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Freecycle

mommagoose
17 years ago

A few hours ago I posted a want ad on Freecycle and Barter cycle asking for compostables. I explained how our farm was ruined by the June Flood in New York and how we needed to replace the lost topsoil with compost. So far I have had 6 emails and 1 phone call offering truck loads of goodies.

Twenty five bags of leaves, one pile of aged horse manure another pile of mixed species manure. Another person has 3 truckloads of wood chips. One nice lady even offered her barrel of almost finished compost. I declined that offer because I really need larger volume and she worked so hard for that little amount of gold.

Thanks again to all of you who gave me so many good ideas. I feel as if there is hope for this little farm . I hope you will never know for yourselves the agony that we have been through in the last 4 months. The whole thing has made me more determined to repair the land and make it better than it was before. I guess I am kinda stubborn.

LInda

Comments (3)

  • heidi41
    17 years ago

    Linda:
    please keep us posted. I think you should take pictures and keep a journal, the info that you collect could be useful to you in the future. I'm glad that things are starting to look up for you. Will you be sheet composting or doing a compost heap? Good luck Heidi

  • mommagoose
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Hi ! I have had several more phone calls and emails since I first posted my request. Unfortunately , I have only been able to pick up a couple of loads of leaves so far. You can never predict things around here any more. My 80 year old Dad had knee replacement last MOnday and had a bad reaction to the anesthesia. He is ok now but gave us quite a scare. So now I have to get in touch with all the people who emailed me and plan pick up of the material they offered. I will make a folder with all the emails and offers because I can contact them again next year for more goodies.
    We just got notification that we are eligible for a Small Business Administration loan because of the severe flood damage we had to the farm. This will help us a great deal to restore pasture and fencing that has been lost.
    I will keep you all posted as to how our new adventures in Farming progress.
    Oh , almost forgot, I am doing both sheet composting and making a pile. My chicken and horse manure is going to be composted first but the sheep and goat droppings are going directly on the fields

  • suenh
    17 years ago

    Post a few ads at feed stores. Might be a suburban type with a manure pile nearby that doesn't know what to do with it.

    Town area that does a leaf pickup?? I see the town I work at lug off truckloads of leaves. They do a compost and mix it with the sewage plant solids and sell and give it away.

    Years ago this old farm was in danger of flooding by a new state watershed dam. My husband's aunt didn't think the people would win the fight and proceded to make a deal with somebody to sell off the loam. The old aunt was housebound with osteoporosis and didn't see what was going on further in back. They had a whole gravel mining operation going with tons of holes and test pits and just a great big mess. My mother in law was still alive and checked when the aunt wasn't getting any money for the soil. She threw them out on the spot. I'm still slowly filling holes and building back the top soil. Best guess is in most spots near the front field we lost a good 2 feet of loam. In the back it's full of holes and pile. The biggest hole took up an acre and flooded in the spring to breed mosquitos but nothing else. We contacted construction sites and town highway depts and they have been slowly dumping their fill. Helps them, helps us. Since I have horses and a few other critters I can then spread a skim coat of manure and compost and keep building little by little. I really have no idea how much soil was lost but guessing a farm that had been in use and fields that were cultivated for over 250 years should have had a good 2 feet of soil on them, probably more. Lot of places I'm down to white sand. Not even enough soil to grow some grass.

    Got a business with a cardboard dumpster? Plain old newspaper works too.
    We have a mill here where the sawdust is free for the taking. If it rots take it.

    If you are on a road with a little traffic put a sign out front that says you want leaves and other compostables.

    Don't look at the whole big mess at once. Will seem like you aren't making progress. Choose a little spot and work on it. Get it done and move to the next.

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