Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Mount Manure

Have you ever heard of Mount Manure? Not many people have.
Well Mount or Mt. Manure is just as it sounds. It is a mountain of manure.

Where does it come from? It comes from cleaning the animals stalls.

What does it do? It sits around for a while and heats up. Then it gets turned. And it heats up some more and gets turned some more and so on...Until...It is cured.

How do you know when it is cured? There will be this rich earthen smell (aroma). It is one of the most rich earth smells that I have ever smelled.

What do you do with it? I put it around my plants. I level out spots in the yard. I use it to propagate plants. I use it in flower beds.

If there another name for it? Once it is cured then it is called compost. Some people call it compost before it is cured. And actually that is what it is. I prefer to call it Mt. Manure because I am the one that does most of the stall cleaning and composting. That way I feel like I am literally taming mountains.

I usually build mounds of compost about 6 foot long, 4 foot wide and about 2 or 3 foot tall. I try to turn it at least once a week, that way the curing process can really work. It will heat up on the inside. So I have to turn it to make sure that the outside gets composted also.

I figure it like this. I take care of my horses and they take care of me. In goes the grass, grain and hay. And out comes the compost. My little way to give back to mother nature.

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