Our friend and neighbor Jack Macmillan came over this afternoon with his tractor and his wife Kim to tackle the manure pile that remains from winter. Jack is a maestro on that tractor, he played it like a fiddle. The pile was about 10 feet long and five feet high. Every morning, after we feed the animals, Maria and I grab a shovel and a rake, and I rake the manure into the shovel (it is big) and she hauls it out to the manure pile, which grew rapidly once winter came and the donkeys and sheep were in the Pole Barn much of the day and night with nothing much to do but eat and poop.

We discuss our manure constantly. How much? Where will we put it? Will there be more in the summer? Should we add other piles or keep growing this one.  There was plenty of manure in the barn today and it was sunny and warm, so Jack may be back here in the fall. Kim was surprised we were so excited about moving the manure pile, but we explained to her that this is a momentous moment for us.

For one thing, it will smell better. Maybe I won’t get knocked into the manure pile if there isn’t one. Also, we have cleared out the tires, now the pile. Nice open view. We consider every improvement of our new farm a sacred rite. And we talked about manure and shoveled it all winter. Everybody with a farm and animals talks about manure. I have been studying it for years – how it turns to powder, the different kinds of manure different animals produce.  Sheep leave small little pellets, cows drop staggering loads. Most of the donkey manure appears as golf ball size droppings. Heavy and wet, hard to shovel. Ask Maria. Jack and Kim took a trailer haul for our garden and Jack left us a good pile for our gardens. We are talking about manure again – where in the garden shall we put it? Below, Jack and Red survey the good work. Tomorrow, dinner with Jack and Kim to celebrate the removal of the manure pile. Photo Album on Facebook, of course.

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Manure is a seminal, little-heralded part of life on a farm when there are livestock. You don’t hear much about manure, but I can tell you we talk about it every single day here. We have three donkeys and five sheep out there and they produce a quite shocking amount of manure (I remember when I had three cows, I couldn’t believe it). We deal with manure all of the time, it is perhaps our greatest creative challenge.