Horses and their connection to water quality!

The Illinois Horse industry is a $1.3 Billion dollar industry, and the highest concentration of horses in Illinois is found in McHenry and Lake Counties.

And every adult horse generates up to 55 pounds of manure every day. When you add in the bedding straw, that amount to 12 TONS of the stuff per horse per year.

When not managed properly, horse manure can increase flies and spread of parasites among horses. It can also impact water quality when not stored correctly. And that can mean excess nutrients, bacteria and parasites in local streams or even in the groundwater.

Now, one might ask "why don't the horse farms just spread it on the fields?" That's a good question! First off, depending on how much land one has, and how many horses, it could be problematic to spread that much manure on the fields. Second, many horses have round worms, and if their feces are spread on a field, the worms (a nasty parasite) can survive up to 10 years - so that's potentiall 10 years of round worm infections for the horses.

However, hot composting of the manure will kill most bacteria and parasites - provided the compost process is of a sufficient duration.

In Lake County, a waste hauler, Prairie Land Recycling & Disposal, collects horse manure from many farms and takes it to a facility called Midwest Organics that composts the material with other compostables. They bag the finished product, and it is actually sold at Whole Foods!

There is another option that has been developed by the University of Illinois Extension service: ManureShare. This is a manure exchange program that links gardeners and landscapers who are searching for good compost material with livestock owners who have excess manure.

Quoting from the website: This benefits water quality by removing excess nutrients from farms and by lowering the amount of commercial fertilizer used by gardenrs and others.

The Hooved Animal Humane Society (HAHS) in Woodstock is working with Extension to run a demonstration of on-site composting of horse manure. It will be interesting to see how the program works!

Support TLC in April!

Just a reminder that there are only a few days left in the month of April, which means just a few more days to support TLC & the environment!

If you haven't ordered your oak yet, you have until Friday! Red, bur & swamp white varieties ranging from two foot ($20) to five foot ($75). And 30% of the sale price supports TLC's 3rd Generation Oak Fund to help ensure that oaks will be an important part of the McHenry County landscape FOREVER!

Summer's coming, and that rainbarrel full of clean, free water will be so good for the garden, but you have to order yours by Friday to get the great price of $65 for a 55-60 gallon rainbarrel! Tumbling composters are also available for just $130.

Pick up for the trees, rainbarrels & composters is May 14-15 at Hennen Conservation Area, 4622 Dean Street, Woodstock.

And, you have until Friday to eat at Duke's Ale House, who will donate 5% to TLC if you bring a coupon with you (or ask your server for one at the Restaurant).

Rainbarrels (and Composters) R Us!

Thursday May 14th was the day for unloading rainbarrels & composters from trucks (over 200), and now Friday the 15th & Saturday the 16th are rainbarrel pick up!

So, we are pretty much all rainbarrels right now! 55-60 gallon barrels don't weigh a lot, but they are large, and stacked three high in the back of the building, they probably take up 500 square feet!

I asked one of the drivers where they get the barrels, and he said that all sorts of things are shipped in them from all over the world: pickles, banana peppers, olives, chocolate-covered cherries (??!!), etc. The barrels are made of really sturdy, food-grade plastic, but are not reused for shipping, so are a potentially huge waste stream. But, with a few simple additions, they make a great rainbarrel or composter.

The rainbarrels are fitted with a lid that has a screen covering one or more holes. This allows water to flow from a downspout into the barrel, but keeps mosquitoes from laying their eggs in the water. There is a spigot near the bottom, and a couple of small openings higher up where one can use a hose to connect multiple barrels together -- that way, when one barrel fills up, water starts to fill the next barrel.

The barrels used for composters have a solid lid, and a wooden stand with a bar through the middle of the barrel. This allows one to spin the barrel and mix the compost. The barrels also have a vent tube that allows air to get into the center of the barrel. (Air is one of the keys to making good compost.)

I bought one of the composters this year, and will be sure to let you know how it works. I can aleady vouch for the rainbarrels - I've had two for two years, and they are wonderful!

We plan to sell these every year - it is a fun way to raise awareness of the need for people to conserve water, and to recycle their food and yard waste.