When I lived in the city, I had the luxury of ignoring poop. If a neighbor’s dog left it on my tiny lawn, it was a rude, unusual inconvenience. Aside from what I delicately flushed into oblivion with the touch of a lever, my experiences with poop were largely nonexistent.
My suburban upbringing trained me to think of it as something dirty, something that I paid city services to dispose of, and something that had no meaningful impact on my life.
Fast forward several years, and I am now a new homesteader whose daily life is all about finding, collecting, processing, cleaning, and analyzing the very poop that I strove to ignore during my urban days. But I do this with (mostly) delight because on a homestead, poop is hardly considered waste.
便便是目前我们拥有的最宝贵的资源之一,在我们定居之旅的早期阶段,它是让我们的土地比三个月前我们刚搬到这里时凌乱的灌木丛更有意义的关键之一。
So strap on your神气活现的靴子and uncurl your toes. We’re going to explore 3 reasons why this under-appreciated material is useful.
1. Poop Is Generous
当富含腐殖质的充气土壤达到空气、水和营养的最佳平衡时,大多数植物都能茁壮成长。甚至在像氮和磷这样的化合物被发现或命名之前,人们就知道肥料对植物的最佳生长是必要的,尤其是对粮食作物。
If you have animals, you have the capabilities of amending your soil in amazingly effective ways. The utility of an animal is not restricted just in their meat, fur, eggs, or milk, but in what they produce through straight-up digestion.
The manure from any livestock you own is a fabulous resource for making both your pastures and gardens more productive and lush. On our homestead, we pasture rabbits specifically to harvest their manure. And let’s admit it, there’s hardly a cuter animal for such purposes.
现在,大多数肥料,如果你使用新鲜肥料,高氮含量——尤其是鸡粪——会烧毁或杀死植物。你需要在把它应用到你的花园之前把它制成堆肥——它可以算作堆肥堆中的“绿色植物”。
Rabbit Manure
Rabbit manure, however, is ready-made to be spread in the garden, with the added benefit of helping retain moisture as well! With so much work to be done quickly as we settle into our first year on the homestead, any bit of saving time is worth it to us!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BT9xMl7Fokp/?tagged=rabbitmanure
If you don’t currently have livestock, don’t fear–if you yourself are reasonably healthy and not on too many medications, a source of nutrients for your land may be more personal than you realize.
Humanure
Though it is hardly dinner table talk, human waste can and has been used as fertilizers for centuries. One way to use it safely after composting is to enrich the soil around your fruit trees, though it is not recommended for leafy greens that you plan on eating raw.
It’s a low-cost way to take responsibility for your own waste, reduce water use, fertilize your orchard, and certainly give your in-laws something to shake their head at.For more information, check out the Humanure Handbook.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYKtYdoAc9P/?tagged=humanmanure
If the very thought is making you want to stop reading this article, let me run this past you. Go into any home improvement store and check out the gardening aisle. It’s very likely you’ve seen a product called “Milorganite,” sold as a garden fertilizer.
This product, so nicely packaged and widely available,is the bio-solids from the city of Milwaukee’s sewage processing plant.I have to say, if I have a choice between the two, I’d rather know the source of my “black gold” than get it sourced from strangers in a different state.
2. Poop Is Informative
Anyone who keeps animals needs to be keenly aware of both what goes into and comes out of their creatures. A chicken with a pasted-up backside, soupy poop in your sheep pen, or weird colors coming out of your ducks are often indications of something wrong.
Sometimes, this is could be the first indication you have of disease and a sure call to action. Even when my animals all seem to be in good health, I make it a point to check their poop daily.
不管我是收集它来做堆肥,还是把它喷洒在门廊上,还是把它耕种到地里,它都是我不断得到反馈的来源,关于我的鸟儿吃了什么,我的兔子感觉如何,我的山羊做了什么。
3. Poop Is Strong
Believe it or not, it can be used as a fantastic building material. Oh, don’t wrinkle your nose like that! People have been doing this for centuries and with fantastic results. From the gorgeous Kassena homes of Burkina Faso, the Beehive houses of Turkey, to the wattle and daub roundhouses of England, cow manure is known as one of the finest natural plasters for natural building.
Manure isn’t just used because it’s cheap — it’s incredibly durable as well. Compare the longevity of the British roundhouses, many of which are standing to this day, with modern construction. For example, stucco and piano wire, a modern “equivalent” often begins to degrade within five years!
I can personally vouch that using manure neither smells nor attracts insects to the building project. When my husband built our Earth Oven, he wanted to build it as naturally as possible (see our YouTube playlist of the build here!).
为了完工,他从路上的一个朋友那里收集了新鲜的牛粪,把它直接铺在烤箱上,以密封建筑。我们的柴火披萨很美味,空气中没有任何粪便的味道,你不能要求比它更环保、更天然的材料!
When it comes time to finally build our home, we’re planning to use all natural materials from our land, so you can bet when it comes time for plaster, we’ll be using the gifts from our (eventual) milk cow to get the job done.
All I’m Saying Is Give Poop A Chance
Though poop is often relegated to the conversations of seventh-grade boys in the hallways or juvenile jokes, I truly believe that it needs to be redeemed from its lowly consideration.
只要任何东西还活着,这种材料就一直在生产,而且在当今世界的大部分地区,它是一种完全被低估的资源。在我们的家园上,我们尽量充分利用土地上的一切。
In order to be self-sufficient and responsible for all that comes into and goes off of our land, we don’t have the luxury of just flushing it away. And frankly, we don’t want to…it’s too valuable!
Resources
- What Is Milorganite,Milorganite
- Who Uses Sh*t To Build A House,Global Citizen
- Stink Human Poop Fertilizer,Modern Farmer
- Build Your Own Earth Oven,Kiko Denzer
- Rabbit Manure In The Garden,Vegetable Gardener
- Humanure Headquarters,Joseph Jenkins
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