When I first started my blog, I wrote a post about closing the nutrient cycle. From that post I shared our philosophy regarding how we utilize manure to grow nutritious food without the use of chemicals or industrial fertilizers as the animals help us with that process.
One thing to remember about winter is that everything is frozen. So the decomposition process stops for 4-6 months of the year. However, when spring comes, there is a lot of catch up to do. Imagine 6 months of animal poop frozen in the forest and in the barns suddenly thawing in the warm spring sun. The smell of spring can be pungent and overwhelming for most people. But for me it is the sweet odor that signals the circle of life is continuing to unfold and thrive.
When the snow melts, it soaks up a lot of those nutrients which turns it into compost tea. This picture is brown because the water is loaded with nutrients, including animal feces. As the water flows it distributes those nutrients to rejuvenate the land. It makes fantastic compost tea for our plants and gardens.
What the snow does not take away, I must deal with myself. Spring cleaning takes on a new meaning as it is our job to get it done each spring so that we are ready for the coming season. Besides cleaning up all the wood chips from firewood processing all winter, I must also get the barns and corals cleaned up as well. I'm only about half done as the snow only melted about 10 days ago. This next picture is 75% of the chicken coop manure being hauled out and you can see it steaming away, which is a GREAT sign!
This next picture is the goat manure from the winter of 2016 - 2017. It will be headed for the garden in our efforts to continue building soil. A few years ago I put some corals at the top of a very dry hill as there was no soil up there. Nothing grew. As a result of the animals being up there, the top of the hill now supports the most lush green grass in the pasture. Animals are great at moving nutrients up hill while water moves it down hill.
This last picture is our humanure from this past winter. It will compost over the year and next year I will spread it out on the pasture. This will not be used in gardens as that would break the cycle that we use. If poop stinks, put more carbon on it. We use leaves, wood chips, saw dust, hay or straw to accomplish that goal. The leaves are used for our humanure as the goats and chickens end up eating the leaves if we use it for them. We don't turn our heaps as our time is limited. Our priority is growing food and preparing for the next winter which is just a few short months away.
Ahhhhhh, I love the smell! Especially in the crisp spring morning air.
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