Compost
Last week, with the kind help of vibrantabyss, I got the compost bins rebuilt with sod taken up from the new garden plot, stockpiled Winter kitchen scraps, last year's late season yard waste, and what few leaves I could dredge up from the corners of the yard (no trees here).
The material available filled both of our two 32-gallon garbage can composters.
Yesterday, terse_scribe and I noticed that the volume had decreased in one of the bins, so I figured it was time for the first turning. Not surprisingly, the sunken bin was steaming in the middle. The other one was not, which is a little puzzling, since we filled both bins with the same sorts of stuff, and attempted to keep things even. Ah well.
Nonetheless, I dumped both bins into a single pile, and refilled them both with a pitchfork, alternating pitchforkfuls into each, and making sure that each got a nice dose of the high-steam parts. This should significantly improve the mix between the bins, and is probably how I'll turn it until it all compacts enough to fit into a single bin. Some of the stuff was a bit dry, so I added a bit of water (but cautiously...last year's bin was always too soggy). With any luck, this will get both bins steaming in short order.
The material available filled both of our two 32-gallon garbage can composters.
Yesterday, terse_scribe and I noticed that the volume had decreased in one of the bins, so I figured it was time for the first turning. Not surprisingly, the sunken bin was steaming in the middle. The other one was not, which is a little puzzling, since we filled both bins with the same sorts of stuff, and attempted to keep things even. Ah well.
Nonetheless, I dumped both bins into a single pile, and refilled them both with a pitchfork, alternating pitchforkfuls into each, and making sure that each got a nice dose of the high-steam parts. This should significantly improve the mix between the bins, and is probably how I'll turn it until it all compacts enough to fit into a single bin. Some of the stuff was a bit dry, so I added a bit of water (but cautiously...last year's bin was always too soggy). With any luck, this will get both bins steaming in short order.