Spinning Goat Waste into Garden Gold

My goat project has finally come full circle.  I have two huge piles of composted manure, thanks to countless barn cleanings, and today I took several wheel barrows full of goat compost up to my vegetable beds.  Since I don't have a composting system, I spent some time digging to the center of my heaps to get to the finished compost.  It's always a bit of a science experiment digging through a compost heap.  And I am amazed every time how it happens!  When we clean our goats' barn, it smells so bad we are gasping for air as we shovel out the mixture of goat poo, timothy hay and wood shavings.  But today, I found dark, crumbly, earthy (even good!) smelling compost. 

As I was taking my compost up to the garden beds, I was daydreaming about the huge, sweet tomatoes that will no doubt grow in the newly rich soil.  In my fantasy the beds are brimming with beans, basil, brocolli and spinach.  The racoons haven't raided yet, nor have I had a leaf hopper infestation.  Nothing has eaten my garden and it is such a nice day dream.  Spring is always so full of hope. 

What I realized today was that it has taken two years of owning goats, and countless barn cleanings to get to this point where I am finally getting the compost I was after in the first place!  And the two years of goat ownership have not been easy or cheap.  I would say that this goat manure project is similar to the idea of the $40 tomato.  It would be much easier and less expensive to go buy some manure.  Except for the fact that I love my little goats.  In fact I have come to love them so much that I have forgotten the reason we got them in the first place.  And that is why I would say the whole "project" (as my husband refers to it) came full circle today.  I have become so involved in the animals as our pets that I had forgotten this little benefit.   All four goats, Sweet Pea, Blackberry, Silver and Lily watched me go back and forth today, talking to me like they do.  I thanked them for the garden gold they are giving me and also made sure to tell them that it never really was all about the compost.