Mule's Gold Mining

We've always known it…. but now we're convinced!  You humans are obsessed with poo!  Well to be precise rotted manure.  This week has been exciting, we've had lots of visitors who have all arrived to mine in the muck heap.  This phenomenon occurs once a year and is most bizarre.

A procession of miners supervised by FH appeared to dig out what they describe as lovely organic horse manure, apparently the more rotten and black the better, weird we know!  We call it 'Mule's Gold' :-)

Dragon keeping an eye on the Mule's Gold Miners

We Muleteers have been working real hard all year to ensure there is a plentiful supply for these mad miners and have donated many tons of muleteer poor and soggy bedding.  No additives or preservatives go in to these 'donations' making them ideal for the discerning organic gardener apparently?!

Our heap - hard work all that donating!

So from far and wide them come, they appear mainly interested in filling bags and trailers with Mule's Gold but the occasional miner takes an interest in us and gives us a cursory pat or scratch, one even fetched some carrots (note to others this was much appreciated, we may charge this toll next year). There is a saying 'where there's muck there's brass' we'd prefer 'where there's muck there's carrots' if you don't mind?

Tonight saw our last intrepid miner before we close the mine shaft for another year…. FH was mumbling something about saving some for growing our pumpkins and courgettes (MH grumbled that he was SO looking forward to hundreds of courgette recipes over the summer - we know he doesn't mean it really ;-).

So I had a quick inspection to check that the miners had done a good job…. and I nearly got lost in the cavern they had dug!

It appears that the hole is big enough to lose at least six mini shetlands in, yikes that's a lot of manure, the humans reckon we have donated about 10 tonnes to our friendly miners!  Mmmm lots of yummy organic veg should come from that surely?  SHARE!

Alas all that thinking about food made me hungry so I took the opportunity to climb out of the pit and do some mining of my own, hmmm ok more like eating but somehow related?  And if a pony's to produce all that fine fertiliser it has to come from somewhere ;-)

The Power of Poo

Poo collection essentials!

OK so poo, plop, dung, poop, pony apples or whatever you like to call it is an odd subject to post on but boy is it important!  

There is one certainty in the Muleteer house, even more certain than the sun shining or the birds singing…. There will always be poo to pick up!  We Muleteers are always happy to keep FH’s poo bucket topped up and keep her physically exercised with all the collecting.  FH reckons we produce about 25-40 kg of poo a day between us and boy does she go on about it!

Even Catanian gets in on the act as she likes to help FH collect up the poo, generally her role is to stand on FHs feet whilst she is trying to pick up poo, her tool of choice are the ‘pink poo gloves’, on special occasions she may even bring out the ‘purple poo gloves’ – such glamour.

But we have been busy reminded FH of the benefits of poo…. Have you seen our muck heap of late?

Look at those lovely courgettes that are growing there.  Aren’t they a lovely colour?  The humans like to eat these and they grow ever so well in the ‘rotted’ section of the heap. 

We have also got some squash growing there too who are threatening to take over the whole heap like triffids!  They will be ready in the autumn, yum can’t wait, we quite like squash.

The other side of the heap is taken up with the ‘active’ stuff.  This is all our poo and bedding and greenery that needs to rot for a while.  We have one half rotting and the other half rotted. 

The rotting side is all thanks to our wiggly friends – we have billions of them.  Apparently they are otherwise known as worms.  They seem to love our presents and have a lovely time living in the heap where it's always nice and warm.

The heap is also home to grass snakes, slow worms, toads, at least three blackbirds and a multitude of other critters, whoever would have known poo could be this important?

Our poo is also good for making friends….. strange you may say but true we promise.  Every Spring and Autumn we have a ‘Mule’s Gold’ giveaway where the local gardeners come and take away the rotted half (after it’s finished giving its courgettes and squash).  These lovely folk enjoy viewing the ‘producers’ as any fussy customer should and they are always pleased to know that just good natural ingredients goes in to this heap.   They go away smiling with bags of Mule’s Gold which is nicely rotted and makes their garden grow, they always seem to come back for more so it must be good stuff.

So there you have it, the old English saying ‘Where there’s muck there’s brass (meaning money to those not from British background J)’ might not be entirely true but in this house ‘Where there’s poo there’s power’ just might be.

Miaow! FH come back here, you’ve missed a bit!