I have had a couple of great ideas in the past 24 hours. First I was sort of thinking about wanting a garden, saving money, being more *green* and such..and I realized that we could build a slightly raised garden at the back of the house by the laundry room, and run the grey water from the laundry to it...But wait! There's more! I also figured that we could lay in pvc pipe with holes drilled in it through the garden and have a pretty nifty irrigation system. Then I realized that, with the bed ebing raised , it had a base and we could add a green house frame, so that in the winter we could cover it with plastic and have vegetables all winter. It is south facing..
I was kicking around all of that and spoke to Marc about it and he suggested that in the winter we could pipe in the heat from the drier as well to help it stay above freezing. WIth 6 kids here and all the dirt we do alot of laundry..I am excited.

The bit that sticks out is the laundry room..We have an area for quite a large garden.

The other thing is that I need to solve a fly problem at the milking barn. We built the barn with 3 stalls and a plain milking area, and 2 doors, one on each end. In the middle of the barn is a sliding panel that seperates the barn into 2 areas with small grazing area on both sides. The does have favored one side and has several layers of mulch/hay/manure...and maggots. Ew.
So I am going ot get some diatimacious earth, turn it into the area, close the area off from the does and then plant my garden there for this year...In the fall the does can eat what is left off the plants and I have an awesome fertile area that I dont have to till....
In theory.
I will take pictures and let you know..of course.