Michael took Jasper back to his home last Saturday. He had been with us Halle since January 10th. Not much went on in the Love Shack. She might have already been pregnant. If only she was more obvious when she went into heat. I’m just grateful that we have room for a Love Shack and that Ken and Jo let us keep Jasper for so long.

So, with Jasper gone and Halle back with the girls that meant another stall to clean out.

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They had been in the stall almost one month. In one months time there wasn’t any composting going on but it was still heavy. I tried using the big shovel but as the matted straw was pretty stuck together and difficult to tear it worked better with a pitch fork.

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Since the majority of the straw wasn’t in bad shape we decided to cover the ground of the outside chicken pen. Prior to Michael putting the metal roof on,the roof is just chicken wire so the ground is very muddy. It didn’t take them long to eat all the grass and weeds leaving just dirt. In Oregon dirt is mud most of the year. So, as I forked up the straw and put it in the wheelbarrow Nicholas dumped it into the chicken pen.

I also wanted to put some of the straw outside the Love Shack door (the door that Michael made) because it was very soggy.

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For years the stall had been home to baby pigs. The girl who showed those pigs at 4-H would clean out the stall and all of that waste would be washed out the open door space. It needed amending with something that would help add substance to the ground. The straw was the perfect solution. Plus it was really easy to just pitch the straw out the door

It certainly didn’t take as long to clean as the buck stall. It always looks so nice when it is done.

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The area outside the door now has a lot of straw that can compost and add structure to the ground.

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Enjoy the day,

Karen