Turning the compost pile.

[MossRoad]

Thanks to everyone that replied! Lot's of good info! My wife a I have a 15 month old and the I more I read about the commercial food suppy, the more I'm committed to growing at least part of our family's supply as organically as possible. As a former city slicker, I have limited experience in growing anything, but we've been blessed with a little land and I'm going to give it a go. As I dig deeper into all things gardening, I'm sure I'll be asking a LOT more questions.

Funny thing is there are more reports of people getting sick from organics than non-organics regarding cleanliness.

I grow a lot of food because I enjoy it and know what is in it. That is good enough for me. :licking:

 

[MossRoad]

My wife and I would also like to start a compost pile for our vegetable, lawn and garden waste, but have been concerned about attracting critters. Any thoughts?

A properly done compost pile will not smell or attract critters. For our composters I use the three bin method. Bin one gets filled with garden, yard and kitchen waste. When it is full I turn it over into bin two. When bin two gets full I turn it over into bin three. When bin three gets full I turn it into the wheelbarrow and use it. :thumbsup:

For bins I pound T posts into the ground and set wooden skids vertically over the T posts to make a four sided box. Each adjacent box only needs three skids. So, 10 skids makes a great three bin composter. As the skids rot out I replace them. But they tend to last several years each.

If I push it, I can make decent compost in 6 weeks. If I get lazy it can take a year. :laughing:

 

[Stimw]

I get a 5' X 9' trailer load of fresh horse squeeze every week from the stable down the road. I rotate the piles by age and keep them turned with my FEL. After about two months it is ready for the garden. Flipping it helps aerate it which helps it break down.
The first pic is 4 piles by age.That is a 4' fence behind it. The second pic is some staged ready to be tilled into the garden during the next till.

 

[gotrocks]

I'm turning mine with my fel now.

Had a tumbler and directions required 45 cranks on the handle every day.
That got old very quick and I sold it for half what I paid.

If I could have rigged an electric automatic cranker I might have kept it.

 

[keegs]

Brought the truck with me to work today. Lots of horse farms around work. Got a steamy load at lunchtime.

 

[MossRoad]

Brought the truck with me to work today. Lots of horse farms around work. Got a steamy load at lunchtime.

One time my wife and I stopped at a Dairy Queen in Michigan City, IN for something cold to eat. It was lunch time. Another car pulled up and three young guys hopped out and went to stand in line (only outside service windows at this DQ). A fourth guy sat in the car with the windows down. It was a hot day. I mean HOT. Next thing you know, a pickup truck pulls up and parks right next to the guy sitting in the car. The guy gets out and goes to stand in line. I notice he is wearing hip boots and looking pretty grungy. The guys in line can't make up their mind what they want, one of them is flirting with the cashier and all of the sudden we see the guy in the car pull his shirt over his face and yell "DUDE, HURRY UP!!!! IT'S THE ZOO TRUCK!!!" :shocked: Sure enough, it was the pickup truck from the zoo, loaded to the top with zoo doo. :laughing:

 

[keegs]

One time my wife and I stopped at a Dairy Queen in Michigan City, IN for something cold to eat. It was lunch time. Another car pulled up and three young guys hopped out and went to stand in line (only outside service windows at this DQ). A fourth guy sat in the car with the windows down. It was a hot day. I mean HOT. Next thing you know, a pickup truck pulls up and parks right next to the guy sitting in the car. The guy gets out and goes to stand in line. I notice he is wearing hip boots and looking pretty grungy. The guys in line can't make up their mind what they want, one of them is flirting with the cashier and all of the sudden we see the guy in the car pull his shirt over his face and yell "DUDE, HURRY UP!!!! IT'S THE ZOO TRUCK!!!" :shocked: Sure enough, it was the pickup truck from the zoo, loaded to the top with zoo doo. :laughing:

A manure medley on a hot summer day....:laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

A manure medley on a hot summer day....:laughing:

yes, it was quite the aromatic apparition.

 

[jimmyj]

Just stirred the pile now. Note in the two shots with the bucket in the same lift I had snow on the left side and steaming compost on the right.

 

[2manyrocks]

So this guy is pushing a wheelbarrow full of manure down the street by the insane asylum.

One of the inmates calls out and asks him, "what's that for."

The guy pushing the wheelbarrow says, "it's for my strawberries."

Inmate says, "I know I'm crazy, but I prefer sugar on mine."

 

[Taylortractornut]

JimmyJ I envy your manure fork been looking for one here for my loader. I compost leaves the city brings me. They break dow nfaster turning with the loader. I had 200 CY of fine powdery dust at work. I turned it a few times and let it get wet then put 20 yards of horse manure in it and turned it every 3 days with the dozer. its some great stuff. A city near by had a small lake with a bad levee that was full of carp. The city hands were supposed to pump it out and let a fish processer come take the fish in sein nets. City workers get a great idea and digout the levee. It dumps into a drainage ditch and strands 400 tons of carp behind a nice subdivision in july. We got a call about some saw dust. A composter came in a vacant paved lot and we dumped our sawdust in some rows. They had every laborer in the county picking the fish up and putting them into trucks. They dumped the fish next to the piles and mixed them with the saw dust and let them sit over night.

They brought in a large self trailering compost windrow turner and turned it once then the next day and let it sit a few more and repeated the process 3 times a week. It never smelled and after a few weeks it turned into rich black compost.