Canesisters 2023 journal - turning my Disasters into Delights

[canesisters]

Sooooo..... a basic tractor with a bucket is $300+ per day.

I'll wait till after the new year & ask my neighbor. It would be best to wait till a freeze so the mud isn't too bad.

 

[Ridgetop]

If it is frozen, moving the pile may be harder. Although since it is steaming, it should not freeze. Do you have a garden or compost area to put it?

 

[canesisters]

If it is frozen, moving the pile may be harder. Although since it is steaming, it should not freeze. Do you have a garden or compost area to put it?

Just a pile in the middle of the pasture.

I'm missing some important composting detail, I think. I've made sooo many compost piles over the years.... and each one becomes covered in weeds first thing in the spring & is useless.

 

[Ridgetop]

Being covered with weeds just means that the compost is rich enough to grow stuff. LOL Just till it into the garden soil and it will enrich it. If you move the manure to the garden in autumn when everything has finished for the year, and add any fallen leaves, kitchen compost, etc. you can till it in and leave it until spring. Then till again several times before planting and the compost will have become rich soil. Or spread it over the pasture the next spring or winter to enrich the pasture grass.

 

[Baymule]

You have to turn the pile so it can all heat up to kill the weed seeds……. In theory.

 

[farmerjan]

How is having a pile of rich hay/manure/mud mix in the middle of the field that is a "compost pile" and gets covered with weeds making it useless???? If it didn't grow weeds or something I would really get worried.....
Try dumping a couple bags of store bought soil/compost in a pile... see how long it takes weeds to grow !!!!!
The pile is supposed to be able to ad to the soil and grow things... weeds are things that grow...

To "properly compost" a pile does require turning to get the heat evenly distributed and try to kill many of the weed seeds... and to break down the ingredients that go into making the compost pile. FASTER....... HE//.... just spread it on whatever you want to get added benefit of organic matter... it will breakdown and you will never know you spread it...
I use FRESH chicken litter and/or cow manure and such from the barn on top of paperbag/newspaper/cardboard walkways in the garden with newly planted plants... by the time it goes down through the bags, the earthworms have started to break it down, it no longer hurts the plants. Don't make it harder than it is... you just don't want it to accumulate where it is due to the cattle there eating it.... take it out, spread it or pile it and then use it when you want richer "dirt" to use...

 

[canesisters]

I just hesitate to use it & move all those tough weed seeds to an area where I want to grow other things.
As for turning it... that will require a tractor. It's already more than I can do in a month's time to move it the first time.

MAYBE... just maybe... with this new job and some careful budgeting I might be able to pay off y the car this year & ... maybe.. get a tractor?

Having those grand January dreams again

 

[Mini Horses]

If you mow the sprouted weeds, before they seed out, gone. Just a mower or weed whacker needed -- even a burner. I have one of those "devil something" that's hand held, uses 2# propane jug and burns anything! Great in corners or ditch banks...or wherever you won't catch the barn on fire

Of course, goats just spread it all for you as they walk along spreading joy. Thinking there's a spinner on their rear

 

[farmerjan]

@Mini Horses ... having a big litter spreader truck with the spinner on the back to spread the poultry litter... then your comment on the "spinner on their rear" made me almost choke on a mouthful of the egg nog I am having for my "brunch".....I pictured them waving their tails spinning out the weed seeds.....

Unless you get a pile really really hot, and basically "cook" the weed seeds, you will always have weeds in compost. Commercial stuff is heat treated and often actually run through a furnace type thing to heat and kill the weed seeds.
I like the idea of using a burner before they go to seed...

 

[Ridgetop]

I just hesitate to use it & move all those tough weed seeds to an area where I want to grow other things.
As for turning it... that will require a tractor.

If you are renting a tractor with a front loader, just turn everything by scooping up the pile with the front loader and dumping it upside down. Weed Wack off the growing grass first. No point wasting good compost. Use it in the garden anyway. You will be getting weeds in the garden anyway. Use newspapers, old straw, etc. to mulch the ground and help choke out the weeds.