The lazy garden

[JOR_EL]

Re. the auto-windmill composter idea:

If the mix DOES need some "rest-time" it would be a simple matter to stop the windmill (overnight/for a day/ couple days/whatever), ...then let it start again . not much work to this, ...and schedule probably not critical, in case you forgot, or were gone.

Does this make sense? /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif

Larry

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

A weight that heavy would probably take a pretty good wind to turn (15-20 mph? Maybe?) So, it wouldn't turn all the time, only when the wind blew hard enough, which may be once or twice a week or month. I guess we're definitely onto windmills, because I don't think there's enough wind to just throw the barrel on the ground and let it blow around as in my original idea. Besides, I'm up here in Michigan and most of us are still nervous about being seen with a bunch of blue barrels lying around. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

SHF

 

[JOR_EL]

Steven,

I'd think power required (windspeed) would all depend on the gearing. Light wind = big blades, low gear, slow rotation (which would probably be ok?).

Remember the old " Give me a long enough lever, and I will move the earth" physics-class lecture!!

Larry /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Agreed, but it might take REALLY big blades. We've got a couple of engineers here, maybe someone can come up with something? I remember seeing a rock tumbler once that ran off a windmill. It was supposed to tumble about a 1/2 pound in about a month's time (wind allowing). Seems something like that might work if it was built on a larger scale.

SHF

 

[RJohnson]

SHF,
How about an electric motor to turn the barrel. You could hook it up to a battery and have a solar battery charger hooked to it. Put a timer on it so that it only turns once a day and let the sun charge up the battery the rest of the time.
I would also suspect you could have a windmill battery charger too if the daylight hours were not long enough or too cloudy.

Randy

 

[EdDekker]

I looked at using a plastic barrel, cutting an access door and vent holes, and rolling the barrel across the yard to mix the pre-compost. I decided it was a lot of work and I was not in that much of a hurry.

I considered maintaining the optimal carbon-nitrogen ratio and rototilling the pile every week. This was still more work than I was willing to do.

I decided it was easier to make a pile and turn it once a month or so with the FEL. I till the entire pile into my garden in the fall.


Ed