Composting on the Homestead

[TXyakr]

hunter I had seen some people who made their own compost tumblers out of plastic barrels, but there are some heavier duty plastic ones especially designed for this with gear driven hand crank or electric motors to turn them. Most are just too small to be effective but better than a bin sitting on the ground for people who don't have the strength for turning that are restricted to a very small area. "hayneedle dot com" and many other retailers sell these, but I don't recommend them.

http://www.hayneedle.com/product/goo...wr8aAoGO8P8HAQ

Municipal and many commercial composting operations accept material with lots of junk. Also their skid-steers and front end loaders will occasionally scoop up mud/dirt from the ground that the piles are sitting on. I just finally got disgusted at the poor quality.

BTW your local grocery store may allow you to set a trailer beside their dumpster with some labeled plastic drums for them to throw expired produce in. Hook it up to your truck/car on the way home from work and dump in your compost pile. Or just a plastic bucket and place in pickup bed if your pile is small, remove all plastic obviously. No harm in asking.

Cheap used poly drums for rain barrels, compost, or emergency water supply etc:
lexingtoncontainercompany

http://www.lexingtoncontainercompany...oly-Drums.html

Best to buy used poly drums locally to eliminate cost of shipping, should cost about $20-40 each if more for a used drum you may be getting ripped off. Here is a simple double decker tumbler:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Doub...rum-Composter/

hang high enough to place wheelbarrow under and dump directly into it.

[hunter63]

I agree.

Mine were cheap tumblers from steel drums, free and homemade......placed high enough to dump in to the bin.....
I wasn't impressed and have no desire to spend a lot of money to have a place for stuff to rot.

My bins are 4 pallets screwed together with deck screws.......been using them for maybe 40 years (not the same pallets...LOL)

Those fancy ones are too expensive, not big enough...suitable for gated communities, and Yuppies.

With land and a tractor.... wind rows work well for high volume...city method.

Don't work at it all that hard any longer, personally...but your suggestions are good, but store pick up isn't really possible at least around here....at least in the last 20 years or so......( I asked)

[TXyakr]

DIY compost tumbler out of Stainless Steel might be possible if you could find a local source/retailer for these Closed Head "Economy Style" Drums. I assume they would stand up to UV better than poly/plastic. Also to chewing rodents.

http://www.generalcontainer.com/subc...ng.aspx?cid=11

This is far to much effort and expense for me.
I like your simple pallet walls, these are usually very cheap and local. I could once pick up horse manure and coffee grounds very easily but now all the yuppies have honed in on it. OH Well just a good thing it is not being wasted anymore. It is my belief that for thousands of years humans understood the benefits of compost and piled it up in many different ways, layers, and used stones, slow rotting wood or whatever was handy to contain it. It ain't rocket science.

BTW (different topic) I emailed CurTec about their UV safe drums, but for food and drinking water storage not composting.
A salesman called me right back. Basically said (very nicely) that my best source for just a few drums was Lexington Container Co. in KY, they also sell mylar bags and many other things. Not impressed with their water filters or pumps but there are many other sources for those.

Edit: Oxygen i.e. proper layering is important or you may just be slowing down the decomposition by thousands of years LOL: http://www.livescience.com/38983-irish-bog-body.html

This is one reason why my eyes roll back and I bite my tongue every time I read or listen to a lecture by some "Master Composter" who says that everything should be shredded down to some small size. A few large sticks in the layers help to increase the flow of air/oxygen. Just pull them out when you are turning the pile. Ain't rocket science, been done for tens of thousands of year is my guess.

[hunter63]

It has been brought up to me over the years that people have been afraid to "compost" for fear of "doing it wrong"...."too hard"....too much fooling around.

Overthinking it can put off new people and discourage a simple operation of allowing things to "rot" as a soil amendment and adding trace amounts of nutrients.....as well as recycling waste.

KISS principle is very handy here.

Just saying........

[TXyakr]

I was first introduced to composting when I was in 3rd grade. My friend's family had an orange tree growing on the edge of their chicken yard/coop. We would sit up in the tree and fill ourselves with some of the best fruit ever, despite the smell of chicken poop. I imagine primitive humans figured this out thousands of years ago in similar ways. Perhaps they threw out their waste under some fruit and nut trees or beside a garden area and observed that those plants produced better than others. That is about all it really takes. Everything else just improves the efficiency and reduces the smell. What I observed by people's questions on my county's hot line was that many people showed concern about smells and that the compost might attract pests.
Personally I sometimes don't get around to using some piles but because they are near, up hill from fruit trees these produce much better due to the run off down into the tree's roots. Better than having the city waste fuel hauling off carbon and me waste money on paper bags etc. After a year a 3-5 foot high pile will decompose down to about 6-12" especially if I jack it up with nitrogen.