Manure

Well, it's officially winter now, and it's cold! My sister reminded me the other day, though, that we really only have two more months of winter before it begins to warm up in March - woohoo!

The beautiful Seed Savers Exchange catalog that came the other day provided some inspiration to get through the next few months, AND reminded me that I need to get busy planning some vegetables. At least the winter months do allow time for planning.......and dreaming....

In the spirit of garden planning, I've been oogling the horses across the street from our house. Well, more specifically, I've been admiring their manure (which is accumulating quickly on their tiny little pasture). For the non-gardeners, that might sound a little strange, but if you've ever had the luck to add composted horse manure to your gardens you would totally understand.

On Monday afternoon I noticed the owner outside and I shuffled across the busy road to introduce myself and present my proposition for some manure. The guy was super nice and didn't even blink an eye when I asked if I could scoop some of his poop for my compost. We talked a bit about his horses and then he told me that he's lived there for 40 years! The busy road that now divides his property from ours was just a dirt road when he first moved there and his family used to run cows on what is now our neighborhood (our house was built in the mid-80's). It was really interesting to hear him talk about what the area used to look like, albeit a little sad. But the more important thing is that he whole heartily agreed that I could indeed have as much manure as I wanted as long as I picked it up myself.

So, this afternoon I spent about an hour walking through his field with a pitchfork and bucket shuttling manure from field to tub in the back of my truck and over to my compost bin. I'm sure it was quite a sight - me pulling a bucket and too small pitchfork (definitely time to invest in a new one!) around the field with two curious horses following me from field to truck at least a dozen times. Crazy looks and car honks aside, I'm mighty pleased with the new arrangement and will anxiously await adding glorious compost to my vegetable beds this spring.

Now......because I promised more photographs with my posts, and I surely didn't think anyone would be interested in photos of horse poop, a few from my fall "garden" this year and my compost bin built from old deck boards this fall...... I think I have some better pictures of the lettuce on my camera, but the battery is currently dead.....maybe I'll share those later.