Hey Everyone. I just wanted to post what’s been going on around this crazy place called Jacobs Farm. Well, yesterday was clean every unsanitary water container day - when me, my Mom and Brother clean every chicken waterer and buckets the dogs drink out of. Once that was done, my Mom said we were going to go to the back pasture and get cow manure to add to our stinky friend called the compost. My brother asked wondering if there was going to be any manure back there and my Mom and I answered saying that the cows were back there yesterday and that there had to be some fresh manure. We loaded 6 five gallon buckets and 2 shovels into the back of our little trailer that we hook up to the riding lawnmower and then we set off towards the pasture to shovel what seemed to be the foulest substance on the face of the earth. Can y’all say nassssssty?

When we found the cow pies and started shoveling them into the buckets, the aroma started to get to us.

Mom: “This smells so bad.”

Me: “Mom do not ever complain about the smell under the chickens' roost again.”

Me: “Hey Mom, is this legal?”

Mom: “(Pause)………….of course it’s legal.”

For those of y’all that attempt to try what we did, here are the cow pasture rules:

(That I made up)

#1  You must watch where you step at all times!

#2  Do not step in manure (actually, my brother and I call it “cood” – rhymes with food); it is very hard to remove from shoes and it stains the buckets.

#3  Ignore the plop, sploosh, and splat sounds that you hear when you dump the manure into the bucket.

#4  You need a look-out (like a little brother) for the herd that left the cood – especially the BULL of the herd.

#5.  Be prepared to drop everything and run at any given moment if the herd appears.

#6  Having some sort of artillery on hand (a gun) helps, too, just in case there’s a local rattlesnake hanging around the field of cood.

Today was much more low key, we all cut grass.  I cut the front and upper yard on the riding lawn mower, my brother cut the lower back yard with the push mower and my Dad was on the tractor for everywhere else.

I won’t be posting Monday and Tuesday because we are going to Asheville, NC for the homeschool festival at the Biltmore Estate to tour the house and gardens and stuff.  I’ll post all about it when we get back.

Sam Jacobs