yesterday it got a bunch of shredded paper, finally got caught up. Today it got a bag or grass clippings that we picked off the curb, it was jealous of the lasagna bed that got TWO bags of grass clippings mixed it. It'll be happy tomorrow tho, cuz I got twomore bags-o-grass in the truck, which I better go take out and put in the yard before my car stinks like a dairy barn.....

Over the past few days:

many banana peels
two diseased tomatoes from the garden
the remains of my first ripe tomato of the season (soo good)
two dried up sempervivum blooms. Unfortunately, got some seed in there too, hopefully I won't be overrun with the stuff next year.
a few tea bags
some UCG and filters
left over pasta
spilt fruit loops
a lot of waste paper towels and other brown paper
bagel scraps
pulverized sea shellz and whatever beach sand was attached to them
garden scraps
a bakery carton with sugary remnants of the sticky bunz that were inside.

been away from the computer, thanks for starting the thread!

slim pickin's around here lately-
it's too hot to eat or to drive any more than absolutely necessary, so my compost is on a diet, but it did get its "usual"

1 bag Starbucks UCG
1 bag restaurant tea bags
daily junk mail
apple core, banana peels
egg shells
clippings from heat-stressed plants
birdseed that got kicked out of the feeder

today:

more banana peels
mango peels
dry pasta dropped on floor
left over pasta and tomato sauce
some canned green beans
a few paper towels

Not much today--slept too late to nab anybody's grass clippings.

Torn up brown paper fast food bag
cotton cloth snippings from the quilt project
tomato peelings
4 egg shells
a few weeds

cardboard strips
a ton of pulled weeds
dried grass
finally cleaned out that Iris bed
and
yogurt, not sure how that will work but its buried deep, we shall see.
It said 140 on the probe so I think the pile at least likes this weather!

I just started hauling about a 5 gallon pail of coffee grounds home every day from the shop I stop at for coffee on the way to work. At work I usually load up with two or three giant trash bags full of thin pine shavings which I've been using all summer for mulching the paths. Now with the extra chips, the coffee grounds and a wheelbarrow or so of grass clippings, I'm making a lot of compost. I probably could easily continue making a three foot by three foot pile every week until the grass no longer needs cutting.

Wayne

Horse manure, wood shavings, spoilt hay, straw, hoof trimmings, garden detritus, kitchen scraps, cardboard, shredded paper, well water, grass clippings, last falls leaves.

As someone mentioned on another post, my CP is huge--and getting huge-er. LOL.Its 4 straw bales long, and 3 bales wide, with spaces between bales, hope to have 3 bales high before winter.
So, this week, I've added more straw, trimmings from 3 bushel of apples, one bushel potatoes, 2 bushel of tomatoes,weeds from the garden, dead vines, and regular household scraps, paper towels,etc.
And up I go ( also piled lots of Bermuda grass clippings on, just couldnt waste, hope they rot)

Spoilt hay, straw, horse manure, wood shavings, kitchen scraps (including UCG) small maple limbs with leaves, garden detrtritus, urine, cardboard, shredded paper. I will finish fill my bins next week so that I may cover my beds for the fall and then refill them for spring.

It is so hot here, that I have been somewhat neglecting my CP. Yesterday, it did get contents of the kitchen crock.

Today it received:
*UCG from Starbuck's
*tp rolls, cut up
*moldy rolls
*bread, and more bread
*water

Went down to the apple grove at the HS(20trees) just to see if there were any apples that had fallen yet. Yep, got half a brown paper sack full. (Gosh those trees are almost leafless from the massive J beetle infestation)
Banana peels
coffee grounds
junk mail
a bit of straw
2 dead slugs
Slim pickings last few days

UCGs from work
A whole lot of grass clippings
weeds and grass from the garden
kitchen scraps and a lot of potato peelings
a bag of mulched up leaves from last year

Things I know that will be added soon.
more UCGs from work (daily collection)
lots of moss from our little ditch next to our house that won't drain and of couse any mosquito eggs or what ever else is in there from sitting in the hot sun.
And some shreaded cardboard. I threw in my last bag of leaves from last year last week.

well yesterday i added 2 5 gallon buckets of pear peels and cores. plus some bad grapes and leftover birthday cake from last weekend. i need to add some browns, the barrel is starting to get a smell again due to several water melons added earlier in the week.

a coconut popsicle
an additional popsicle stick
a piece of sausage and pepperoni pizza
a big bag of cardboard and paper
the ubiquitous banana peel
odds and ends from some baby zucchini and snow peas.
two peach pits

banana peel
apple core
spaghetti and meat sauce
two unwanted brussel sprouts
toast scraps

bummer ..sigh...My son worked the State Fair cleaning out the cattle/goat stalls. HE WAS RIGHT THERE. Dang. I didn't know how to get it home (although he does have a truck) And if I had of, wouldn't know what to do with it! Hard being a city gal transplanted into the country. But I'm tryin.

