My black gold mine

Haha, wow, 14 kids!

Yep, 14 of them. They couldn't have children of their own so they have adopted children that have handicaps of different types. It is a very loud and boistrous group and since it has been almost 4 years since the last addition the kids have been telling them it is time to grow the family some more... and they probably will if the need arises ;~)

Zany,

Sounds like there a compost producing household. Do you get other compostible items from them?

I admire people that are able to do it. One is enough for us for now.

Dean

Actually, they liked the idea so much that they started their own pile this last month and it is cooking away :~) Their two eldest have become the compost police and make certain that nothing good gets left off the pile and nothing bad gets into it. They asked me to make them a list of what they should not use and they have been raking all the yards on their block to collect leaves. Those two are going to become great organic farmers someday. I am teaching them how to do lasagna beds in their back lot and they want to plant all the vegetables they can think of to can and freeze.

They started raising chickens for eggs two years ago and have done very well keeping the family supplied with fresh eggs and taking care of their flock. But if a hen or chicken stops producing they will not allow it to be used for dinner. It has to be taken to a farm and "traded in" LOL The "farmer" is their uncle who slaughters, cleans and freezes them for them.

Now they actually argue over who gets to shovel the coop to add it to the compost heap! Not bad for a kid with one arm and another that is on a walker!

Wow, Zany, doesn't that make you feel good?

Sure does. I can't garden a lot anymore due to lack of space and a bad back. But I can putter in my little yard and I can teach these kids (and their parents) about gardening and in the process help them eat better quality home grown veggies since they have a few acres to learn on.

Zany, my dear, the good Lord moves in mysterious ways. More power to you :)

True, but in this case the power is in the handi-can kids ;~)

Well, it's good you still get to participate in compost building.

Necessity is the Mother of invention and my compost heap! I need to fill the large planter with good soil so I can cap it off with a bench and plant it. Since I am still able to move about and lug things about I decided to push myself toget this done now so I can continue enjoying a small garden as I grow older and am able to do less heavy work. Once the bed is finished I will just have a garbage can size bin that will do for cold composting of any scraps I have. But this big pile is going to enrich the sand and clay I am accumulating in buckets to give me free "top soil" to start with.

I find I can still accomplish my goals even with a bad back ... it just takes me a year or so to do what used to take a couple of weeks. I guess ina way, I am Handi- canned too ;~}

Zany,

Take it easy on your back. Get some acupunture. LOL!!! If you don't mind the needles.

Dean, mean, dean, oowoo, good one

I tried it acupuncture once and the needles aren't bad but it didn't seem to help much if at all. I have learned not to push myself too far and to take my time.

The most eye opening lesson I have learned is that it is ok to ask for help with really heavy loads and that anything that can be rolled instead of carried is better.

I also learned that it is better to carry a small bucket at a time and make a zillion trips than to try to carry a truckload of gravel at a time.

All those "work smarter, not harder" kind of things I didn't think much about when I was young and invincible.

I added More grass clippings to the pile Saturday and turned the whole thing to aerate it again. It was still damp and we were expecting rain so I didn't add any water.

By Sunday afternoon the pile temp was 138f. We got light rain Sunday night and most of the day Monday. This morning the pile temp is reading 162 f. just 5 inches below the surface! I don't think I'll turn it again for awhile since the bin is full now and I won't be adding anything except a few eggshells and coffee/tea and scraps from the kitchen. When it cools this time I'll let the worms do their magic and in a month I'll mix it up a bit before I put a layer of finished compost and soil on top and plant my legume mix on top.

Then will come the hardest part... leaving it alone and waiting for time to dig in the cover crop and see what nature has accomplished for me :~) It's the waiting that is hard! Depending on the weather, I am thinking it will be ready to peek at around the end of May... I hope!

In the interim, I am collecting worms off the pavement when it rains and placing them on the perimeters of the pile. There are already a few really big ones in there but they seemed a bit lonely and I don't know how fast they multiply on their own. There is a lot of worm food in this pile so the more the merrier.

"There are already a few really big ones in there but they seemed a bit lonely"

LOL, how can you tell when a worm is lonely? Inquiring minds want to know....

When you only see one or two in a forkfull of material they must be lonely! After all, they may not need another worm to propagate but they need companionship... and it can't be easy to find it down there in the dark unless there are so many you just keep bumping into each other...

Heck, they're probably having card parties and dances down there!

Well, I hope they are doin' the bump!

OH LORD, way, way TMI! LOL You and Pagancat, tsk, tsk! ROFLMAO!!!

Now I'm really worried about my worms, I only bought the 1/2 pound of wigglers for my lasagna bed, perhaps that isn't enough? If they didn't go deep down, their are frozen little suckers right now. Do they hibernate? I wonder if I should check on them? It will take a snow shovel and an ice pick, but I really Do Care!

