Dog Poo

 Further evidence this Russian War Criminal is a POS There is this...

Scat

 

 

In keeping with this week's coincidental scatological theme there is this...

I have no way of knowing how (or why) this advertisement ended-up in my Face Book feed - but everyone deserves a good poop I guess.

And you can obtain anything from Amazon.... 

Scat

 

 

From our walk there was further dietary evidence of the resident coyote population.

If it's hairy it is coyote....

Paleofeces



The Lloyds Bank Coprolite. Photo by Linda Spashett CC by 2.5

This is a coprolite.  A feces fossil.  Petrified poop.  And the third and final scatological entry to be published for a spell.

 

These trace fossils - coprolites - can provide archaeologists valuable information and clues about the diet of the living creature that produced it. 

 

The paleofeces sample pictured above is a fossilized human turd known as the Lloyds Bank Coprolite. It is likely the largest and most valuable on record.  It dates back to approximately the 9th century and the person responsible is believed to be a Viking.  It currently rests at the Jórvík Viking Centre in the city of York, England. 

 

Analysis has revealed that the individual to whom this belongs consumed large amounts of meat.  The stool sample also contained eggs from parasitic roundworms including:  Trichuris trichiura (whipworm) and Ascaris lumbricoides (maw worm).  Yeech! 

 

You can learn more about this coprolite - including how it earned its name - and additional background on the study of fossilized poop here.

Living With Labs

If you visit this blog from time-to-time you already know that our patience has been tested with all of the rain we've had this fall.   

Silver Creek has repeatedly over-topped its banks.  The ponds are full to the brim.  Standing water in the trails.  Mosquitoes.  Records have been broken.  Water everywhere.  For gosh-sakes it is mud season and it isn't even spring.

One of the consequences of this is that the Girls get a rinse and under-body flush after each and every walk.  They're just too muddy to let back into the house otherwise.  In keeping with the scatological subject matter introduced yesterday there is this.

Blonde dog is illustrated for purposes of contrast

 

On occasion the walk will result in more than a rinse and under-body flush. 
There is the full shampoo and sometimes a rinse and repeat.  That is because of the poo-rolling.  I have no idea what the attraction is - nevertheless, the greasier the critter poop the more irresistible it is.  

Blech.......

 

 

 

 

 

POWTS

Which is the acronym for Private Onsite Waste Treatment System. 

The Turd Hearse cometh. 
 

 
This is how you handle your shit when you live in rural America and don't have a municipal sewer system.  Everything flows downhill in the plumbing to a 1000 gallon tank where the solids settle.  From there the filtered effluent spills into another tank before being pumped into a mound system.  Once in the mound it slowly filters back into the ground water.       

Our own miniature sewage treatment plant.      

Got the three year clean bill of health after having the tanks pumped and inspected.       

That would be right.  Every three years.      

The county sanitarian requires it due to the fractured dolomite limestone bedrock that makes-up the Door peninsula.        

No leaking or failing septic systems allowed.  

The fella pumping the effluent out of the tanks was chatty-enough.  With all the rain business has been excellent.  But the stink. 

All I gotta say is……Whew!

Manure Management

Four months ago I published my observations and impressions of a manure management practice that is becoming more common around here – namely liquid manure soil injection.  That post is a good primer and background for what was to come as I have learned much more about this injection process of nutrient management. 

One of the primary benefits is a reduction in odor.  Getting the manure off the soil surface and into the ground goes a long way in maintaining neighborly relations.  Liquid manure injection also reduces the loss of nitrogen as a consequence of volatilization. This means more of the nutrient being made available to the crop.  This reduces or eliminates the need for the purchase of commercial fertilizer.   

Injection – contrasted with splashing the manure over the surface and returning to till it in – also reduces the risk soil erosion and runoff (well contamination). This additionally makes it compatible with no-till planting preserving more of the soil organic matter. 

The injection equipment I observed being used consisted of tractor-mounted injector with a draghose system delivering the product.  Just like this... 

click on images for a closer look

Liquefied manure is supplied by a caravan of semi-tanker trucks.  Since you’re not driving the truck onto the field to inject the manure this reduces the risk of soil compaction and saves transportation costs attributable to labor and fuel. 

Last July I had an opportunity to watch the process in action - immediately across the road from where we live.  

It took about 30 minutes to stage and assemble the distribution equipment at the roadside. What followed was a parade of semi-tankers. 

After the initial queue of tankers was emptied of their odiferous contents they returned at regular intervals – only moments apart – to refresh the pump tank. 

