Life on my farm.

Gently, rain falls on the parched earth outside the slightly cracked window behind me. Peaches snores on the couch, one eye more squinted than the other to block out the light from the lamp shining on her face. Chubbs lays on the bed, dreaming of chases and treats: yelping in anticipation every few moments during fits once in a pleasant while. The guinea pigs, in their abode in the shed, are happy: they have all of the hay they could want, and it is delicious. The Chickens have water, they are struggling to find their food again after I put it in the coop hut: but they’ll get it – they don’t seem that hungry. Every time I go out there I toss them a couple of handfuls of grain, I wonder if they’d like me to spade over some soil for them to dig in. The rain is picking up now, as Live’s song “Lightning Crashes,” begins to crescendo: almost loud enough to wake peaches but not quite loud enough that she seems to want to do anything about it.



On the kitchen counter is a note from Kelsie, to have fun and smile today: what a lovely note. The kitchen is a mess, things are strewn all over the house: at least the guinea pig room is clean, finally, since we moved those little buggers out into the shed. They’ve really enjoyed being out there, and we’ve enjoyed that as well. This weekend will be the first time I change their cage while they are outside: and I’m actually looking forward to it.

I’m not sure if the used bedding is a correct addition to the garden beds. I know that Steve Solomon doesn’t think that it is. But he was dealing with sawdust and shavings from horses, which won’t break down ever. The particle size of the bedding we use is so much smaller, and is therefore easier to breakdown. Additionally, the nitrogen from horse manure is not sufficient to thoroughily wet the sawdust or become distributed throughout it to the degree that it contains a high enough percentage of nitrogen to even think about decomposing. Guinea pig bedding though, has a lot more nitrogen. Not just from the pellets, but we also give the guinea pigs such a large helping, of fresh clover from the clearing each day, they have more than enough nitrogen, and that mostly ends up in the bedding. Does the stuff spontaneously compost? No. But, I don’t think that the nitrogen required to break the stuff down is so high that it isn’t valuable for use, that its proclivity for nitrogen stealing is such that it should preclude its use as a nitrogen source. Especially during the summer when it is just going to sit on the surface and keep the roots moist while worms burrow throughout it and find the nuggets the guinea pigs left for them there. I know for certain that after using it: the beds appear healthier. I also know that if I used more nitrogen fertilizers – the productivity in the beds would absolutely skyrocket at this point, there is so much extra carbon they can breakdown for food and all they need is a little nitrogen. Its up to them though. We’ll reevaluate in another few months, I want to know what happens to the beds with the sawdust after the course of a summer: I’m counting on fungi to breakdown some of that stuff and thence be broken down themselves.

So much I still want to do.

Dom