I wouldn't worry too much about ratios;
anything is better than pure ammonia!

You can use cardboard for sure, & post a want ad on freecycle & on craigslist for dried leaves & needles, old newspaper, shredded office paper.

Check your nearest accountant's & attorney's offices;
they use a huge amount of paper & have to shred it for security's sake.

Shredded or torn-up office paper works, as do junk mail & torn-up newspaper.

To keep the carbon materials from blowing around the neighborhood, get it thoroughly wet.

Best luck & have fun!

Add browns... or its going to get worse....

Shredded Junk mail is the primary component of brown material in my pile.

If I had a brown emergency, I might try to get sawdust from the local lumber yard.

On the bright side, grass clippings are primarily moisture, so once you get the smell under control, they will break down quickly and you will have some wonderful compost.

how sweet of your sister and friends to do that for you!
it stunk just as bad at their houses.and they kept opening and adding.:)
dump the bags in your compost. they just need oxygen.
the smell will be bad for a day or so . it will smell more like manure than pure putrid, after it gets some air.
don't wait for the rain to stop, it might even help.
good luck

Been there, done that! It's really a horrible smell, ain't it? I split open several big black bags once with a serrated old steak knife before I realized they were all sour. Mine were on a lasagna bed site, and I actually sprayed it down with the hose thinking it would help wash the problem down into the soil or away....somehow.

All you can do is find WHATEVER brown source you can and layer/mix it in as well as you have the stamina to manage. If you get some big boxes you can layer them on top in a solid, 'let's cover up this mess' kind of way to help keep off the rain It won't stop the respiration of the pile on it's little local scale, but will help from big gusts of wind blowing the stench to your neighbors.

The stench will last for days. Even with air mixed in and browns added, in my personal experience it just did. I guess once established, those stinky sour bacteria persist until they are crowded out by more civilized, O2 loving microherds.

I've always thought a handful of sugar might be the ultimate brown solution in these situations, strictly as a measure to balance the nitrogen overload and feed up the aerobic microherd faster. I've mentioned it here before and been boo-ed down, but I still think it ought to be able balance the nitrogen overload faster than anything. I only mention it again because I know how panicked I was thinking about my fine and wonderful neighbors BBQing on their deck with family and friends next to my putrid, gut wrenching 'garden' site. Sometimes, in a subdivision, a day or two is a VERY long time.

Add doctor's offices to the shredded paper list. If your community collects yard waste in those big paper bags, you might want to just drive around and peek inside. A few months ago, I snagged 6 bags of pine needles that way.

If you have a pet store nearby, they change the bedding of the bird and small animal cages every week (for hygiene and attractive look). They usually use what they sell: saw dust pellets, pine shaving and cardboard pellets.

Something similar happened to me a couple of months ago. I was mortified thinking the neighbors would complain the smell. I tried to mix in with the brown, but the rotten grass clippings were very matted. Spreading on the ground to dry didn't work either. I thought about mixing it with dirt but it made the clippings more matted. Finally I dug a trench/hole and buried the rotten grass. Almost instantly, the smell went away! I think the organism in the dirt must be the answer. BTW, where I buried it was the most neglected, least fertile part of the yard - even water would just run off it. But it has turned out to be dark, quite good soil now. I even found earth worms the other day.

Farm supply stores sell a 3 cu ft bale of shredded pine shavings, it's actually 7 cu ft. compressed and will spring back when you open it. Wood is a super brown. One of these bales oughta take care of at least one bag of your icky grass.

So sorry, been there myself.

Thanks for the replies.

Friday I went ahead and opened the bags and dumped out all grass and spread it out a bit. Of course the stench grew even further once it was unleashed but after two days it has lost some of it's bite and is starting to take on more of a manure smell as Auntyara predicted.

So far no complaints from my neighbor. She gardens as well so maybe she is cutting me some slack. Maybe all the squash, zukes, and the watermelon I gave her this summer bought me some leway. hehe

Great ideas on the browns. Hopefully I can find someone to hook me up with a steady supply to go along with my grass deliveries. If so, I should be able to really expand my pile's output.

Thanks again all!

Michael

Maybe all the squash, zukes, and the watermelon I gave her this summer bought me some leway.

Ah, yes, sharing the bounty does help keep the neighbors from complaining at the least annoying odor.