Last week the temps were in the 40's here in central Iowa and my pile was still turnable.

Since Saturday, we have been below zero F each night with highs in the single digits... and with 6 inches of snow Sunday/Monday.

So, my pile is like yours... an ice cube.

well mine has a bit of snow on it this morning, but the pile is melting it significantly. I took a peek, and got a wee bit of steam coming up so I know the center is warm. just thinking of the cozy worm haven I am going to have in there.

Mine was cooking a few days ago, but the cold weather hit us. I put a few ripped open leaf bags on the pile to limit cooling and water loss. It's helped in cool weather, but I dunno about the single digits that we had last night.

Same here, I know it is heating because it is melting snow and ice {{gwi:259768}} than the surrounding landscape like {{gwi:259769}} in the garden nearby. I did not want to disturb it by digging in it right now to see about steam.

How is your hoop house doing Kristi ? I am afraid that this day after day of sub {{gwi:259770}} tempratures will eventually take it's toll on my hotbed if we do not get a break in the weather before long. Right now, it is still hanging in there with {{gwi:259771}} to protect little seedlings if I had any in there. We do not usually stay this cold, for this long, however.
Bill P.

Bill, the hoop house is still hanging in there but I still only have a couple of wintersown things in there. I turned the dryer on to heat it this morning so that the snow collected on the top of it would melt. Worked like a charm and the wintersown containers, while they have been quite cold I am sure, have not frozen at all. This morning, the temperature in my garage even dipped below 40 so I did move yet another container from there into the house :). There's two left out there and I hope they don't have to come in to visit their friends! I am trying to keep a couple of things from going dormant so that I can have the jump on them in spring. Just don't know yet whether they will blink first or if I will :).

Kristi

My compost pile is going ok, it's quite warm at the centre and very hot on the outside (yesterday the summer temperature hit 105 and everything wilted). I am finding that I need to add lots of water to the centre of the pile to keep the process working. A bit of snow would be nice.

One bin is full, almost to the top (4') of almost finished compost. It's still 'simmering' so I buried about 50 potted plants in the top to help them through the winter.

The other bin is almost empty, just a foot or so of shredded leaves and grass clippings. We have a few days of super-low tides coming up, thanks to the new moon and north wind, so I'll be out filling the skiff with Eelgrass to mix with more shredded leaves, and I'll have that bin cooking by the weekend.

Been sitting at -25C for the last 24 hours with windchills of -35C so I dare not go and look. My young daughter did note today that it was the only place in the yard not covered by snow or ice.

I have to add multitudes of UCGs on the weekend so I'll let you know then.

I most recently built the pile about 9 days ago. I shredded all the yard waste (tomato vines, etc) and got some coffee grounds to add, too. I added a teeny bit of cow poop, and kitchen waste. The bin was half to 2/3 full.

Before our cold nights, a week ago, it reached 150 in the center. This was 2 - 3 days after building it up.

Then our freezing nights hit (about thursday or friday). I expected it to stay pretty warm, but it didn't. So I turned it a couple days ago, figuring it wouldn't hurt. Your thread prompted me to check, and although it's too cold and damp out for me to find the thermometer, I did poke the fork in and see plenty of steam come out.

We still having freezing nights and snow will come down to 1500 feet tonight.

So I'm happy enough.

Mine's like a 10-minute-old Krispy Kreme -- lukewarm in the middle with a crusty glaze on the outside.

I dug into it just before the ice storm started on Tuesday and saw a bit of steam. I took a couple of shovelfuls and packed them at the base of my artichoke which I covered with an impromptu plastic tent. This morning I could see water vapor inside the tent, under the quarter inch of ice, so I'm hoping it did OK. I'm waiting for warmer weather before I uncover everything.