One day in November, Maria and I declare it a Manure Day Holiday, we put aside our work and chores and take on the giant mound of the donkey manure that has turned into a small hill in the back pasture.

The manure is an important reason why our gardens have all blossomed so beautifully and intensely. Donkey manure is among the best fertilizer there is, our friends come and take some starting in August. There is plenty left.

Luly and Fanny are enthusiastic eaters and they love to drop their manure in the pole barn. Maria shovels it out every morning and puts it on the pile.

I call our pile the Himilayan Mountain. Maria and I both shovel the manure into the wheelbarrow and she pushes it around to the gardens, where we spread the manure around.

When the gardens are full of it, we start spreading the remaining manure around the pastures to help fertilize them over the winter.

The whole show draws a crawd They come to watch the Perfect life. The pile is 80 per cent gone, we’ll polish it off tomorrow.