A Load of Crap

(I reeled you in with the title of this post, didn't I?) 

After our gardening friends left Sunday, Scott and I began chatting about some things we could do to enhance our growing area outside.  You know you have good friends when they inspire you to do better and think bigger.  Well, I totally left my comfort zone and called up a horse ranch in our area and asked if we could come take some of their manure.  Are you giggling yet?

Scott took the afternoon off on Monday and we headed out to Carefree Ranch in Chapel Hill.  The kids and I crammed in the Subaru after we emptied out the back of our van to make room for buckets full of poo.  Why do we want it?  Because horse manure is super rich for the garden soil.  

We arrived at the ranch and were totally blown away by the beauty surrounding us.  Not only were the animals breathtakingly gorgeous, but the land was so well kept and pretty.   Robbie, the caretaker of the horses, met us at the barn and was super helpful and nice.  She showed us around a bit and I soon realized that not only were we getting manure for our garden, but we were on an unplanned field trip (those are the best).

The kids and I walked around with Robbie to see some horses and Scott began shoveling.  :)  I did pick up a shovel at one point.  (Hee hee.)  After a bit, Robbie took us to the pasture and we were able to see more horses.  Robbie, Scott, and later Julian shoveled manure from the pasture the horses were in.  

We'll definitely be returning to Carefree Ranch.  For now, there is a huge mound of horse crap in our garden.  It has to sit for weeks (to compost) before we can use it.  Ahh . . . the richness of life!

Those are blue eyes you see.  Gorgeous, isn't he?

Waco, the ranch dog.  The kids loved him.

Here's Scott showing the kids some of the manure.  Since our kids don't know that much about horse poo, he showed them how well you can tell what they eat.  It was pretty clear to them why that would be helpful for our garden.