Animals

So the horse.  Horses produce an amazing amount of manure.  I'm ok with it because  my soil really needs help, but my neighbors are not so thrilled about the various piles down below.  I thought manure turned into soil in six months, but it's more like one to two years  unless it's spread out and mixed into the soil.

I've used most of it for my garden areas and around trees, and that has been mostly good so far.  It's amazing how much soil gets used by plants and needs to be replaced.  More about that in the garden section.

The other thing is horses are grazers.  Pretty much the only thing Epona likes to do is eat.  She really likes grain - even if it's in the chicken coop!  That door has now been cut in half so I can close the top part to keep her out.

So today I buried our fifth chicken since moving to Vista.  Lesson of the day:  chickens die, get used to it.  Maybe that is why I don't name them any more.  Or maybe I never did.  I haven't made the step to raising them for meat yet.  We now have seven chickens. Three reds, two red/golden crosses, one Arucauna and one Americauna.  This is the original coop and hen house.  There have been some upgrades since.  The green netting helps to keep the sun from baking them in the summer.