors; they've got mountains of the shit.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"where do you put a giant steaming pile of horseshit?
On your day off you could drive it to DC. The boys would love the ride.;.)

Plug Nickel Outfit said...

Funny, I just made note a few days ago to get in touch with a neighbor to arrange to get some of their horseshit. It's that time of the year when gardeners start with their preps for the advancing season! I'm figuring that with the right handling and turning - and adding it to my existing compost - that I can get it conditioned for use as an additive within a few months.

WV: wormis