It’s warm! 50 F in the shade at 9 am and now, at 11:30: 60 F! This weather is unbelievable… But I believed it and immediately went out to set up that compost bin I talked about earlier.
The only problem with the plan was that it was impossible to get the 4 stakes that are supposed to hold it open and support it into the ground. The soil is dense forest soil, shot through with tree roots. I tried for about 15 minutes, but it would have involved digging a trench, which was overkill for a portable bin made of chicken wire! So I cut 2 sturdy sticks to the size of the diameter and simply made a cross inside at the bottom of the bin. It does the job. Sorry, forgot to take a picture.
Cost: $7.94 for the chicken wire (36″ high, 10 feet long).
Then I moved over the content of our second Earth Machine, the one with the coffee grounds/orphan pumpkins/leaves and straw. That heap had cooked initially, but then had gone cold as the bin filled up with waterlogged grounds and everything got very compacted and possibly even frozen through (because it was so wet) when we had our hard frost. So moving it to a rather airy location (we are planning on making a wind break around it) and adding many layers of straw was, I hope, a good idea. It has enough critical mass, air and moisture to start cooking now.
Let’s see if the critters move in. I didn’t make a bottom or a lid, as you can see, as I ran out of wire. We didn’t buy much because we were afraid that the 1 inch openings would let too much fall through, but some clever positioning of the straw and that was not an issue.
Took me 2 hours to make the bin and move the heap. It was great, being out there, in the perfect temperature for hard physical work. Even the gusty wind felt warm, and it whipped up the leaves and shook the trees overhead…
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