Okay ever since I mentioned the baby Loon taking off I have seen it tons! So I guess he/she is still here enjoying Gilmore. It was almost like "hey you mister, I am still here". It has been fishing in front of our house almost all day the last two days..... sheeesh I am sorry little Loon buddy, you stay here as long as you like, besides we love watching you, just remember you need to take off before the lake freezes.....
It has been raining off and on since Friday morning, and much cooler. Highs in the 40's lows in the 30's. It feels colder with the rain and clouds. Oh well it is October! Still hoping we see some more warm days before winter.
Hopefully I can get some pics of the fall colors before the wind blows all the leaves off the trees.
Take care.
Jon
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1 comment:
Hi Jon,
Over on my Sugar Mountain Farm blog on the Turnip Patch post you asked about pig manure and gardens. A friend of yours said the pigs shouldn't eat the roots.
I've never heard of that and we've never had any problem. We have acres of gardens, mostly that we grow for fall and winter feed for the animals. They help with tilling, fertilizing, disking, planting and harvesting. The plants do great.
The only problem this year was the extensive rain and cloud cover until August set most plants back but that has nothing to do with pig manure.
Composting the manure would certainly be one option. The problem is you need to collect it. When I clean out a winter area this is possible sometimes but generally not because the animals spread their manure across the pastures as is natural.
If I'm growing crops for us I like a rotation of the animals through the garden, then high crops (e.g., broccoli, corn, etc.). Next year surface crops and after that root crops. The pigs produce excellent garden soil from our very poor mountain soil. In fact, improving our gardens was one of the reasons we started keeping livestock almost two decades ago. It's hard to find the good shit.
Cutting off the roots sounds like a lot of unnecessary hard work that would deprive the pigs of minerals and good nutrients. If you're worried about disease, consider feeding garlic on a regular basis. See the "Worms Au Natural" post.
Cheers,
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in Vermont
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