Chores are done. I need to get on the road. I am stalling though. My mom has requested my presence for caulking and squirting of foam insulation from a can. I will drive for 45 minutes to do a 45 minute job, then drive 45 minutes to get back home. I will wait a bit, before I leave, then I will stop at the Alco store in Leon on the way down and buy the bluegrass seed that I have been coveting. It is my farm purchase for the month. I am already feeling giddy with anticipation. I am already feeling the guilt over the expenditure.
I have been pouring over how far I can make a five pound bag go. The seed needs to start grass in the two pastures behind the house. The middle pasture and the back wooded pasture. On top of that, I should get some out on the yard. On the break of the hill in front of the house. If I were exceedingly decadent, I would buy two bags. Fourteen dollars per bag. Each bag is five pounds. Delicious temptation.
I will also soon be feeding the soil. I looked into the barrel of the manure tea this morning. I had been kicking myself for not getting it out on the hay field already, but something interesting has happened. The tea has evolved. At the beginning, when I constructed my set up, there didn't seem to be much change. Day one didn't even give me much as far as color change, so I decided that I would put more holes in the bucket holding the manure. Second day was enough color change that I could easily make out the water line through the white vinyl barrel. Day three I had something that was definitely "tea" looking. I pulled out the manure bucket after two weeks. The tea was very dark brown and that was when I started to tell myself that I needed to start getting it out on the soil. I kicked around different ideas. None of them seemed good. How I wished I had some basic equipment!
The other day I noticed that the tea had a green cast to it. I assumed it was just a tint from the grass that the horses had eaten and didn't think much more about it.... other then, I really need to get the manure tea out on the hayfield. But today.... today I looked again. Inside the barrel is GREEN! It is a bubbling morass. IT'S ALIVE!! I kind of feel like Dr. Frankenstein. Now it really is time to get the tea on the soil. First I will get the molasses stirred in to feed and accelerate those yeasty cultures. They will become the mycorrizae (which I can't spell) that will allow plants to take up nutrients from the soil. Without it even nitrogen fixing plants can't fix nitrogen. I will get it out there even if I have to just carry it out by the bucket full.
That will be my task tomorrow. Bringing life back to the little farm. Hopefully, after that, I will lay out my little barn, too. Where there is life, there's hope. Where there is manure tea, there's life.
Louie
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