It was a beautiful day today and it’s amazing how HOT we get as soon as we work outside. The high for the day was 67 F, but it sure felt like it was 20 degrees warmer. We just had temps in the teens and it’s so nice to get hot outside.
We’re working on filling another 5 tree holes and it was the perfect day to go on a cow pie run to the corral.
There used to be a lot of old metal, fencing and all sorts of trash and they really cleaned it up. Unfortunately they also took out the cattails. It used to be so beautiful, like an oasis. I’m surprised the fish are still in alive, although the big fish apparently died.
I don’t know what they eat, I suppose bugs, and they have no shelter at all.
It’s a shame to let all that water go to waste:
Of course the cows eat EVERYTHING that grows, but with very minimal expense they could plant a few mesquite trees and protect them with fencing until they’re so large the cows can’t kill them. Some mulberries would be great too. It’s always muddy here from the overflow.
The water comes from the Grand Canyon West Ranch springs and you can see the poly pipe that takes it a few more miles across Pierce Ferry to the corral in Gold Basin.
Here’s our loot:
We got away from using manure because most is polluted with GMOs and all sorts of dewormers, antibiotics, etc. But I like cow manure from the desert — it’s as clean as it gets.
Back home, our dogs love to hang out on the dirt piles and are on the job, guarding:
It’ll be a lot of work screening the caliche out of this pile, but I’m sure glad to have it. Every time we dig a hole for planting we need more dirt for backfill to replace all the rocks and caliche we screened out.
Next week our 25 fruit and nut trees will arrive and I’ll post some pics of the orchard then.
Christine, so glad you had a great day, it WAS beautiful as well as yesterday. I’m wondering what makes desert cowpies different than manure for the reasons you mentioned. The cows probably eat desert flora but don’t they get antibiotics?
Love your pics btw.
Thanks, Janet!
As far as I know the cows only get mineral supplements, don’t see how they’d administer antibiotics. That’s usually in the feed and they’re not being fed.
Since we’re so lucky to NOT have the ditches sprayed with herbicides (they blade instead), that’s the most organic and natural manure we can get around here. They eat grasses and whatever “weeds” with deep taproots that could be more nutritious than commercial feed and definitely doesn’t have the toxins.
I used to get horse manure, but since GMO alfalfa came out I don’t want horse manure anymore. And I certainly wouldn’t want cow manure from the feed lots.
Now if we could only score some cow horns we could make some biodynamic preparations.
Do you know anything about the beef for sale at mile 22 on Stockton Hill?
I guess you have a point about the antibiotics. Since they are free range, they probably can’t be caught very easily for antibiotic shots lol. When they do gather them up, it’s for them to go to the feedlots or sale barn.
I didn’t know anything about GMO alfalfa but I’m not surprised. I would be more worried about the wormers and other stuff that the horses get. And a lot of people I know including myself, get a mix of bermuda grass and alfalfa. I do in the winter but straight bermuda grass in the summer.
I think you asked me about that beef for sale before and I think it’s run by a guy and his girlfriend who’s name I cannot remember at the moment. It’s supposedly grass fed beef. Is it the manure you’re looking for or beef? Not sure where he would get the grass unless it’s from that lady that sells the biscuits of sprouted grains but that’s quite pricey. I can find out if you really want to know. I knew this guy years ago when he was doing it part time but he’s retired now and doing it full time. I think he bought out one of his partners.
I always liked the alfalfa manure when they didn’t have the GMOs yet, especially because they couldn’t use Roundup on alfalfa as they would have killed the crop. I haven’t researched the properties of GMO alfalfa yet, decided to stick with the cow manure. And sometime soon we’ll have chicken manure too.
I know the university won’t let us talk about glyphosate (Roundup), but it’s in pretty much every person, accumulating, and causing trouble. Here are just a few links to studies:
http://highdesertfood.org/forum/gmos-roundup-and-other-toxins/
I’d really like to visit the beef place for a review at the website. Jose is vegan and being off grid, we can’t buy and freeze half a cow, but maybe we could get some people in the neighborhood together. I like to eat meat once a week or so, but have been limited to the grass fed burger at the supermarkets. Lately I’ve seen steak too, but $15+ / lb — too much! Although that’s what meat SHOULD cost – right now everybody including vegans are paying the difference for environmental cleanup (pollution primarily from growing GMO feed).
Maybe after the trees are planted we could visit the rancher? Been on my list of things to do since their sign went up.
Your website is unfriendly. There is no general description of who you are, what you do or where you’re located. Furthermore, there is no link on the homepage to contact anyone with questions or concerns. How is someone supposed to ask any questions? (except awkwardly in a response thread) Sorry for the criticism, but I thought you’d like the feedback.
You’re absolutely right. I’ve just been too busy to write “about” and “contact” pages, haven’t even posted in a long time. This is just my personal blog. We don’t sell anything here. Also don’t have any ads here (despise Google ads). It’s been more important to get trees planted and do another 500,000 things (most of which obviously didn’t get done.)
At http://highdesertfood.org/forum/introductions-and-discussion/christine-near-meadview/ is some more info and that site also needs a lot of work. It’s hard to update and design websites with our slow internet. Hopefully have more time this summer.