The Great Compost
Well I finally got a day to dedicate to assembling all the material we had been collecting for the compost pile. Yesterday I spent about 5 hours chipping, shredding, layering, and spraying the material into the compost pile. Thanks to my Master Composter friend Thomas, the design for the bin was created with shipping pallets and hardware cloth quite cheaply. It is about 3 feet high, 3 feet wide, and 4 feet deep. The starting temperature according to my handy composting thermometer was about 88°F.
For those of you not very familiar with composting, it is the process of producing compost through aerobic decomposition of biodegradable organic matter. It takes the right combination of Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Water to foster aerobic decomposition. Active (or hot) composting, which is what I am doing, allows the aerobic bacteria to thrive which is what causes the heat. This is where the thermometer comes in handy. The ideal temperature is between 130°F and 140°F for a few days.
Back to my pile… here’s a few of the ingredients that went into my pile:
- Shredded Oak Leaves
- Chipped Oak Branches
- Grass Clippings
- Stall Hay and Horse Manure
- Several Buckets of Kitchen Scraps (no meat or dairy)
- Dryer Lint
- Paper towels from cleaning non-chemical messes
- Water
- Shredded Bush Trimmings
So this was all yesterday. Today I went out to check the pile to see if there had any progress, and it had! At 2pm today I checked and the pile was at 122°F!!! And even better I went out 2 hours later to check it again at 4pm and it was at 128°F!!! Wahoo! We have heat!
Update: 6pm - Two hours and a short thunderstorm later… we’ve jumped another 6 degrees in the pile! Awesome! Now reading in at 134°F.
Update: 8pm - I’m starting to sense a pattern here… two more hours and another jump of 6 degrees! So now it is at 140°F. I’m beginning to wonder if it will go higher than that?!?! I’ll have to consult my local Master Composter to find out if this is a problem or a good thing.
Update: Next morning 8am - Another update for those of you out there just dying to know what today’s temp is! It looks like it has reached the highest temp, 161°F! I checked again at 11 because I am home today with Jenna because she is sick and it is still at 161°F. See picture below.
Thats probably all the updates I’ll do to this post.
6 comments August 26th, 2007