These tankers are called nurse trucks and have roughly a 6800 gallon capacity.  They can discharge their load in about a minute. 

They were a constant presence throughout the day – so many that we lost count.

This technique of shallow manure injection has features and benefits well-suited to Door County's soils and karst geology. It also saves money.  It is a fascinating form of waste management to my eyes and a veritable ocean of cow shit to move. 

Who knew?      

Manure Management

The other day on the way to the dump I stopped to watch a manure spreading operation on a field not far away. 

click on images for a closer look

 

I have observed these ginormous tanker trucks hauling liquid manure, a network of large diameter hoses, tanks and pumping equipment and what appeared to a rig hitched to the tractor that not only injected the manure into the soil but also used a disc to work-up the soil as well. 

It all appears to be a bit more complicated than the usual practice of spraying a geyser of liquid manure over the surface of a field and then returning to disc it the next day.  Complications-aside, it does appear more efficient and most definitely has a diminished olfactory impact. 

If I had to hazard a guess this non-farmer - suspects that manure injection (versus spreading) reduces nutrient losses due to evaporation and also reduced runoff.  Both of these features are important considering Door County's shallow soils and karst geology.  Is it higher cost?  I suspect it is.  Does this result in higher yields?  I dunno the answers to these questions.  Maybe someone that knows about this technology will chime-in with a comment. 

Using the photos I snapped - I believe I identified the equipment mounted on the Deere tractor and it would appear to be a manure injector and disc – Phil’s Pumping and Fabrication.  (This is what retired guys do when they have spare time on their hands).   

photo - Phil's Pumping and Fabrication

 

Specs as follows: 

Pottinger Terradisc  - 20 Feet 
Bolt on swing tube for attaching with ease.     
Accurate Application with 4 splash pans spreading in front of the discs evenly spaced.       Hydraulically run 6" Trueline Valve w/Resilient Seat for superb sealing.      
23" notched discs built to last!     
Flow Meter accessible     

You can lean much more about dairy farm manure handling at Phil’s Facebook page here:  https://www.facebook.com/philspumpingandfab/       

And by watching this YouTube video…..     
  

Word of the Day

Exhaustipated   

(adj.)  Too tired to give a crap.

Looking For a Pony In The Manure Pile

General Motors announced this week that they were ending production next year at five plants including its last remaining plant in Detroit and its Lordstown plant in Ohio.  

The automobiles manufactured at these locations are not poor quality products – hardly at all.  The fact of the matter is that these vehicles are no longer in vogue.  US automobile buyers are voting with their wallets for crossovers and SUVs – not sedans. 

As Mary Barra (GM CEO) said - these cuts will make GM lean and agile as the company concentrates its resources on electric and autonomously-driven vehicles of the future.    

The future of mobility is changing – driven by shifting population demographics and the inexorable march of ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft competing with automobile ownership in urban communities.   All the moves are designed to save the company $6 billion in annual costs.   Ford is expected to announce huge job cuts this week as well. 

This is capitalism at work.  Messy sometimes but that’s the way it works.     

For all of his tweeting Trump is looking more like the drunken dad who promised his supporters a pony for Christmas. Instead, they found a pile of manure under the tree and now they are enthusiastically digging thru the pile of crap thinking there must be a pony in there somewhere.    

One has to wonder why a successful CEO of General Motors would waste her valuable time listening to what a failed casino operator has to say anyway.    

Sheesh…

Road Hazard

The other day I exited the automobile following a run to town on an errand and immediately caught a whiff of dairy air.  The smell of manure.  Oddly-enough it was limited to the immediate vicinity and not dominating the atmosphere like a pungent miasma.

Ah ha.  That wasn't just mud from a field I drove thru on the roadway - it was cow shit.

Raising a toast to rural life...

click on the tire for a better look at the fresh poo

 

The Fertile Crescent

Historically the Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped region associated with the confluence of the Nile, Euphrates, and Tigris rivers.  Also known as the "Cradle of Civilization" this region was known for its rich and fertile soil and freshwater and brackish wetlands.  It was here that hunter-gatherers adopted agricultural practices around 10,000 B.C.  It was here that technological innovations, including writing, the wheel, agriculture, and the use of irrigation were discovered and adopted – persisting to the modern era. 

Today it stretches from the Persian Gulf, through modern-day southern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and northern Egypt.  Previous civilizations included Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Levant which included the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, and Phoenicians. 

