Switching from conventional corn/soybeans to veg is a process and one big aspect of it is trying to build the soil back up.

We have 1 3/4 acre that we’re working with and ideally we would like to have about 10” of manure on the whole thing, which means we need a ton of crap.

We found some names on the UIUC Manure Share website: https://extension.illinois.edu/lfmm/manure so we could start this little project.

One place we found is working out. It’s a horse farm, and we have started the process of taking their pile. OF COURSE, this is a transition year, so we didn’t have any equipment ready. They let us borrow a horse trailer. We went out there with 2 muck tubs and 2 shovels and started working on the pile.

Spoiler alert: It turns out you don’t get too far that way.

Still, look at all these worms—this is fantastic!

For the second load, they used a loader to get it on there, so we only had to shovel it OFF the trailer this time. Still, if you have ever seen the business end of a shovel it may not surprise you to learn that we were inspired to buy a beautiful, old dump truck!!

• …Drumroll
• …Fanfare
• …Singing choir of cherubs,
• …Etc.

I will try to post the epic saga of buying the truck soon, but in the meantime, I can’t WAIT for load number three!!!