Just before the rain, I finished weeding, chopping and slashing, and used straw to outline the labyrinth paths. It looks a little swallowed by straw at the moment, but it will all calm down with a little rain and time.
As I was doing this, I was thinking about Rumpelstiltskin, and his spinning straw into gold–clearly a daunting task. Why is it that so many fairy tales have questionable morals? I mean, really, we’re teaching children that it’s fine to back out on your promise if the person who helped you is less than human? Or if his demands now seem too great?
Anyway, the rest of the definitely-not-gold-but-straw bale will make paths in the vegetable garden and what’s leftover will get added to the chickens’ hay. They happily dig through and manure it for use as garden mulch.