A Day in the Life of CozyBones Farm - Compost That Sh!t
“NO MUD, NO LOTUS. Both suffering and happiness are of an organic nature, which means they are both transitory; they are always changing. The flower, when it wilts, becomes the compost. The compost can help grow a flower again. Happiness is also organic and impermanent by nature. It can become suffering and suffering can become happiness again.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering
Written by @sitastarchild - Princess Poo-Poo
@anwenbaumeister - The Queen of Sh!t
Today on CozyBones Farm we've made our first steps in tending to the land by making a lovely pile of compost! By collecting all food wastes, soil, chicken poop, dead leaves, twigs, and straw, we created a hot heaping pile of smelly compost.
Though it was a rather gruesome and stinky process, we learned how to transform our suffering into happiness in knowing that "without the mud there will be no lotus", or in plain terms, without the shit we won't be able to grow the really good shit!
Here's how we got this shit done:
We collected our organic composted food waste that had been building up for quite a while.
Then we created a 3x3 foot foundation of branches in a square formation on a plot of land. We gathered a mixture of Brown & Green Materials - Browns offering more carbon and Greens offering more nitrogen.
Browns
- wood
- cardboard
- newspaper
- leaves
- fruit waste
- sawdust
- straw
Greens
- garden waste
- grass clippings
- hay
- manures
- vegetable scraps
- seaweed
- coffee grounds
It is essential for the content of the pile to be the correct mixture of nitrogen and carbon ensuring the best decomposition.
Then we packed on some extra gnarly food waste that had been composting and decomposing for the past year. Worm HEAVEN!
The Queen of Sh!t loooooooves putting her hands in rotten food and worm poo 😛
From there we gathered a bunch of leaves, dirt, and chicken shit! Princess Poo-Poo almost dropped her phone in the pile of poo while attempting to be a photojournalist of this composting adventure. SACRIFICE AND LOVE.
Then we gathered a bunch of dead bamboo leaves and twigs and tossed it on top of the pile. We then gently poured some water on it because this accelerates the heating process in the pile.
As much as the Queen of Sh!t loves poo, she can really appreciate a pile of dead leaves too.
We repeated this process of layering like adding layers to a delicious lasagna. Nature loves diversity, so the more shit you can add the better!
To complete our beautiful leaning tower of shit, we added some more water as the moisture assists in increasing the temperature to 160 degrees and coated it in straw to keep the smell from attracting rats, mice, and those pesky raccoons.
Lastly, we covered the pile with a tarp and inserted a thermometer to keep track of the pile’s temperature. We will turn the pile after 1 week and add water to the pile while turning it to help the decomposition once again.
Despite our temporary disgust, we found deep joy and gratitude within the process of honoring the Cycles of Life and Death. We have a new profound appreciation for playing with poop and how much it can do to give back to the Earth.
To learn more about what us crazy earth faeries are up to - check out our new website!
cozybonesfarm.com
Hope you enjoyed this composting adventure with Princess Poo-Poo and the Queen of Sh!t on Cozy Bones Farm!
Until next time <3
Loved this post! Excellent content, thank you.
ho ho... some sh^t happening to give good growth.
Growth for steemit. :-)
This post has been ranked within the top 25 most undervalued posts in the second half of Nov 19. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $15.51 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Nov 19 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
Glad you're back posting Anwen, more glad that you are doing well!
It's all part of the cycle of life! The old becomes new and the cycle repeats.
I had never heard of permaculture before I read your articles about it here. Recently, one of my guest bloggers said she had a new article for me, and it turned out to be about... permaculture! She also sent some pics so I will soon be turning that into a Steemit post. Interesting stuff!
Great post. I'm making compost right now. I'm always making compost.
It's a never-ending process. There's always compost being made, lol.
Upvoted by @gardening-trail
Thank you for following and upvoting @gardening-trail
Read our guidelines here
Inspiring post with a good use of fruity language. I'm looking forward to the rot update!😉
We are actually having our own compost place in the back of the garden, in a kind of homemade wooden box (of about 1m3 )acting as a kind of smell-filter. We made it in a similar way as what you presented. What we are really focusing on is a balance between different kind of products finishing in our compost: food waste, branches, leaves, etc... Exactly as you said in your article :)
And the current status, after 9 months, is... 'lovely'. We will start reusing the compost when spring will be back for growing our own vegetables, as we are doing for 3 years now.
I have to say you are very brave to do that, so well done!!!