My husband is compost-obsessed. On cold nights, he likes to sneak out into our backyard to marvel at how hot our compost is, beaming with pride at the steam rising from what used to be our kitchen scraps.
And that’s one of the problems with our compost pile: It’s mostly kitchen scraps, which isn’t such a good way to compost. You need “brown matter” (e.g., dry leaves) to keep the compost “healthy” and “not stinky” or “vile.” And so, this weekend, we loaded up the family and pointed our long-term Tundra toward the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank to get ourselves some brown matter, aka straw and horse poop.
Due to the nature of horse-keeping, manure management is a central task at the Equestrian Center. As such, they are quite happy to make the fruits of their labor available to the public for a small fee. So while well-heeled young women and girls practiced their jumping and cantering in the various exhibition rings, we tooled the Tundra on over to a giant heap behind the trailer parking. We paid $10 for a half-scoop (which is the smallest increment they sell and is about half the truck’s bed in size) of the manure, but we only actually took about half of that, since our needs were modest. We (and by “we” I mean “my husband”) wrapped it all up in some sheets of burlap and tucked it nicely behind the two bales of straw we picked up at a tack and feed store near the Equestrian Center ($8 each). And lucky for our upstairs neighbors, the horse manure for sale at the Equestrian Center is the kind that’s already composted, so what we picked up was really just super-fertile, good-smelling dirt.
Now obviously, it’s no surprise that a half-ton truck can haul a small load of straw and horse manure easily, but it felt good taking advantage of the Tundra’s usefulness. And the bedliner made clean up simple, like cleaning scrambled eggs out of a non-stick skillet. And now my husband’s happier than I’ve seen him in a long time, and I got to write a blog post about poop.
Bryn MacKinnon, Senior Editor, Edmunds.com @ 13,680 miles
jriz says:
12:31 PM, 03/31/08
I'm reminded of a certain Jeff Goldblum quote from "Jurassic Park" regarding some triceratops droppings.
SubyTrojan says:
01:11 PM, 03/31/08
I was reminded of a Homer J. Simpson quote. :o)
cap811 says:
01:28 PM, 03/31/08
At least friends won't ask you to haul furniture for awhile.
lvranger says:
02:15 PM, 03/31/08
What is the point of a compost heap?
jriz says:
02:27 PM, 03/31/08
A preview of next week's Tundra blog entry...
2007 Toyota Tundra: What the Heck's That Smell?
gobryngo says:
03:29 PM, 03/31/08
lvranger: the point of a compost heap is not to throw away organic matter that can be turned into free fertilizer for your plants
thebigal says:
07:07 PM, 03/31/08
I love how whenever the Tundra or the Silverado are used for "real" truck duties the staff seems to get all gaa gaa. Must be the city and the lack of uses for a "real" truck. Or maybe it's just that I use my truck as a "truck" so much that when ever these things see a little bit of dirt, I just roll my eyes.
Right now my truck and it's just a small truck at that is sitting outside hooked to a trailer loaded with a winters worth of yard trash, old vinyl flooring, carpet, fencing scraps and a host of other garbage to take to the dump. On top of that, the bed of the truck is filled with old wood scraps and pallets to be taken to the compost making place. The poor thing is so scratched that I don't even worry or care of something scrapes against the side or bumps into it. It has a rack on it for hauling ladders and plywood or 8 ft long boards and I use it so often that I don't know how I would ever get along with out it...
daytona_500 says:
09:21 PM, 03/31/08
Good to see a post about a truck being used like a truck, and not something complaining of the size.
lvranger says:
11:01 AM, 04/ 1/08
Thanks gobryngo, I live in the desert and we don't have plants, just rocks...endless wastelands of rocks.
Look at what you can learn on IL. They've got range!
rick8365 says:
11:17 AM, 04/ 1/08
a half scoop.....the smallest increment of excrement?
bemanix88 says:
11:55 PM, 04/ 1/08
The extra petroleum you burn in the Tundra vs. a smaller car would probably have MUCH more fertilizer value than your kitchen scraps.
Just sayin'....!
Nothing will ever change my opinion that trucks are a horrible waste for anything except occupations where there is no substitute, like farming or construction.
jerrywimer says:
07:29 AM, 04/ 2/08
That bedliner has an additional, bonus (!!) benefit- it keeps the manure scoop (aka shovel) from catching on the raised / exposed bed mounting bolts on the Tundra. Good thing too, cause I bet that even composted horse manure remains get extra stinky after awhile.
dadoftay says:
04:41 PM, 04/ 2/08
Hey Bryn, how is the mobility of ye ole Tundra? I'm looking at a full size and the Missus isn't looking forward to parking or driving "a behemoth" like that. Let me know how Captain Compost likes the poop mobile!