This forum is for pictures; you may want to post on the compost discussions forum to get replies. Good Luck!

Hi there you fellow winter sower! :O) I did a boo-boo with my thermometers this winter. Early on I stuck them in a bale of hay thinking I was going to return the next day and get them. I had two because I lost one in a pile and bought another, then found the first when turning. Never did return for the thermometers due to life making me turn the other way. They froze in the bale and I think someone tried to remove them when frozen, so when I took them out this past weekend they were broken. I liked them so will get another this weekend. It's interesting to see what's happening in there at what temperature!

I tried to put it back together before I took the photos, and the pieces would not fit. Maybe if one put it together in the beginning and then used like some stronger tape or crazy glue, the pieces would not come to the point in which they cannot go back together. But, if you have to struggle with glue and tape, why not just buy the once piece construction to begin with? EM would not look as nice with a big piece of tape, and I am not even sure that would work. One would need to put the tape on before the plastic began to change shape. In the current state I don't think tape would help. Compost has a lot of heat and as it expands with the heat there is pressured placed upon the unit. It might work better as a storage unit for only dead leaves instead as a composter. But, if one is getting serious about composting you need more than one unit. The first bin is for your active composting, as you are starting the process. Then you want to move to a finishing bin in which you let it stay put until it finishes. Afterwards you need a "finished compost" bin to store "ready to go" compost so you have easy access when you need to use it. If you store the finished compost in a tub with a bottom, it won't keep well. It needs to drain off back into the ground. I want something I can remove whole thing by myself without any help. The round bin is easy to pull off completely, as long as it does not have a bottom screen. I don't know what "tool" if any would be used to put the segments together. It's a snap system in which there are little tabs that you line up into little grooves. That is actually one of the better units, I have seen them with three segmented body pieces instead of two. Those segments end up lying around the yard like garden junk, unused. The unneeded bottom screen doesn't come off easily. There are plastic bolts. That would require a screwdriver. I don't know if they will come off easily or break, but they do not look easy and you cannot turn them with your hand. I am against the bottom screen concept. On the plus side the door is working fine. The lid keeps raccoons out. But, you have to learn to turn it correctly or it's hard to get off. The Eco bin has a better designed lid, that is easier to removed, but a worse fitting door.I once asked a friend to drop an apple core in the EM bin and she said she could not get the lid off. It just takes practice. You have to turn it like a child proof pill bottle cap. If you buy a compost bin, you want it to last as long as possible. I hope that the designs of future bins will take these things into consideration.

Cotton burrs are generally not a good compost to use on a vegetable garden for the reasons that Maternut stated. The insecticides directly hit the entire cotton plant including the cotton bulbs (which includes the hulls) in order to kill the bole weavils. I am not sure about cottonseed hulls however since the cotton seeds never are directly hit by the insecticide. I used cottonseed hulls on my father's garden to no ill effect that I know off. If you are going to use horse manure for your compost pile, it will need to cook very hot in order to kill the grass/oat seeds or you will have a invasive grass problem in your garden. For my compost I visit the local Fairfax VA transfer facility where I can get free composted leaves that are a dark and loamy compost. I mix those with vegetable scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds and composted manure.