The Cultured Home

Sold as grass, looks like straw, and the animals won't eat it

Sometimes we paint ourselves into corners and then make mistakes when we try to get out.

Last week we found ourselves out of hay.  Well, we did have half of a bale left, but I’d say we were plum out.  I drove down to the local feed store before they closed on Friday evening and bought 3 bales at $15 each (ouch!), which would be enough to get us through the weekend when we could get more from our usual source of weed-rich prairie hay from Ellensburg, WA at $5/bale.

Friday night a friend called and asked if we would go in with her on buying 50 bales from a farmer in Kent, WA  for $6/bale.  We joined her and our 35 hay bales showed up the next afternoon. 

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 We collected this soil sample at the very end of July, 2010.   The charge was $30/analysis.  We have a good relationship with our Vet, Dr. Paul Dettloff, so we chose to go with his usual lab & routine.

Sample #1: The grazing area is from a mixture of samples of the rich black soil that is in the south west corner of our property.  It’s full of moisture & organic matter.

Sample #2: The Soccer Field is field is a mixture of samples from the flat area adjacent our shop & barn, and also some samples taken from the ground south and east of the big cedar tree below the house.  Both of these areas have been graded.  It’s just fill dirt from construction of the buildings, and had zero topsoil when we moved in. 

Results show our need for Calcium, Sulfur, & Boron

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There are about 8 oz of worms in a gallon of bedding

I’ve run a worm box for my kitchen scraps for about 10 years, and they work great.  We usually generate between 2 and 10 lbs of scraps each day, too much for a single 2ft x 4ft worm box.  I solved that problem by just building more worm boxes–I have 3 of them and they are wonderful!

In 2009, I introduced some of my red wriggler population to my manure pile.  They did a great job.  After about 6 months of increasing population I could tell that it was working because they had really filled up the heap.  The compost was still composting at about the same rate, but my system had changed for the better.  I now have a host of worms working through my compost.

I no longer create large heaps of hot compost, and I no longer have to turn the piles. read more »