Around here the Fertile Crescent is that distance from the porch to the extent of the dog lines.  It is an arc of especially green grass (punctuated by some burned spots) as the dog poop adds to the rich and fertile soil beneath.  It is the cradle of restrained Labrador retriever range.  And - yes - we do pick-up the poop as quickly as we can but you cannot be assured of capturing every last vestige of it.

The Golden Throne

It's tradition for US presidents to borrow famous artwork from museums in order to decorate the White House.  The Trumps requested to borrow a Vincent Van Gogh painting from the Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.  The president and first lady reportedly hoped to display it in the Oval Office.   

The Guggenheim's chief curator declined the request.  Instead, she offered an 18-karat solid gold toilet by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. Called "America," the modern sculpture was on display at the museum for a year starting in September 2016.   

Naturally, Trump supporters have their noses out of joint over what they decry as a crass, tasteless and degrading reponse to the current occupant of the Whitehouse.

I call BS.  Crass is as crass does.  Guggenheim is simply dishing the POTUS a dose of his own medicine.   As far as commodes go this golden throne is certainly an appropriate platform from which to perform your morning tweeting.  

You can learn more about this dust-up here.

Too Much Dietary Fiber

In keeping with the theme of my Labrador retrievers getting into whatever mischief they can I offer this...

This happens to be a turd that the black Lab relieved herself-of following a dining splurge on fresh grass.

Too much roughage I've concluded.

Incidentally, this can occasionally result in what we refer to as 'a hanger'.  A dog turd that the dog cannot completely evacuate from the bowel.  A matter of singular frustration to the dog who only wishes to go about her business efficiently and completely.  At which point you have to personally assist by grabbing 'the hanger' and delivering it from the canine's hind-end.

Blech.

Power of Observation

Try this sometime.

Locate an item of interest in the natural world and see what you can find/observe in the space of five minutes or so.

I did this the other day.  I picked a clump of milkweed in the yard and no sooner had I arrived to check it out this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail lit on a milkweed bloom.  It's flutter was a-stutter tho...

click on images for a better look

No wonder.  It was missing half of its tail.  I wonder what the story is behind that?

  

Lurking amongst the shadows and blending-in with its pale green camouflage was this katydid...

   .

Hiding in a milkweed bloom was a Monarch caterpillar... 

And locating caterpillar frass (poop) on the leaves of a milkweed I tracked this guy down...

It is mind-boggling to think of how much of the natural world we pass by on a daily basis simply because we don't take the time to stop and observe.  

Don't waste your powers of observation and never allow them to waste-away...

The Green Green Grass of Home

Travel and other obligations (if you consider that travel might very well be an obligation) have kept us away from The Platz for a spell and we returned yesterday to see if everything was still standing and to chase the chill out of the bones of the house.

This is what greeted us upon our arrival:

 click on image to enlarge

Yup.  More deer damage,  Not only have the deer resumed munching upon my cedars (after being sprayed with deer repellent) they have also been pawing and scraping the snow from the yard so as to graze and munch upon the turf beneath.

It's not like our yard is any tastier than the next.  It hardly ever gets fertilized and has an abundance of dandelions along with some other weeds.  Nevertheless it is green underneath the blanket of shallow snow especially on the POWTS (Private Onsite Wastewater Treatment System) where the grass is especially lush and green.

Mound system for you city dwellers. 

I initially suspected a wild turkey flock committed this landscape scratching but all I found were whitetail deer tracks.

I'm keeping my eyes peeled as I have deer at the top of my most wanted group of suspects. 

I figure that after slaying twenty-two of their number over the last couple of deer seasons the word has gone out to the local herd that they should take vengeance by means of munching on our landscaping when we're not looking and then pooping in the yard.

What nerve.  Sheesh...

Visualize a Tidal Wave of Poop

Big industrial pig farms use the lagoon system to save money.  

The waste is collected and stored in a lagoon.  After the solids settle out of the liquid manure and bacteria decompose the organic matter, farmers spray the remaining liquid onto fields as fertilizer. The slurry is rich in nitrogen and phosphorous—which works for fertilizer—but that also makes it disastrous  when it gets into rivers after a flood.

It's happened before and now flooding caused by hurricane Matthew may result in the breaching of lagoons filled with liquefied swine poo. 

This is a serious hazard to aquatic life and human health.

Talking Turkey

click on the poop to enlarge

Yes, poop.  A large dropping of bird poop.

Too be sure - it would be turkey poop.  Wild turkey too.

On the walkway alongside the garage.

Nervy bird the wild turkey is - walking alongside my garage and dropping a turd.

Turkey hunting opens Wednesday.