Scenes from a crunchy con marriage
Wednesday July 30, 2008
Actual real-life dialogue from my house this morning, as I saw Julie perusing something on the computer: Me: "What are you looking at?" Her: "I made a deal with a horse farm to pick up some horse manure." Silence. Her:...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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I am so happy for you! Chickens in the laundry room - a major step in the right direction! And don't worry too much about the minivan. I hauled feed sacks of cow and guinea manure around for two days and it was barely noticeable. To me.
Oo, I wonder if I'll get to be the first poster! Better say something nice, just in case! ; ) Well, in my never very humble opinion, well-composted horse manure smells nice. And even if it doesn't, just say to yourself, "That's the smell of money!" If you like, you can tell Julie I'm wildly jealous. Of her manure!
Sounds like my house, except throw in two witty, sarcastic teen-age girls.
My advice: get some guinea fowl and a copy of "You Can't Take It With You."
When you start referring to the pool as the cement pond we'll know you've gone to far.
Actually sigaliris is right, composted manure is no big deal and I've had it in the back of the minivan. Raw manure is another matter entirely.
Sorry Rod, but you've got a long way to go in terms of suburban homesteading. I've hauled dairy goats in a Toyota hatchback, and manure, hay and much more in a minivan. The pig slept in our bed for awhile. Good shirts sometimes are more valuable as milk strainers. Our chickens slept in the closet. Buy your first T-post driver sooner rather than later. Horses will come in your house if you let them. Herd guardian dogs crap really, really big.
Oh, and don't worry about manure smells in your car. They clear out pretty quickly. Dead animal smell is something else, though, so make sure you've got carcass disposal plans in mind. Mommy never taught me that disposing of dead livestock is always the husband's job.
:-)
Happy memories.
Bless,
Doug
MH is right. There is a big difference between fresh and well-composted. I've hauled composted sheep manure a few times in a minivan, and it was fine. No mess, no smell. Don't worry.
If you're going to keep chickens in the house, you're also going to need a banjo, a shotgun, a rocking chair on your front porch, a few bottles of Night Train, a proper hat and a whole lotta attitude.
Good for you, Rod! You are in for some fun!
You have chickens in your house and you're worried about how your car will smell?
If, rather than using sacks, you use big plastic boxes or dustbins, etc., you can cart even fresh manure, and it won't leak.
Alternatively, you could get a little trailer to attach to the back of your car, or, if you want to go really green, you could get a trailer for your bicycle!
I wonder if First Sergeant would notice three wee little chickens in a barracks room? ;)
My time will come soon enough. Now I just to find a day job, not sure I'm going to be able to support myself entirely off the land. ;)
Congratulations on the chickens!! Please do a post on this sometime and let us know the details.
for some odd reason the theme from Green Acres started playing in my head as I read this post. Can't wait for Arnold and Mr. Ziffle to show up
Someone may have already alerted you to this, but be aware that horse manure tends not to kill off weed seeds like cow manure. Better to get composted cow manure from a local stockyards. Often with horse manure, even of the composted variety, you'll end up with various pasture weeds in your yard as a result. And be aware that any manure - composted or not - does, indeed, stink and attracts flies.
I love Julie! "You better believe it" (Queen LaTifah style)
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