I couldn't resist

[Andrew]

I noticed three offers of free horse manure in my local craigslist today and decided to take up one offer to "Start your composting now and get a jump on your gardening/landscaping! No need to call for an appointment..."

So I tarped up the inside of my little xB...

...and not long after my car was full of it. :-)

Here's a closeup...

...and here's a short video of the mountain of crap I was shoveling. I really wished I still had a pickup truck. They would have quickly dumped a few hundred pounds of it right in. As you can see, the stuff is still steaming. I made a separate composting bin for it and will mix some of it into my regular compost bins tomorrow. I may experiment and mix a cup or two of it into my next feeding and see what happens. I've read about possible issues with de-worming drugs, so I'll observe carefully.

[catherine daly]

Depends on the stables, but most only worm thier horses a few times a year and do all the horses at once. So just ask whn they were last wormed.

[Andrew]

Thanks for the tip, Catherine. I'll ask next time I'm there. I collected a mix of very fresh poop and some that were obviously older, more compost looking. Hopefully some of that was from a time when the horses were not being de-wormed.

The temp in the middle of my new manure pile is 115ºF today, so I decided to throw some worms in a mini wormery (1/2 gal. container) and embedded it in the manure. I'll track temps inside the little wormery today.

[Nic]

that is a big load of crap!!!! i woulndnt want to do that for fear of it falling from the top on me!!! :)

[Eve]

Great score Andrew.

If you are going to be collecting free worm chow from now on, think of getting some totes that will fit the back of your car. Now is a good time Wally World has them on sale half price. You only have to shovel once that way.

[catherine daly]

Once the manure has been aged,I think the de-wormers decompose, so old manure should be fine.

[Andrew]

Nic: yeah, I was careful to stay away from that "peak" looming over me.

Eve: I actually thought of doing that, but I only had four 18 gal. totes handy and this was an impulse "score"...no time to hit WMT first. I was also thinking that I'd have to clean the totes out if I wanted to use them for anything else except worm related purposes. I'll probably only make another trip or two before maxing out space at home. The 10-15 min. of shoveling on both ends isn't too bad. Most of my day is spent in a chair in front of a screen, so shoveling horse puckies is strangely refreshing. I still might pick up some of those Sterilite bins while they're on sale.

Catherine: my intent is to let the bulk of it age before giving it to the worm, so that's good to know.

5pm update: manure pile is 120ºF and the embedded mini-bin is 80-90ºF. The worms seem lively in the upper level where it's a "cool" 80F.

[Michael]

How was the ride home? I hope you drove with your windows opened :-P

[Andrew]

Not as bad as you might think. I could feel heat on the back of my neck...just as well it's winter. I kept the windows closed to avoid swirling wind blowing stuff around. Residual scent of horse pucky was gone in 2 days. Even so, I'm still mulling over Eve's suggestion to get storage totes to shuttle the next batch of manure. 270 gallons per trip in 15 totes.

[The Garbage Guru]

Andrew,your xb would make the best wormbin i have ever seen.A.C.during the summer,heat in the winter.Why didn't i think of that?Can,t make it flowthru though.Speed bumps would harvest too much at a time.

[pyper]

Ooo, that is inspiring. I often drive by piles of free poo in a nearby equestrian neighborhood. They are tempting, but I don't want to load them into the family minivan (or the back of my Prius!) I'm pleased to be on a forum where others will understand that a pile of free poo is tempting! :-)