I see where the original poster is coming from. Tumblers are not as cheap as they should be and they don't process as much as an open bin can. For people living in a city though in either a condo, townhome, or a house with a small plot of land it's a good way to process the small amount of food scraps they produce. I have one and I'd definitely prefer to have a several cubic yard bin instead. If for no other reason so I could do true "hot composting". I've had it go stinky once when I was first learning and remedied it with some dry leaves and shredded paper. It's a batch system though so you have to let it finish cooking before you can use it. Initially that meant I stored all my scraps in the freezer for about a month while the bin finished. Now though I have a Vermicompost bin that I use to finish the compost. This way I don't care if the tumbler gets 100% finished as long as it gets close enough that the worms like it. It's not an ideal solution but it reduces the waste my family puts in the land full and it produces some good compost for our vegetable garden. Maybe someday I'll have a bigger piece of property so I can do a big bin, but for the foreseeable future, I'm happy wig how the Tumbler works into my garden system.

I really like warm neutrals, and I'm gradually changing my color scheme in the house to use them in almost every room. When I bought my house 7 years ago, I was tired of having rentals with white walls, so I went for color --- burnt orange, terracota, and yellow walls in the kitchen, guest room, dining room, and home office, with similar colors as accents in the rooms with neutral walls. At the time I loved it. Now, I find neutral rooms more calming and I like the flexibility of being able to mix and match items from different rooms. I appreciate intense color in magazines and other people's houses, and I don't regret my prior color choices for a second. But the neutrals speak to me more these days. So it's out with the cranberry, gold, and orange palette, and in with caramel and chocolate. Ironically, I feel like I'm post-trend, as I keep seeing items that match my old color-scheme & style in stores. I think the neutral shades are more interesting than the word 'beige' conveys. My wall colors range from a milky taupe, to golden tan, deep caramel & cafe au lait. The undertones sometimes make it challenging to find complementary shades of paint. I try to bring in interest and contrast by using patterns and varying shades of the same color (i.e. dark chocolate contrasting with a lighter tan), or sometimes use non-neutral colors as accents. It's still a work in progress, but the end result won't be boring to me.

I met with the coordinator today and had a tour of the facility. It's lovely. It's warm and cozy and has a real home-like feel about it. There are approximately 40 residents, and I met quite a few of them. One of the ladies asked the coordinator, "Where'd you find this pretty girl?" and that was so cute, as it's been ages since anyone's called me pretty or a girl! ;-) From the minute I walked in the door, folks were friendly. As I sat in the lobby and waited for the coordinator to meet me, a couple of ladies (residents) were sitting out there and they immediately started chatting with me. Just so very friendly, and obviously eager for someone NEW to talk to. There are numerous activities throughout each day, and I may be able to pop in some evenings but mostly my involvement will be on the weekends. Playing games with the residents, reading stories to them, or just taking them out into the beautiful garden courtyard on nice days so that they can get some fresh air. And talking. I'm sure there will be PLENTY of talking. The facility has a photo wall where they post pictures of residents fulfilling their "bucket list." Several of the ladies had always wanted to go to the theater, so there are photos of them dressed up at a production. One gentleman wanted to go fishing, and there's a photo of him kissing the fish he'd caught. One sweet little lady wanted to ride a motorcycle, but was too scared to get on the back of one, so they found one with a sidecar and she rode in that. As you can imagine, her photo was just beyond precious. This is a Level B facility, which was explained to me to be a facility in which the residents require SOME assistance but are generally mobile and able to feed themselves. One of the women who lives there has a little dog, and two of the men have cats. One is actually a kitten, and the receptionist told me how lonely he had been until he got this little cat, which now sleeps on his shoulders. I'm so looking forward to going back and getting involved. I felt I did pretty well today in stepping outside my own comfort zone and engaging with the residents, trying not to be self-conscious or shy. I'm pretty sure I even detected a streak of mischief in some of the women. This may be interesting! Certainly it will be a blessing to me, to be able to share some time with my new neighbors across the street.

Wow.........this is a great thread! I thought I had already commented on it, awhile back but I don't see it. It is soooo hard giving up things that we love and things that sort of "define" us. I'm 73 and 1/2 and I still garden (vegetable and water), but the water garden is suffering. My big problem is that I'm a hermit and feel uncomfortable hiring people. My husband does some things for me, but he's still working full time, and doesn't have the same interests as I do. But, .....I finally got my bad knee replaced and able to take care of my garden this year! DH does weed-eat the ground around most of my raised food-grade stock tanks. I just couldn't bend over any more and went with the raised beds. Unfortunately they need watered every 2 days if it doesn't rain. I also grow butternut squash, cucumbers and pole beans up trellises. I highly recommend trellis growing. I've really narrowed down what I plant now and always use the same varieties. A good fence and a solar electric fence charger have kept the animals out. I do grow a couple things in the back yard in big pots, and that's definitely an easier thing to do. There are a few things that I have given up on, since organic greens/spinach, etc., are easily available. For me, feeling like I'm "less" than I used to be is something I need to work on. I guess I need to learn to define myself in different ways, but that's hard. I know this thread is old but hopefully you all are still doing well and getting at least a little bit of joy out of your gardening. Thanks for listening.