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The edges of the paper strips are roughly textured, so it all sticks to itself really well. It is very grabby. This allows the soiled Shred to be lifted out in large, unmessy, almost weightless clumps. I just hooked it with the tine of a small garden fork and Voila! Clean. The paper absorbs all of the droppings and even broken yolks, so you have virtually no extra clean up to do before refilling the boxes with more Shred. AWE-some.
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The Shred definitely seems to attract and retain fewer bugs, too. Even in this crazy heat! HUGE bonus.
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The glaring white of Shred is visually cooling in the concrete hen house. I realize this may benefit only me and not the chickens, but I could have SWORN I heard Red talking to Lucy Loo about the new decor and how sexy it makes her feel. And even if it only SORT OF feels cooler in there on a 108 degree afternoon, then I am a believer.
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While handling the mountains of gifted Shred, I noticed that a handful could expand into twice or thrice the volume it appeared to possess. This makes it not only economical (on top of being free) but also REALLY fun. It is like playing with dry snow in the middle of an Oklahoma heat wave-slash-drought.
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The dirty Shred is 100% biodegradable of course and so can still be composted right along with your kitchen scraps, other dry manures, etc. In fact, it is arguably BETTER for your compost pile becuase it contains no weeds. Especially if you have clay you’d like to bust up, I think the paper would be a good start.
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Do you have allergies? I bet you’re less allergic to paper than you are to hay.
Archives for July 2011
Naked at the Dentist
What was I thinking when I scheduled a dentist appointment just a couple of days after vacation and quite early in the morning? There is no excuse for it. I should know myself and my tendencies better than this by now. This combination of circumstances always leads to personal disaster.
I did at least remember the appointment, thanks in part to a friendly office call ahead of time, but that is about where the good news stops.
A wonderfully romantic evening the night before led to Handsome and me crashing downstairs then sleeping a bit late, so there you have strike one. By the time I had scrambled to send him off with food and smooches for his day of toil at the office, I was already way behind my self imposed schedule.
The day before, I had planned to rise before dawn to do all of my normal outside chores PLUS about seven other good, worthwhile things and at least one load of laundry. Then I wanted to drink some hot, perfect coffee while blogging, maybe grab a quick workout, and take a shower.
Not just any shower, the full blown, head-to-toe kind. Some people call this the Hollywood shower; I call it remodeling. It takes longer than ninety seconds.
What actually happened is this: I worriedly kissed my good lookin’ guy in the face then dashed around drinking only half a mug of now lukewarm coffee. I did NOT start a load of laundry but instead silently cursed myself, knowing that I would be returning home too late to run these electricity-consuming monsters before Peak Time, which that day started at 2 p.m.
I threw on Handsome’s cast off gray t-shirt from last night, stabbed my feet into some mismatched flip flops, and bolted outside to do the Feed & Water circuit as quickly as humanly possible.
The gray t-shirt was just long enough. Just. But we live in the country and passersby are usually moving at a pretty good clip, so I take liberty now and then in the interest of either time or laziness.
Here is what happened next.
It got so, so much worse.
They are Definitely Growing Up
Amateur.
Even if you think today has brought you the hardest lesson,
STEEL YOURSELF.
Today is AWESOME
compared to what tomorrow might be.
Enjoy it for all it’s worth.
it also gets much better in surprising ways.
When I noticed that conversations about boys had begun to electrically charge the air, I saw my chickens differently.
Am I the only dorky mom who felt nostalgic when her kids perfected cursive? When this happened in our home, I was in shock. Like everything else, it seemed like only yesterday that we were practicing their crayon-grinding ABC’s.
No Lifeguard on Duty
Romeo and Juliet Revealed
and for letting us share this story, Josh & Megan!
It was very loud. And off key.