I just had to dig up this old thread after reading a couple of cool stories recently. :) Fastest Known Muscles Found in Songbirds' Throats - I bet Olive could give them a run for their money when she's yelling at Barry. LOL And Rescued Cow Doesn't Know She's a Cow - I wish Milkshake could come live with me!! :) Brenda

...aren't you assuming that the grass is turning brown while in a compost pile? Grass does not turn brown while it is in the pile. It turns to compost. Why would straw always be considered a brown, yet dead, dried brown grass a green? Because straw does not have any protein in it. Grass does. Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalk of a cereal plant, after the grain or seed has been removed. Before the grass forms a seed head, the protein "lives" in the grass blades and stalks. When it forms the seed, all the protein is concentrated in the seed. Wheat is an example. There is an old saying about separating the wheat from the chaff. Straw is chaff. Based on that wouldn't other dead leaves, once green and high in carbohydrates and proteins always be a green? Yes...until they decompose into compost. Alafalfa, clover, and vetch are three examples of plants with leaves that hold on to protein. The concentration of protein in a plant is a characteristic of grass, nuts, seeds, and beans as well as some legumes. If you are thinking of tree leaves, only mimosa and acacia trees have much protein. Most garden variety trees have flowers. Those flowers become fertilized by pollen and develop into to seeds or fruit with seeds in them. The leaves don't have that much in the way of protein. What makes dead grass different than other greens gone brown in its ability to absorb ammonia? The presumption that greens turn brown is incorrect. Greens decompose into compost, and browns decompose into compost. Protein sources are the cause of ammonia gas. If grass is mowed and remains moist, it starts to decompose. If it is in a pile, you can smell the ammonia. If it is not in a pile, it dries out. The microbes that decompose it into ammonia need moisture to do that job. So if the grass is allowed to dry out, it may discolor as the leaf dies, but it does not lose that much nitrogen. Browns absorb ammonia as does the finished compost itself. Wasn't the ammonia already locked in pile to begin with? Yes if the pile had adequate "browns" (dry tree leaves are great for this). The ammonia is the result of the decomposition of protein. If your pile never had any protein in it, then there will be no ammonia to absorb. If your pile is composed of nothing but protein sources (like grass), then the ammonia will escape and the pile will smell. If the pile already had carbohydrate materials (browns), then it would have absorbed any ammonia from prior decomposition of protein.

I hate it when people feel superior towards other living things on our planet. When will they get it we must live with them and protect them, so they keep the great balance our world feeds on. Just because they don't think things will get bad during their lifetime doesn't mean it won't effect their grand kids and their kids. Well I have a protected speices who I live with and welcome more.

Awesome! Very nice, Mike. I love that corn snake and mole kingsnake. And as always, your photography is spectacular. Especially that copperhead shot. That oughta be in a field guide. I'm driving from the Smokies to Wilmington in late June. If you know of any places that you could point me to (by email of course), I would definitely love to hear them. Or if you know of anyone that I could contact, let me know. I'm hoping to have a great two week herping adventure. Once again, awesome pictures, and thanks for posting. Definitely worth the wait.