Thanks for the info Chunk. Anything I have covered with a tarp, here has become a mouse hotel. Would cardboard work?
Tree, It doesn't have to be a tarp..........a simple lean to over a pile with some 2nd hand corrugated tin roofing will do the trick. It is not the end of the world if you don't cover it either, especially for what we do indoors. When I teach my composting classes, I advise keeping the piles covered so they get the most out of the compost they create. Also, with the extreme rainfall we get here in the PNW, a pile can get waterlogged real quick and shut down decomposition. At the end of the day however, no matter what you do with your pile. it will eventually turn to compost. Compost happens!
Steve, This article explains the relationship between N and compost better that I can. but the short answer to your question is yes.
Scored 20 gallons of fresh horse poop from a local ranch this morning. They had already had it in a giant pile so all i had to do was walk of up and load up. My 20 gallons didn't even make a dent in the pile, lol! ....I really gotta get a bigger tumbler.
Finally got done making a new compost pile for the tumbler. I harvested the one from this passed spring/summer and started a new to be harvested next spring summer. Today while screening the finished stuff, I noticed alot of hard horse turds that I had to break apart before screening. What a PITA but it was black and shiny inside....almost like lave rock...so I kept it all. Still a PITA though so to make life easier on the next harvest, I decided to spend a few hours screening through 20 gallons of fresh horse shit. ...wtf was i thinking . I ran it all through 1/4" hardware cloth before making my pile with it. Hopefully the extra effort pays off. My finished stuff went into another barrel where it will cure along with my other finished material. I found some burnt wood chunks in it from last year. It was also black and rich looking....not saying it's bio char or anything but I'm sure it has some benefit. If it does...yay! If not...oh well, I'm still gonna have another beer and call it good. Screen fresh poop. Looks just like it did when the horses ate it...after you get the shit off of it, lol! Some finished compost ready for cure.
Not sure if you already do this, but soaking horse manure in water for a day or two prior to adding to your tumbler will help it break down more completely. I soak all of my dry ingredients before building my compost piles...
I never even thought about that! Dammit....I just spent the afternoon dry screening all that shit :lol:. Ugh....live and learn...and Im learning hahaha! Thanks bro!
Checked the temp on my pile this morning. It's already up to 130* towards the center! Higher than anything I've achieved before. Fresh poop definitely made the difference.
The PNW has broken out of its cold spell. It's nothing like what is going on in Buffalo, NY. Yesterday I was able to take my riding lawnmower and shred my maple leaves. I've got my straw and need to take my truck over to the neighbors and get some aged horse manure. Then I'll be making my thermal compost pile. Here's about a third of what I got shredded.
That's what it takes me before I'll bring it inside for container use, and why I just keep collecting more each year. J
Dang, I thought I replied to this earlier. Sorry for the late reply Jerry. I've been thinking about doing a sort of compost pen that I could make with some of my left over cattle fence. The main thing with my yard is that space is so tight thst I can't have a pile blowing all over the place with the winter winds and sand storms. Happens every year. I made something similar with an old large dog crate. It's where I keep my leaf collection (got the idea from Pinkie). Having the tumblers is really a temporary thing that has worked out so well for my cramped quarters that I've just kept going with it. I managed to get my temps up to 130+ this current run by using fresh manure rather than the aged stuff.
Yea it's getting to be that time of year again, the trees around here haven't even dropped all of their leaves yet dangit. I'm thinking this year my pile will be prolly 7x7x4 or so with the amount of leaves in the yard...... Hell with as little as I grow I still have 2 55 gallon food grade barrels slap full of finished compost still!! Maybe I should put an add on Craigslist and sell at least one barrel, wonder what I could get for it lol
If have to make a lot of compost before I'd dream of selling it. I'd keep it if I were you. Do you vegetable garden? Flowers? Do you grow comfrey or any other accumulators? Hell, I'd screen it and broadcast it on my lawn before I'd sell it. J
Marvajuana - I just turned my pile on Sunday with the help of my granddaughter. It was about 2 weeks since I first put it together. I would have liked to turn it earlier but we had a bit of a cold spell with a little snow. I waited until the weather warmed up and it wasn't raining.
I wish my backyard looked like that. Well, it might if I got rid of all of the ice and snow... Lol Lucky Pak! J