So, compost received tomato trimmings from last nights canning.

I added blood meal. Hoping it will break down the abundance of browns currently in the pile.

We have been planing boards, so my pile is festooned with beautiful spiral shavings.

I can't quite bring myself to dig them under, quite yet. They're just too pretty.

Its melon and corn season. My pile is full of melon rinds and corn husks.

I could use some of those pretty spiral shavings to help cover the melons. I am light on browns this time of year and the gnats have discovered all the melon rinds under my line layer of browns.

several banana peels
a bunch of watermelon rinds
a few pieces of old bread
the odd piece of broccoli
a few drips of chocolate milk

the fruit flies are making hay. i need to brown and turn

Rotten apples, so I understand the fruit fly thing. :-)

Neighbor has an apple tree that is at least 60 years old. It's certainly not a tree for eating-type apples, as the apples rot on the tree early then prematurely drop to the ground every year, whereupon they continue to rot.

She was glad to get rid of them and even helped to pick them up and put them in the wheelbarrow. They were getting that rotting/fermenting fruit smell and that came to the compost pile. So I covered them with some browns and also added a thin layer of grass clippings to "smother" the odor. This in consideration of the neighbor in back.

I have the best neighbors. No one around here uses pesticides. Everyone's "lawn" is mostly weeds, not grass. No one complains about what others are doing. Better yet, they're more than happy to help. They contribute leaves in the autumn. I share compost and produce with them. Bless them all.

Five banana's that got too ripe
lots of tomato trimmings
weeds
coffee grounds
flowers trimmings
covered with a paper bag

wish the leaves would start falling

apple core
paper towels
tea bags
UCG and filter
tomato leavins
pothos leaves

Coffee grounds from Starbuck's
contents of kitchen crock
newspaper
brown paper

Temp was about 115. Gave it a good turn. Lots of roly-polys, but no worms. They were just eating all kinds of stuff!

a ton of left over salad
half a bowl of left over peas
a rotten green tomato
various and sundry dead leaves and whatnot from the garden
a lot of cut up paper, cardboard, etc.
used coffee grinds and filter
some coffee beans that fell to the floor instead of in the grinder
left over cooked carrots
a half piece of pizza
half a dozen locust exo-skeletons.

Friend came over last night with her "garbage" as she calls it. Added to the bin:

2 full bunches of celery
coffee grounds and filters
cherries
some other food that was unrecognizable

More SB coffee grounds
contents of kitchen crock

Just started a new pile---lawn clippings(including a few weeds-Iris clippings--leaves from storms), coffe grounds, egg shells, kitchen crock contents......now have three piles going--one, almost ready to go :-)

I had a great bag of stuff today. Shredded junk mail and toilet paper rolls, dried up leftover pizza, some questionable fruit that was in the fridge and some tater tots. All that and the paper Starbucks bag that I collected it in went in there.

egg shells
tomato leavins
a little bit of mac an cheese
an apple core
tea bags
toast crusts

leftover rice
a few banana leaves
faded rose bouquet
used tea bags
bean scraps

This post makes me think about the archaeologists who specialize in figuring out how a society or culture lived by going through its garbage dumps;
I wonder if some future "digger" could piece together a story by studying our lists of what we feed our compost piles...

Mine got a sad thing yesterday, a dead cardinal.
But it also got some spoiled birdseed (the birdseed ruined when we got a surprise torrential rain),
a bumper crop of junk mail (mid-week seems to be the best time for harvesting junk mail)
its regular diet of banana peels, coffee grounds & filter, a couple of teabags (it gets more teabags in the iced-tea-sipping days of summer, more coffee material in cold weather),
5 old cotton blouses, de-buttoned & cut up (cleaned my closet when it was too rainy to go outside),
some prunings that I had piled up in the wheelbarrow & forgotten about, plus the rainwater that accumulated in said wheelbarrow,
hardy hibiscus hulls (harvested seeds & had to get them out of the rain-soaked pods right away).

