Well, I didn’t actually load it myself – the guy with the skidsteer at the stock yards did. And, not all at once. My truck couldn’t handle that. It would be nice, though.
I spent several hours today hauling eight loads of manure and bedding that they’ve cleaned out of the pens at the livestock buying market in the local town. It’s just over 6 miles away from our home. I can haul two tons per load. Thankfully, I didn’t have to load it with a shovel. The round trip, including helping the guy switch from the forks to the bucket on the skidsteer and watching him load the truck, took 45 minutes. It would have taken a lot longer if my truck didn’t have a dump bed.
I’ve hauled manure from the stock yards before, a few times using the truck. Before that I’ve hauled on my 16 foot trailer. I can haul more with the trailer, but then I have to unload it by hand. If I can figure out how to unload the trailer more easily, then I could bring more each trip. Any ideas?
The stock yard actually pays someone to haul away the manure and bedding that they clean out of the pens. I’m not sure where all he takes it, but I have had him bring some here in the past. It’s probably cheaper to pay him $15 a dump truck load than to haul it myself, but that doesn’t always work out. He can’t get in the bottom here to dump it where I want/need it when the ground is wet (which seems like half the year – the same time during which they stock yards have the most material to get rid of). His schedule also doesn’t always coincide with mine. I’ll work on that. He’s a nice guy, the same one I had dig our pond. He knows I’d like him to haul more. I need to make a point to tell him that I’ll take all he can bring.
So, with today’s hauling, I’ve started my own small mountain of compost. It will take time to build it up. I hauled today because I could get it, and there was some pretty good stuff available. It has a lot of saw dust and some hay in it along with the cattle mess. It was steaming really well when he dug into the pile to load my truck.
On another note. . .
The Giveaway
I’m keeping a record of all the entrants and referrals. I’m also enjoying the comments. A lot of people are saying some very nice things. Some of you would like to buy some maple syrup. I wish I had some to sell. We generally make enough for our use throughout the year, not extra to sell. I can see that if I did have extra, there would be a market.
The bottle I’m giving away, which I wish I could give to everyone, is some that I made this week. What I’ve made so far has been very good. This particular batch had a little more than the giveaway jar which I put in another jar. It actually boiled a little too long while I was bottling the giveaway jar and most of it turned to sugar after bottling (we’ll enjoy it, though). I mention this because it should be an indication of the thickness of the giveaway bottle. It’s not sugar, but the next bit that was still in the pan while bottling it is mostly sugar (I have in the past made syrup that wasn’t as thick as it ought to be – still tasted good, though).
