Making Gold

When you have these...

You get this. This is our foaling/run in shed. When we're not foaling, we leave the side door of this huge stall open to the barn lot pasture so the horses have a way of getting in from bad weather, the hot sun, or just to loaf around in. When they're in there though....lots of poo happens. We load it up with shavings about 3 times a year, and soon it looks and smells pretty nasty...

It's a daunting task. It takes Shannon and I about an hour to strip it and lime it. However, the benefits are "black gold." We take this nastiness, and pile it in our compost bin and soon, we will be able to use it on our garden and flower beds. Great, FREE fertilizer! All it takes is some horses, or any livestock/chicken animal to do their business, elbow grease, and time. And VIOLA!

We have this! This is already really broken down. We're just going to give it a few more months of sitting in the sun, and we'll be set.

One thing I have learned is that if your stall or coop starts to smell, just add
carbon. Carbon in the form of an organic material such as shavings, straw, or whatever bedding you prefer to use, and it absorbs the ammonia, and stink...it starts to chemically react and break down. See, dad, I'm using the info from that organic chemistry class you paid a lot of money for in college!!! Aren't you proud?