Sunday, March 24, 2019

Hugelkulture, Ossabaw Hogs, And Wonderfully Hard Work




Yesterday was our first, free demo in our 2019 Mill Swamp Indian Horses series, "Teaching, Learning and Growing." We focused on our soil and water conservation projects including microbial pasture development, use of livestock to preserve land, vermicomposting and run off prevention.

We took a section of the brush windrows that Matt created as we cleared the remaining brushy sections of the New Land and built a hugelkulture mound and a huglekulture water retainer adjacent to it. We used freshly cut living wood, grass clippings, old wood, vermicompost from multi livestock manure sources, old hay, liquid microbial fertilizer that we produced on site, wood chips, night crawlers dug from adjacent land, and forest leaf mold recovered from a site about three hundred yards from the project.

The demo was hands on and participants joined in as the mound and retention area was constructed. Several tonnes of dirt and material was gathered and shoveled into the project.

While the demo was going on Andrew, Chris, Lydia, Jen and Elise moved most of our heritage breed Ossabaw Hogs over to the new wooded pen that we just completed.  Guests got a chance to see some of the rarest historic American horses, nearly extinct Colonial Spanish goats, and a band of happy Ossabaw hogs.

And they also got a chance to see what is possible when a group of dedicated volunteers come together to build something bigger than themselves.


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