June 2008: Compost redux, other accoutrements

To prepare for the inevitable heat of summer, we procured a set of four rain barrels; we first had to contract installation of gutters, but soon enough, the entire surface area of our roof flowed into these receptacles. Unfortunately, that means they fill up in no time and a lot of the water overflows and is wasted in a heavy rain.


Remember the old compost? A little more dilapidated by June.

Since the original compost pile was mostly intended for yard waste, we wanted a separate, more confined one for kitchen waste. Jenny took our old trash bin and made it into a compost bin (since we wouldn't need that much volume for waste anymore). To date, we've had it for almost a year, and the waste has decomposed and settled so much that we haven't had to empty it yet. (And all of our food scraps, with the one exception of meat stuff, goes in there.) That said, it's very dense by now, and I fully intend to empty it on my garden as soon as spring gets here -- the bottom of the thing is like brick.

Apparently, mine was just the pilot model, because shortly thereafter, Jenny built her Dad the Cadillac of compost bins out of a barrel previously used for holding an inordinate amount of pickled jalapenos (I know, isn't it fitting for Austin? She found it on a local Craigslist posting). Since then I've heard that this one was too big and heavy to take full advantage of its capacity by filling it to the brim, so maybe the economy of mine wins out after all . . .

The guts:

An exhortation: