Cows and crap

Cows go poop... Alot... It's a fact of nature, I know, but I just thought I would point it out. Before I met Lanny, cow manure was nothing more than a pile of stinky poop. We would head out to The Camp and pass the dairy farm in Traprock Valley on a hot summer day...Phew! What a stink! However, now my eyes have been opened. Manure is solid (and sometimes liquid) gold to farmers. It's free fertilizer if it's from your own barnyard animals. Yes, it stinks. Yes, it splatters. Yes, it's disgusting. But you can do so much with it. Obviously, it helps things grow. It's also a pretty good cow health indicator. It's amazing how much you can learn about a cow's well-being from a cow pattie! The color, the shape, the smell, the texture...it all tells the story of how that cow is feeling. Mindy, my doggy, loves the more solid bits. She's been known to sneak into the calf pens to get the choicest pieces for an afternoon snack. It's a pretty good clothing dye, too. If you want proof, come check out my barn clothes though it's more of a 'tie-dyed' effect than all-over coverage. Lanny has said that's it's a natural air freshener. I disagree, but he said "What's more natural than that smell?" One last suggestion: baseball bases. I guess the dried ones work pretty good but the mushy ones make for an interesting ball game. ;)