My lasagna bed got

three bags of OP grass clippings
two bags of old leaves
shredded papers and press board
two bags of UCG and the filters

whew! It was all pretty heavy, and I'm glad it's starting out already at home. It may be the wrong place to admit this, but I'm tired of spreading compost. I even took some to my mom. Why is it more fun to make than spread???

Why is it more fun to add greens then browns?

a pint bag each of spoiled zucchini and snow peas
left over carrots in butter
a few dead leaves from the houseplants.

bin was a but fuzzy today. Also too much moisture, as usual. I need to add some browns today.

Totally bummed.. someone beat me to Starbucks today and got all the UCG. All I have is a tp roll. Hopefully my sister will bring me some veggie scraps.

Shredded paper as well as newspaper
old fruit that turned soft
bread, hamburger rolls and hot dog rolls
basil flowers
hibiscus flowers that fell to the ground
corn husks

Well, I went to dinner at a friend's house last night.. maybe I should say former friend haha.. and caught her putting all kinds of veggie and melon scraps in the trash. I put up a fuss, but came home with a bag of stuff for my pile!

Just kidding about the former friend though.. she will still put up with me.. and hopefully I can get her started composting soon.

My husband feeds the pile his excess sourdough starter. If you think composting bread is icky, you should see this stuff.

Lately...

shopping bag of newspaper
shopping bag of paper towels and cardboard
a few old tortillas
some left over caramel popcorn
the odd piece of bread
several banana peels
strawberry tops
some dry pasta
tea bags
UCG and filters

blutarski, I dunno why it's more fun to add greens than browns, but it may be in the same category as why it's more fun to crack ice cubes out of trays than it is to fill the trays, & why it's a lot easier to drive home than to drive away from home!

OhDearGod. What a Bountiful day!! First to Starbucks where I secured two big bags of UCG. Then to Wal-Mart, for several broken-down boxes. Then the Produce Manager let me have a big bagful of corn husks that people had pulled off the corn they bought.
One bag of UCG in compost pile and after I cut up all the corn husks to 3/4 inch size (it took awhile) that went in with torn-up cardboard and leftover morning coffee. I can't wait to see the thermometer in a few days!
When I was putting the husks in the bag at Wal-Mart, I fully knew I had Gone Around The Bend (for me). But -- what fun!
Best to all of you -
Sunny

Dead racoon
teabags
bottle of salad dressing
bag of old candy
vegetable scraps
andapartridgeinapeartree

so far today:

banana peel
7-Up that had lost its fizz
yesterday's coffee grounds, tea bags, & leftover coffee
torn-up junk mail
"grassy" tops & papery tunics of green onions

taking home from office to add tomorrow:

phone book delivered to top of office mailbox & left there overnight when sprinklers saturated it
shredded paper
soft drink cartons

Shredded paper from the school
cardboard, shredded
school papers the kids brought home

Hello all,
I was taught to compost 40 years ago, I was always told NO dairy or meat. So what's up with;
macaroni & cheese
dead bird
dead racoon
pasta with meat sauce ???????
If all this works, great, I'm just real curious.
What do you consider dead animals, cheese & meat sauce, green or brown?
Thanks
Ed

I consider the chipmunk that my dog caught, and I tossed into the pile, yesterday, a green.

I would also consider dairy and pasta as a green.

It is a common recommendation to not add dairy and meat to the pile. Some of the composters here are rebels. They disregard the rules, toss convention to the wind, and test the limits of their composting ability.

Don't tell anyone Ed, but some of use even compost dog poo too.

In a world without without trash pick-up, dead animals rot where they fall (except for those portions that are consumed by other animals), so the "compostability" isn't a problem.

In a home compost pile, though, dead animals, milk, cheese, greasy stuff, etc, can attract scavengers if you don't bury them deeply enough, & they have to be allowed to break down completely.

I consider dead critters as greens.

I compost all meat/bone/fat scraps and the occasional dead chicken in a hole dug in the middle of my hot compost pile, mixed with (or under) the week's kitchen scraps, humanure bucket dumped on top and a load of donkey poop thickly covering the whole lot, damped down with 5 litres urine.

The middle stays around 60 degrees Celsius almost permanently and there's no problem with foxes or stray dogs digging as they can't smell the meat under the humanure but they can smell all the pee so they keep away.

Works for me :-)

Garden trimmings
UCG
recycled paper bags
cereal boxes