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March 6, 2008
Just call me . . . The Poop Patrol
I realized today that at least 60% of my time is invested in discovering and dealing with poop. There is horse poop, chicken poop, dog poop and kitty poop.
Soon there will be more chicken poop and goat poop. ( I have 25 chicks that should be delivered to the feed store on March 15th, and 2 baby angora goats that should be born into this world sometime this month).
All the different kinds of poop need different treatment. The horse and chicken poop are composted with any non-meat kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, straw, whatever. The horse poop that is out in the pasture will be hopefully mixed into the earth with my drag harrow, as soon as the ground thaws!
The horse poop in the stalls in the barn has to be taken out and thrown on the compost pile daily. The chicken poop in the chicken coop only has to be cleaned out when the weather thaws - when it starts to smell - well, except for under the roosts - that needs to be cleaned at least once a week, depending . . .
It makes me not even want to think about people poop and the cleaning of toilets.
Gah.
Kitty poop - well, we have 5 litter boxes, and they need to be cleaned daily. I must admit, sometimes I only get them every 2 days, but with 7 kitties, that is a lot of poop.
And, we have one kitty who is somewhat elderly, and has some tummy problems with the resulting icky kitty poops, often close to a litter box, but not in it.
Then, of course we have the two dogs - they are very well house broken, so we mostly have to avoid stepping into any of their poop outside.
Posted by Beth at March 6, 2008 7:24 PM
Comments
Being "fustest with the mostest" has it's advantages:
"It's a shitty job, but someone has to do it."
(Exits, in a storm of flung feces)
Posted by: Rivrdog at March 6, 2008 9:17 PM
seriously, you need a litter robot for the kitties. Or several!
Posted by: caltechgirl at March 6, 2008 10:34 PM
Ahh yes the reason I don't miss the farms. Well that and the prickles. And the spiders. And the heat. And the allergies. And the drunks that decide to 'hunt'. And prolly the endless driving. Oh the fine dust that somehow melds into your skin permanently.
Did I mention the heat? I must have forgotten something...
Actually I quite like them. I'd hate to write a list about suburbia.
Posted by: Trias at March 7, 2008 7:40 AM
Have you looked into self-cleaning boxes? I have one, and with only one cat the box the waste is pushed into only needs to be changed once a week. The boxes even come with carbon thingies so there's no smell. They have a bunch of different models now, check them out.
Posted by: Angela at March 7, 2008 7:54 AM
Ahhh - There's nothing like sipping my morning earthy-toned coffee, right in the middle of such an engrossing scatological discourse.
It brings me such find memories of the ether wafting from grandpa's old chicken coop. let's just say that 10,000 laying hens devour a lot of chicken feed. Earthworms loooove their compost though. I used to dig out the fattest ones there for fishin' down at the LAKE.
Posted by: Boquisucio at March 7, 2008 8:01 AM
Angela - we've used the automatic boxes. I think they do pretty well for a one to two cat home.
They don't stand up that well to a 7 cat home.
Though I'm thinking by this time next year, we'll be down to six.
Posted by: John of Argghhh! at March 7, 2008 12:27 PM
Even self-cleaning litter boxes have to eventually be emptied. I think it's time to start potty training all the animals.
Everybody poops, that's a fact. But it sucks to be the one cleaning up behind them.
At least you don't have to clean up after poopy babies anymore. There should be some consolation in that.
Posted by: Da Goddess at March 7, 2008 9:44 PM
We've got two auto-boxes and two kitties - but since they're both around 20lbs we have to clean the boxes twice a week. With your brood it sounds like you'd need at least a couple more to get to the twice a week level.
As to uninvited 'hunters' I wonder if you'd get in trouble if you put up signs readind:
NO TRESPASSING!
Note: Hunters who really do have our permission don't have to worry about return fire.
Posted by: KCSteve at March 10, 2008 1:30 PM