I turned my newest CP yesterday and was most pleased at the black gold under all the leaves and newspaper. My bins are just a series of 4x4 skids and I now have 4x4 foot square of beautiful compost about 1 foot deep. I can't wait for it to dry a bit so I can screen it and put it good use.

I'm not all that poetic, but I am looking forward to taking a big bucket of compost to my dad who's been giving me a hard time about all the leaves (bagged and loose) piled up in the yard.

The lady that supplies me with most of my coffee grounds has asked me for bucket once it is finished, I figure it's the absolute least I can do, after all, she religiously saves them for me. I plan to take her some of the harvest from my garden also as she LOVES fresh veggies, but has no time to grow her own. Better watch out for dear old Dad, once he has some of your black gold, he may not complain about your leaves but take them off your hands....

I do have a question that I have been dying to ask the composting community. Back in early spring, before the daytime temps were on the rise, I was contemplating moving my seedlings out to the top of my hot compost pile and covering them up with a clear shower curtain so that they could get natural light and stay outside overnight, essentially, using it as a cold frame. I was concerned about it getting too warm in the day and how to ventilate it to prevent cooking my seedlings. The surface of my compost pile at that time was running around 70-80 degrees. Have any of you guys ever used your compost pile this way? Did it work for you? Did you have any problems with overheating and how did you ventilate? Thanks!

anyone else who mixes grass clippings, leaves, and water in a big pile would get hot composting action. Not me. no steam, no heat radiating off the pile.

I've heard of people replacing their kids with a dog or cat or a hobby but never with a compost pile - that gave me a good laugh! My kids are teenagers now and if they don't straighten up, they may BECOME the compost pile! (just kidding, but if you have teens, then you know what I mean).

I think I have finally gotten my family trained in thinking about what they are throwing away but every once in a while I will open the trash can and see tangarine peels or an apple core sitting on top - aaarrrgghh! I think someone does it just to hear me yell.

Interesting idea about using the pile as an incubator. Mine never get hot enough to be of any use in that way.

Lynn

I wouldn't use the entire compost pile for an incubator, it might get too tricky.

But there are a lot of examples of using the compost process to different uses, here they used to bury fresh horse manure in the soil under the cold frames in the early season, that was enough heat to keep things from freezing. But that sure sounds like more of an art than a science.

Asian peasants used to use composting rice chaff to create the conditions for incubating duck eggs.

But I am posting to say that you are far from alone in viewing a compost pile as a friend, a pet, one of life's companions. Buy it a treat now and again, thinking of it continually, shoving someone out of the way to get an old teabag - "for the pile". Using a sports metaphor, you get walloped in the head protecting a quarter back, they call that "taking one for the team".

There are some people, posting on this forum, that I know for a fact have sewn in plastic zip-lock bags in the lining of their clothes, and will fill them with putricibles "-for the pile" .

You are not alone!!

Now why didn't I think of that!!! Ziploc bag, hmmm....