I was scared to follow the link, but I did anyway. I thought you guys were talking about one of the humanure green toilets.. and I can see why Val would be scared about accidentally dumping it and smell.. lol... This thing looks kinda cool but I think I'll keep doing it the outdoor way. I couldn't put a dead squirrel in one of those. ;) Loid, the dead squirrel count is now 2.

I live in a condo with a balcony so NatureMill was the only option I was willing to consider. At first I kept it indoors. It is odourless when the lid is closed, but there is a strong organic mushroom/sourdour odour when you open the lid to add more stuff in. It's not overly unpleasant but I'm very sensitive to smells so I moved the NatureMill to the balcony (thankfully, I have a power outlet outside). Yes, the machine can be finicky but if you FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS, it works fine. I'll admit that I burned through my first machine by not doing so - NatureMill sent me a replacement. My new moto: Nothing stringy, only 1 inch pieces of stuff (my scissors are now very active! much better than using a knife to chop things up), don't overload. If it's too wet or smells sour, I add more pet pine litter or cross-shredded newspapers and baking soda. Above all else - being patient helps. There were times when I was tinkering the inside of the mixing chamber with a screw driver and a knife trying to free up a jam, instead of waiting forty-eight hours like the instructions advised - that wasn't a good idea and contributed to my first machine's demise. If you stick to the motto, you shouldn't be getting jams. I love it when the organic waste gets cooking and really steams up! I've been using the NatureMill Pro for a few months now. We do a lot of cooking using fresh veg and eat lots of fruits so we generate a large amount of organic waste. Add to that coffee grinds and egg shells. In fact, for just two people, I find that my NatureMill is not fast enough to process the organic non-meat waste we generate. The waste from eating just one watermelon or a couple of cantalopes will keep the machine busy for at least a week. In the meantime, I generate several small bags of organic waste waiting to be processed! So I get backlogged regularly. In two months I have generated 3 trays of compost and will have a fourth in a couple of days. It's rich, black and looks like a nice soil. There is one full tray in the machine being heat-cured, and I have the contents from two trays sitting in planters on the balcony being air-cured. I intend to air-cure the compost for at least two weeks before I put it on top of my growing suger snaps and tomato plants. I can comfortable say that I've reduced my landfill waste by around 70% since I bought the NatureMill. As for the future, I'm going to add small chopped up pieces of corn cob and used kleenex tissues next.

"but I am concerned that providing a food source for vermin that could move into the house or garage is not a good long term project." I totally agree, the little buggers breed so fast that it's not a good idea to provide them with food sources. am, you just need to secure your outdoor bin a bit better. I have an ongoing problem with rats in my area, you get rid of them for a bit but then some more move in. I think it has a lot to do with knocking down old houses and developing the blocks so the rats just scatter to other properties. To keep the rats out I just dig my bins into the ground a bit by twisting them when theyre empty. I have sandy soil which the rats can easily dig in but in 7+ years of doing this theyve only got in once or twice. you can also sit your bin on top of wire mesh to stop them digging under, and make sure the lid is secure, if its something they can lift up then just putting a brick or piece of wood on top can stop them lifting it to get inside

Not to brag- but I've found that I'm good at most any garden activity that happens outdoors... the caveat beaing that I continuously fail at most anything indoors. Composting, growing flowers/veggies outdoors, vermicomposting- all good. Seed starting, indoor plants, worm bins- bad news for me. That said- I have set up a larger scale vermicomposting operation in my yard. My whole 20x15' veggie bed is a vermicompost setup until mid spring, and I have a compost pile that I've seeded with worms and will run cold for the winter (with plenty of leaves as insulation). I think that outdoor operations are more tolerant. You also have the option for more air and better drainage in an open pile or semi-enclosed bin. This is not to say that anyone couldn't do better at the indoor bin (which makes more sense for the winter I suppose) than I have, but the outdoor setup has been less fuss. I harvested wheelbarrows full of vermicompost before adding lots of shredded leaves and compostables to my vermi-bed. I'll probably harvest a yard or 2 of vermicompost in the spring before I move the vermi-operation to another part of the yard.