Sept. 19, 2014 – Boy, this is a long photo essay — There is a beginning and there is an end and a lot of manure in-between!!!

This is the end of my story – and a beautiful one it is – But to appreciate it we must go back a ways – to the beginning!

Before we go back a ways, lets look at one more “Beautiful End”

Backward toward the beginning.  We want to find out how our flowers came to grow so beautiful. According to the Farmer’s Almanac Manure creates nutrient-rich, moisture-retaining soil for your plants. “The most common sources of manure are cows, horses, sheep, pigs, goats, and poultry.  Now we know – it was the horse poop that made them grow. Let us continue on back. 

Not just any poop – but poop from Iceland.- well from an Icelandic horse. My Perla is the Icelandic breed of horse. – Her Dad was born in Iceland – Perla was born in Canadia – Now she is a Drummondite!  This photo was taken of horses roaming free in Iceland. Perla is the color of the one on your left,  has the face of the one on your right, and a big mane like each of them.   When Perla’s father lived in Iceland, I was told, that he was protected by the Hidden People  – I believe it.

Oh, say you “What are Hidden People?”  —  Huldufólk (Icelandic hidden people meaning  “pertaining to secrecy” and fólk “people”, “folk” are elves in Icelandic folklore.  Building projects in Iceland are sometimes altered to prevent damaging the rocks where they are believed to live. According to these Icelandic folk beliefs, one should never throw stones because of the possibility of hitting the huldufólk.
Icelandic gardens often feature tiny wooden álfhól (elf houses) for elves/hidden people to live in.  Some Icelanders have also built tiny churches to convert elves to Christianity.  President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson has explained the existence of huldufólk tales by saying: “Icelanders are few in number, so in the old times we doubled our population with tales of elves and fairies.”

According to a 1975 survey by psychologist Erlendur Haraldsson, Icelanders’ level of belief in hidden people and fairies can be broken down into the following percentages:
• Impossible, 10%
• Unlikely, 18%
• Possible, 33%
• Probable, 15%
• Certain, 7%
• No opinion, 17% [58]
This is Engraving of a man jumping after a female elf into a precipice. An illustration to the Icelandic legend of Hildur, the Queen of the Elves.

An álfhól (elf houses)

Now that we see the beginning where Hidden People protected Perla’s Father – and we see he moved to Canada and met a wonderful wife – that is another story – any way they produced the foal that produced the poop that produced the beautiful flowers – well, worked for God who produced them!  Let us  move forward. – How did the poop get to the garden?

First Perla’s poop is gathered  – every day

This is Allen my friend.  He and his wife Tess own the farm where Perla lives – they are real natural horse people and have taught me so much.  He has 7 such piles of horse poop compost ..  as you see in the background – well only 6 now because…….

See Grandpa standing in 5 yards of poop loaded into the truck helping to scrape the last tractor load from the loader bucket– before I had breakfast – and temp around 40 degrees in mid-September!

Here is Carlyle, another other good friend – he stopped by a 6:15am for coffee and to tell me he had time to drive his truck to the horse farm and get me a load of “Black Gold” as Tess calls it.  – Carlyle left me no option – “Get out of those PJ’s and lets go now!”

Here is the end of the middle of the story – truck is now empty – Carlyle is very happy to have helped me – I am very happy to have such friends as Carlyle and Allen and their families.

Here is the real end of the story – my current project is to use the poop compost and work it  into soil to grow “Forbs” for the deer – look it up – then you will know what a “Forb” is – So, instead of keeping the deer out of my garden – Next year, — I want to create a garden just for them – then they will not have to steal from bird feeders, jump my garden fences, or eat only dry brown grass.  Hum—Wonder if they will try to keep me out of their garden” – Check back next year.

Keep on riding – always keep friends, and keep fun projects in front of you. Always wonder about the cultures that shaped your projects or other things you do – like baseball, tennis,  vollyball etc.   – who invented the idea of playing with a round object anyway?