Lately I have been on a quest. For a very important compost ingredient -- horse manure. You can make compost without manure, but it's one ingredient that really helps get a compost pile started, so I like to use it. Used coffee grounds are good too, also grass clippings. But a good source of manure is a thing to be cherished. I got a name from something called the Pierce County Manure Share List, hoping to be able to score some horse apples for my compost. It was a horse farm about 30 minutes away, in a town called Enumclaw. I went there on Friday afternoon, hoping to load some wonderful horse manure into my little Prius.
Well, when I got there, it was a one-track gravel road off the main road, across a gully and up a hill, through a tunnel of trees. I sat there and contemplated it for a few minutes. Could my little Prius handle it? Well, I'd never know if I didn't try, so off I went.
It didn't take long for me to realize that my little Prius was not a 4X4. In fact, in some circles, it's barely a car. I mean, it's basically a big battery connected to a lawn mower engine. How many times did the "You're skidding" light come on before I decided I was doing something very foolish? I don't know but I gave up trying to climb that rocky one-track hill. That meant I had to back down it in a straight line, trying not to end up in the gully. I did it, but not without some very white knuckles. Phew! Well, scratch that source off my list.
So, my next bet was craigslist. I searched today for free manure, and found someone who had a big pile of it sitting in her driveway, giving it away for free. Also about a 30-minute drive from me. I found my way there, and fortunately, she was not up a gravel road. I did have to go down a narrow, windy road, but at least it was paved! I filled up five lovely five-gallon buckets. SCORE! Isn't it beautiful?