A Composting System for Small Horsefarms

This is one of the first projects the RoadQueen and I took on last year when we were getting our horse farm up and running.  While she is the equine expert I simply enjoy building things and being a gardener I can appreciate a system that yields wagons full of cured compost for my garden.

We found plans and theory of operation for this system from the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension and the Oklahoma State University. Here is the pdf. 

Some of the materials we already had on hand. These were panels of heavy stock fencing, T-posts and a pile of pea gravel to make a raised base to keep the manure pile up off the ground. To cover the gravel we laid heavy one inch thick rubber stall mats to make forking and shoveling easier.  I fabricated corner brackets to connect and stiffen the 2 x 12 frame from 1/16" aluminum.

We started adding to the bin right away from stall clean outs and paddock area.  The key is to continue to add to the pile mixing in fresh manure to the older stuff working towards the open end of the bin.  After 11 months we had the bin about three quarters full.

 

Over time microorganisms and bacteria worked their magic and now I am forking out beautiful black gold to fortify my garden soil.

 

Unfortunately we don't have a tractor with a front end loader yet so all the lifting is done by hand and I use a small garden tractor and cart to transport the compost to my garden.  While shoveling shit is not the least bit glamorous or fun I'll still take it over the boring repetition of lifting weights in a gym.

 

Spreading Manure

Today I spread some aged manure on the garden plot.  Living with horses has many advantages one of which is a nearly endless supply of very nutrient rich compost. 

The mowing crew.

My mother taught me gardening and the love of it has stuck with me all my life.  When I lived in the city I only had a small strip on the south side of my house where I could cultivate a small crop of tomatoes and maybe a few pepper plants.  The rest of the property had too much shade and not enough sunlight to support a vegetable garden.

Here is a few photos from previous years:

While I like to can, dry and freeze a lot of my harvest it is nice to eat fresh from the garden.  The above photo shows tomatoes, jalapeno and red chili peppers ready for a batch of homemade chili.

A feature I noticed right away when looking at the farm was a perfectly situated garden spot chosen by the former owner. I wasn't going to grow a garden last year because we had so much going on having just moved. In the end I threw a few plants in the ground anyways and we enjoyed this first garden on the farm.

Here is the garden about mid summer 2016:

  

From left: Sweetcorn, tomatoes, cabbage, bell, cayenne and jalapeno peppers.  

This year after some extensive soil building I'm looking forward to many hours spent working my little plot.  Back in the fall I covered the entire garden with leaves once they all fell and now I'll continue to cart loads of manure up and start tilling it in.

Springtime Flowers

The last time I was back in the woods the ground was covered in dead brown leaves. This weekend I took a walk back and discovered the renewal of spring in full bloom.

 

My knowledge of botany is limited so I have no idea of the name of this ground cover. In any case it sure is nice to see things greening up finally.

 

Life On The Farm - Forestry Project

Moving from the city about a year ago to a farm in the country has been a life changing event to say the least.  In the past I spent much of my free time with my bikes.  Living in the city with only a small lot to take care of left ample time for velo-related activities. Never one to shy away from some honest hard work I've found that the farm provides a plethora of projects to work on to keep me busy and fit.

Since I'm not so focused on the bike world I have decided to start a new topic on the blog and call it "Life On The Farm". Over the past year I continued to document my projects photographically and I'm going to make an attempt to get back to posting these endeavors here.

The back of our property is made up of a small three acre woodlot. We have Oaks, Maples, Hickory among other deciduous species.   A few weeks ago because of the lack of snow and the fact that the ground cover is dormant I decided to start cleaning up the area of downded branches and trees.  Our farm sat vacant for nearly ten years so there is lots of sticks to be picked up.

I've always enjoyed being in the woods whether mountain biking; hunting or simply sitting still watching the birds.  Even though the woods is only a meager three acres it doesn't seem to matter and I spend a lot of time being back there. And best of all I can call it my own. Well, maybe eventually I can when the bank is paid off.

A couple weeks ago we had a few days of very strong winds move through the area.  The fifty-plus mph gusts brought down a large Ash.  Years ago the woods was filled with many beautiful and tall Ash trees.  Unfortunately the Emerald Ash Borer moved in and decimated the Ash population.  Several of these trees are on the ground but many more are still standing dead waiting for the wind and gravity to have their way.

The first weekend after the wind storms I headed back and with the help of Wyatt and the RoadQueen we got busy converting this giant to firewood.  I'd rather have a forest full of healthy Ash trees but I suppose the one consolation is we won't have to buy firewood for quite some time.

When the Ash toppled it took out a couple smaller trees one of which it bent over fully and held there under tension.  Anyone who's been around woods and chainsaws knows this is a very dangerous situation.  After cutting as close as I dared to the area where the two trunks made contact I rigged up my winch to a thirty foot tow strap and eased the larger trunk off the smaller.  This way I was able to keep well clear of the danger area. The Ash slid off easily enough but I wasn't sure what the smaller tree under tension would do once freed from the weight of the Ash.  In the end it only whipped up a few feet.  Its base was splintered pretty bad at ground level.

The next day we sawed the massive trunk into managable pieces (see opening picture) ready for transport back to the woodshed.

 

Here's a shot of Wyatt tending the fire.  We're in the process of burning out an old stump using branches that are too wet or rotted to be burned in the indoor woodburner.