A dictionary tells me that one definition of economy is “careful management of available resources.” Here at Lilac Hill there is a sort of dance between the management of the different animals and plants that optimizes my efforts to produce food sustainably.

Manure and the straw, shavings, or wood chips that catch it, are valuable because it improves soil fertility and tilth.

Yesterday I cleaned out the wood chip bedding that the geese and goslings lived on in the barn.

I used the wood chips to mulch the vegetables and the new blueberry bushes and blackberry canes.

The ewes are grazing this barn side paddock and they are clipping the greens to the perfect height for the geese. Both the sheep and geese are grazers, getting most of their nutrition from the mix of grass, legumes and “weeds” and they leave behind manure to fertilize the plants for the next round of grazing.