Saturday we shoveled manure. Because of a variety of reasons, not limited to ones such as having a baby, working full-time, graduating a teenager and getting him off to college 4 states away, the barn has not been cleaned out for close to 3 years. Since we use the old manure pack technique, it is supposed to be done once or twice per year. The eight foot ceiling in the barn is about 6 feet high right now. Being 5'11, walking where the goats walk makes me feel I need to duck. This isn't like grain-fed cow lagoon slop. This is hay and grass-fed, thick, healthy stiff garden fertilizer. You won't find lethal e-coli, or John's diseases in this stuff. It smells, but not that sick smell - I actually like the smell of healthy manure.
I paid a friend of my daughter's to come help, and we made a party of it. My daughter has been my manure-shoveling buddy several times in the past. She wouldn't admit it, but I think she actually enjoys working with me doing this.
My brother rebuilt a 4-sided small tractor-pulled wagon we've had since we were children (I'm 43), that we use among other things, to transport the manure from the barn to the garden. It took him about a year to get the trailer rebuilt, but it is a pretty, bright green trailer. Behind the red Farmall, it looks like Christmas. The only good part left on it before his work was the metal fork, axle and tires. It amazes me to look at a 30 y/o reconditioned trailer. It is like an old friend.
The far half of the garden has been fallow for 15 years. Back then, I tilled, raked and seeded half of the acre garden to become lawn, all by myself, so my aging parents could have a more manageable size place to work. The plan is to make it back into garden again. We will fertilize it by letting the manure sit through the winter, and then till it in, in the spring. We will make it back into the big garden it once was, and maybe I'll make it to the farmer's market next summer to sell the extra veggies I grow in it.
We have 15-20 goats and 7 or so sheep. 3 years of manure accumulation in the barn is, well, a big job. We have it about 1/10th done from one entire afternoon. But we did find the concrete floor of the barn. It is amazing how inspiring it feels to see a huge pile in one corner of soil that has been fallow for 15 years. The manure is chock full of earthworms. There are no artificial hormones; virtually no antibiotics; very little medication in this manure. My neck and shoulder are pleasantly stiff.
3 years ago, the last time we did this, my husband's neice was visiting from their farm in Colorado. She helped for just a few hours. She told us she had never done this by hand. Her father had a front end loader. Our two Farmalls are not equipped with front end loaders. Manure and garden forks (the hand kind) cost about $25-30; and shoveling is an EXCELLENT weight loss program. Plus, it makes me feel good to see all those earthworms. It means my barn, despite being full of manure, is healthy, and they are all going into my garden to grow healthy food next summer. Talk about a job that connects you with your food.
It gives me a wonderful sense of well-being. Everyone should have to shovel manure and grow a garden.
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