bulk colony bedding

Rather than bags upon bags of pine pellets I came across this listing that would cut costs, be healthier, and breakdown in the compost at least as well http://cedarrapids.craigslist.org/grd/4780489096.html .

My problem is how do I get a few cubic yards since it's sold as cubic yard? I have a small truck but it has a topper I'm not taking off. I calculated that would be like 3-6, 55gallon drums. That isn't fitting and even if it did we'd have to fill them on the vehicle cause we'd never lift them. My husband thought about taking the listed capacity of a wheel barrow and counting them while shoveling in to the truck. Just what I want to do in winter. Shovel cold, possibly slightly frozen together sawdust in to a wheel barrow, into a truck, and back out of a truck to some location I haven't figured out.... Aside from we'd have to buy a wheel barrow, transport the wheel barrow plus sawdust, and buy more shovels. We can get some leaky rubber stock tanks from the stable but we still have the problem of the topper on the truck won't let you fill them while in the truck and we can't lift them full. After we calculated the cubic yards of a stock tank to the best we can. They could work as storage after we get the stuff here though. I just see a good way to grab a cubic yard or 2. Particularly as winter starts to turn to our more normal freezing temps.

Is the shell on your truck that difficult to remove? When my rabbit partner and I bring lots of rabbits to a show, we put the shell on her truck each time, and take it off afterwards. Hers just attaches with a few screw clamps though.

Wow, nice deal there.

I can try to take the topper off. I have seen some of the places it's bolted. My mom said they are very difficult though and there is just me and Josh. I am short and can't lift much weight still. I debated making off with my grandpa's diesel truck again. Problem with that is utterly horrible gas mileage and my grandpa does not maintain things well. He drives it until it breaks, patches it, and drives it until it breaks again. Every time we take out that truck it has an interesting event. Cracked brakeline once. Also we found out when we were about 40miles down interstate to pick up bulk manure compost that he hasn't replaced the tires in the 30years he's had the truck. He just keeps patching them. Suddenly it gets really rough and my husband goes "are you sure this won't shake apart?" "nah, it shouldn't" *increased shaking* "well probably not" "crap" *plow in to shoulder* Realizing how bad the tires were after that my mom refused to use or let anyone use the truck until he paid the $300 for new tires so no one would get hurt.

Yikes... I vote for figuring out taking the cap off. :x

Not any insightful comments here, but man, the things we do for our little fluffs, huh?

Wouldn't that be a hazzard for all the dust?, they worn of dust even on hardwood chips being bad for rabbits. Just thought I would ask.

The last time we gathered a load of horse manure, we lined the truck bed with tarps. We still had to shovel the bulk of it out, but when we got down close to the end we pulled out the tarps. It made it much easier to empty and the truck was clean. Just an idea.

When we had a truck with a tooper, it had three clamps on each side. It wasn't that hard to remove, but it was hard to maneuver the topper around. If you decide to take it off, make sure you have a spot picked out ahead of time to rest it.