First of all, I’ve named the compost pet Composta Heep. We like Thadd because he immediately got the Imogen Heep reference. Second, today was the big flip. I decided bin #1 was full enough, so it was time to fork it all over into bin #2. I’ll continue adding fresh material to #1, while I allow #2 to cook undisturbed except for frequent turnings. So how’s the compost look?
It’s not as far along as I’d like- not surprising, given the cold weather- but good stuff is happening. It mostly has a “good earthy” smell, with the exception of a few pockets that clearly got compressed and were cooking anaerobically. The pile was quite warm in the middle, too. I may get my thermophilic pile yet. I was particularly pleased with the worms. Considering that it’s February, there were a lot of fat, happy worms crawling around the warmth in the bottom half of the pile. This one must be a good 8 to 10 inches long:
That’s right- not only was I rooting around in decomposing green waste, oohing and ahhing- I ran to the truck to get the camera. Maybe this is why we never get hit up to buy girl scout cookies. Anyhow, the pile is now fluffy and cooking away in bin #2.
Given the dimensions of the bin, that’s an honest cubic yard of cooking compost. I’m glad we’ve been doing it; especially since we cook a lot of vegetarian food, it’s amazing how quickly the compost bucket needs taken out. Not only does it give us a good sense of what we’re keeping out of the waste stream, but we know we need to cook more if we’re not filling the bucket!
Compost Updates
First of all, I’ve named the compost pet Composta Heep. We like Thadd because he immediately got the Imogen Heep reference. Second, today was the big flip. I decided bin #1 was full enough, so it was time to fork it all over into bin #2. I’ll continue adding fresh material to #1, while I allow #2 to cook undisturbed except for frequent turnings. So how’s the compost look?
It’s not as far along as I’d like- not surprising, given the cold weather- but good stuff is happening. It mostly has a “good earthy” smell, with the exception of a few pockets that clearly got compressed and were cooking anaerobically. The pile was quite warm in the middle, too. I may get my thermophilic pile yet. I was particularly pleased with the worms. Considering that it’s February, there were a lot of fat, happy worms crawling around the warmth in the bottom half of the pile. This one must be a good 8 to 10 inches long:
That’s right- not only was I rooting around in decomposing green waste, oohing and ahhing- I ran to the truck to get the camera. Maybe this is why we never get hit up to buy girl scout cookies. Anyhow, the pile is now fluffy and cooking away in bin #2.
Given the dimensions of the bin, that’s an honest cubic yard of cooking compost. I’m glad we’ve been doing it; especially since we cook a lot of vegetarian food, it’s amazing how quickly the compost bucket needs taken out. Not only does it give us a good sense of what we’re keeping out of the waste stream, but we know we need to cook more if we’re not filling the bucket!
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