garden roots and cow patties

yestermorn it rained about an inch. after the rain stopped we saw it as an opportunity to attempt to remove the sapling stumps from our garden plot. the smaller ones were comparably easy. there was/is on larger stump 8 inch trunk. oh man, the work involved. tabitha would pull and i'd shovel and vise versa. the roots would trail all around the garden area crossing under and over other saplings and itself. what a tangled mess. our garden plot looks like a mine field. huge holes un furled roots dangling from the earth. just for added effect there are several burn pile remains. we are about half way uprooting the garden.
we also picked up all the cow patties from the pasture. something about the cycle of putrescence that keeps ruminants from eating grass that is fertilized from their feces. we got two wheelbarrow loads. the manure is packaged in heavy plastic bags for composting to end in our garden.
coco is dead, he escaped past tabitha from the cage but we eventually re-caught him. he was easy to pluck compared to the white chickens and smelled a whole lot better during the entire process. i cut my finger on a freshly sharpened knife so tabitha had to help eviscerate him--usually my job. in the end i did most of the cleaning but at least tabitha learned how to do it.
we have a lead on some local downed cedar trees at tabitha's grandma's house. they'll make fine posts for our milking shed. this weekend is slated for retrieving several of them.