Cathy4, they go deeper, for the warmth. They'll be fine! And they are probably up to at least a pound of wigglers by now. I'm tellin ya, if you put the goodies in the ground they will come and bring friends and relatives!

Haha, I hope every one of them is very pregnant, I put lots of good stuff in there. I just found out we may be moving, do you think hubby will mind digging up all my lasagna beds in February and moving them, too? I won't miss the house as much as I'll miss my gardens, boo hoo. All these lovely piles just waiting for seeds, it's almost more than I can stand.

Oh boy! Well, just think. You'll have a brand new palette to play with at your new place! And depending where you move too, you may be able to start new lasagna beds right away!

Cathy4, don't worry abot the worms freezing, they've developed a way around that. The eggs they lay can freeze and you have infants when it warms back up in spring. A regular maternity ward waiting to grow up to make "Black Gold."

I didn't know that, isn't that the neatest thing!

Well, after almost a month of sitting with no heat the composting seemsto have come to a very slow crawl. I dug into it and turned up some of my big fat worm friends and saw 3 with the egg casings almost readu to slip off so I know what the worms have been doing.

The redwood needles have turned dark from the moisture but they are a long way from breaking down yet. I amstill hoping to see them converted to compost by April/May but am beginning to fear it will take another year. I guess that is why most people don't use them for compost. Pine needles break down faster by far and I thought they were slow!

There is still a lot of greens in the pile but they are breaking down rapidly now that the worms are building up in numbers. And the white flies have vanished since the birds discovered them and had a couple of months feeding frenzy on the top of the pile :~) That is good news because I really don't want a white fly problem when spring arrives!

I did see a toad hop out from the end of the bin on the bottom left side where the ground was uneven and he seems to have made himself a little cave there but it is between the end of the bin and the fence so I can't get a good look. Probably just as well because it keeps him out of sight from the dog and the cats. His presence explains the lower numbers of snails and slugs I am seeing this winter. I'm hoping that come spring he and I can keep the monsters at bay.

If you make him a toad habitat he's stick around.

It looks like he already made himself one there at the back corner of the compost bin. If he sticks around I'll have to leave his little corner alone and not dig him up when I turn the pile but that's easy enough to do. I was surprised to see him this time of year though since the nights have been so cold but he looked fat and happy.

My toad would never use his abode, most of the time he was in the rain pipe, sometimes buried under the mulch, I accidentally dug him up twice last year, lol. You toad is probably totally happy, and what a happy friend to have!

LOL he probably is since the spot he chose is about the safest place out there! Mr. Toad is pretty smart.

Zany, I visited friends in Bend, OR, in '92 and we went up to Sisters and were painting 'realtor white' in all the rooms of a rental house with them and I went outdoors for a break and wandering around, I saw some fine, loose disturbed soil. Being the nosey Alaskan outdoors type, I squatted down and started scraping the loose soil away, (carefully, I didn't know all the critters in the area) almost quit when it started sloping about 45 degrees and almost to my elbow, but kept on and then I felt something soft and reactive when I touched it. I felt around and finally pulled out a toad or frog of some kind. It was pretty big, about 6-7 inches long and real fat. I realized it was hibernating (it was in Sept.) and stuffed him back in and pushed the soil back in gently. Not a big story, but a memorable one for me, and suprised my friends. (not by much, though, they know me) They just wanted to know where I left him, so they wouldn't disturb him accidentally.
Carol

That is the kind of thing I would do! But this guy seems confused because he isn't hibernating yet although he was moving back into his tunnel cave pretty slow. But he has 4 ft of compost over him to keep away the chills even if the pile has gone cold.

I know the little tree frog in my hanging birdcage dug in for the winter over a month ago. He dislodged one of the hens n chicks to make his winter home right there in the cage. Since the soil is only a few inches deep in the cage I have been covering it on frosty nights to give him a bit more protection. Probably silly to worry about covering a frog in a birdcage but hey!

I would cover him, too. I also have a hoof pic and stop to see if horses or donkeys or mules have round balls of snow/ice/compostable stuff/rocks to remove from their hooves/frogs. It helps to have a helper with a halter. I don't give a big phooey if someone asks what i'm doing with their animal. I'll tell them and have them laughing and wanting to buy compost when I'm done. LOL Yep, sell that right back to them in a different form... lol
BTW A hammer is usually the start in really freezing weather. (on the hoof balls)
Carol

LOL I can just picture you out there with a hammer in one hand and a hoof in the other as you tell them your just collecting stuff for your compost heap and deicing their animals at the same time. But selling them the compost too is just plain great salesmanship!

Quite the picture, huh? I'm better at the halter until we get to the frog, then I'm the expert.
Carol