bpgreen, I am so happy for you. it is fun to poke one in there and watch the needle climb. While not a must have, it is a fun have. Have fun with it, I look forward to reading reports of how hot your new pile gets. Ok I read, re- read and again read one more time the orginal post. Jeannie, where do you read that his compost is not finished? Why do you just assume it isn't? Why do you have to down grade turning out compost onto a garden? Even if his compost into "finished" it will have time to "finish" while laying out in the garden. Walk through the woods, there is tons of raw materials there laying around with "finished" under it. Again proof is needed where un-finished compost laying in the garden for the next 2 month or more is going to hurt his plants next spring. Bpgreen has been here reading for the last 18 months, I am sure he has learned lots of READING the posts here. I understand this is your opion, good for you, do it in your yard/garden. My opion is that I would love to read and learn from people "in the know" about your methods. I am an advid reader, books, the internet, magazines, and have also learned a lot from the school of hard knots. Sandy in rainy Missouri

I'll post what I added in December: *Turkey bones from hosting Christmas at our house *All the napkins, paper plates, food scraps, shrimp tails, etc from hosting Xmas *About 100 lbs of UCG's from cleaning up around TCF Stadium from the MN Vikings game after the Metrodome collapse- there was a Caribou Coffee tent outside. *The usual food scraps, veggie peelings and coffee grounds *Guinea pig bedding and poo *Food scraps and peelings from Xmas at a relatives house (I've been planting the compost infection/ guilt in almost a lot of my relatives/coworkers and get them to save me their scraps that would have been wasted to the landfill! :-)

Sharon: THANK YOU FOR THOSE FANTASTIC PICTURES !! I also did red-cabbage test today Sat. 7/25/20. Distilled water boiled in red cabbage is actually acidic according to on-line info. "Pure distilled water should be neutral with a pH of 7, but because it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it's actually slightly acidic with a pH of 5.8." From your pictures above, the grayish blue solution is alkaline with pH 7.5. My pH 7.7 clay is a bit bluer (tested by Earth Corp. soil testing company). Black, gray, or clear solution is neutral pH .. means it's a fantastic buffer (good for plants). I tested COMPOSTED grass clippings and it's clear water above black solution. Buffer is great to neutralize the acidity of rain. Clay buffers better than sand/loamy soil, but the best buffer is composted organic matter. Coffee is also a buffer (at first pinkish, but after 20 min., it's a clear solution). COMPOSTED plant-matter is very alkaline and neutralizes acidic rain well. COMPOSTED leaves decompose to alkaline pH, when I stuffed a bunch of leaves in LOAMY & fluffy soil .. the next year that got converted into HARD CLAY, very alkaline. Green grass clippings stay fluffy longer (more nitrogen & more acidic). Brown leaves are considered "carbon" in a compost pile, and decompose to alkaline pH & hard like clay. My tap-water in red-cabbage is VERY BLUE, it's at pH 9 as stated on village's website. I also tested baking soda and it's more blue than my tap-water. I tested paver's sand or yellow coarse sand, and it's slightly alkaline. I tested composted manure and it's very alkaline (from the lime added to deodorize and kill weeds in the bag). The pH of composted manure is just as alkaline as my clay at pH 7.7. Your LAST pic. is slightly acidic. Rain-water is even more acidic & reddish purple. Rain water here is pH 4.5. I also tested some drops of vinegar and it's fuchsia red around pH 3. All my rooting-soil for cuttings are black or clear solution at neutral pH (they have lots of yellow sand or vermiculite mixed in). The clay taken from diseased & black spotted roses are slightly acidic, rather than blue like my pH 7.7 clay. I had tested 5 different roses with black spots in the past, and the soil taken from the root level is pinkish in red-cabbage juice. It's either acidic rain can't drain well from that spot, or else there's NOT enough buffer to neutralize the heavy rain going down.

Garland, Texas here, a suburb of Dallas. Been really hot and dry the past few weeks, and the past few days have been the hottest! Past two days around 104-105, and nights around 80 degrees. Definitely survival mode around here, and I water my garden every other day. Amazingly my cucumber are still producing! I keep picking a basketfull every few days and have given lots away. I am getting a few runts, but have had some nice sized ones too despite the heat. Yellow crookneck squash was producing good when it was between 98-100 for highs, but the past few days above 100 has pretty much shut them down. Okra loves the heat. 104 and they are happily producing. Have started given some away... Peppers are producing, but mostly they are ripening, since I think most of them set when the temps were in the upper 90s. I pulled up all my bush beans. The plants were surviving, but no beans anymore, except and occasional tiny runt bean. As Dan said, tomorrow we get a cold front, and temps are supposed to go back to normal, which is mid to upper 90s! Yeah big hats, shorts, lots of water! People pay money to go into a sauna and sweat buckets. I do it in my garden for free!