Thanks for the estimates. It's along the line of what I figured it would be but that wet factor can be murder(early spring cow manure in the NE). I'm just thinking now it would be too many trips in my bike cart. I've hauled 300 lbs in it but mulch takes up too much space, it would topple no doubt over a 7-8 mile trip. By the time I would be done hauling say 3 or 4 at a time there would be no time to adjust the ph and get things rotting a bit. I was hoping for a ride but I can't find anyone. Back to the ground. Really wanted to try 5-1-1 but it's not going to happen this year unless I only have a couple containers.

If you don't mind sweating a little, you can usually buy a nice playground mix of sand, and a sac of portland, and mix your own in a 5 gallon bucket using an electric drill and mortar bit. Measure how much sand it takes to fill your molds. Use a 1part cement to 2 parts or even 3 parts sand and add water (Will vary greatly on each batch) I make my own pavers and only do 6 at a time, but only mix enough cement for 3 at a time. They are about 15"x15"x21/2" and each one weights approx. 20lbs. I have a few that are 4" thick by 30" and they weigh 120lbs. Not fun to move at all. At 21/2 " and a high portland ratio, a car can drive on them once they are cured. I like making my own mix because I have control of the consistancy, I started out using a pre-mix, and it varies with brands, what size aggregate. Most importantly, you need to use the entire bag each time, as the portland may settle in the bag unevenly. I purchased the sand from a local retail by the yard at about $10 a yard. Portland is cheap also, so my pavers are costing about $1.00 including the cost of the molds($500.00) another thing to remember is that you can always add more water, but not more cement to your mix. MIght also want to think about a release agent for your forms, if you plan on reusing them again.

I wrote a post on my site about this. I measured it out and found a 40 lb bag of compost equals 0.75 cubic feet. Take a look at this post. I did all the math and found a great way to measure it out. Are you using more than just mushroom compost? You really need to mix three of four types together to get all the micro-nutrients you need. Here is a link that might be useful: The best SFG measuring Cup

jemdandy - You're right, sorta.... It's a huge mistake trying to convert dry volume cup measurements to an exact weight, especially when people confuse liquid measurements and dry measurements, and dry measurements with scale measurements. But there are other reasons. There are NO standards for the actual size of a "cup" to manufacture a dry 1-cup measuring cup in the United States. You will find they vary in size if you were to test enough varieties of them - especially when you get into novelty shapes (such as a heart-shaped dry measuring cup made with ceramics - and you discover your recipe was altered/failed because that "cup" was bigger/smaller than your usual measuring cup). Take a 1-cup dry measuring cup (one that has a flat rim and you can level off the contents) and fill it by dipping it in the flour and dragging it up the side of the bag/container (a common method) and weigh that amount on a scale. Now, aerate/fluff the flour and spoon it into the cup and level (the preferred method) - and measure that amount. Years ago it was recommended you sift the flour before measuring it, so try that method and measure it. Some people bang the cup of flour to settle it, then add more flour before leveling it off, or tap it with the leveling devise to settle the flour and add more - and both are incorrect methods which will add anywhere from 10-20% more flour per cup. Some people don't bother leveling - just give it a shake and eyeball it.... Every cup of flour measured by each and every person weighs something different and can be as much as 1-2 ounces of weight different. This is why when you give 10 people the same brownie recipe to make for a bake sale, the finished brownies will vary greatly due to the use of volume measuring tools and the way people use them, and don't even get me started with the inaccuracy of baking pan sizes..... ***The reason recipes work using this highly inaccurate method of measurements (cups and spoons) is because it's a ratio of one ingredient to another more than the exact measure. So you can make a cake, as an example, using a professional-grade stainless steel dry measuring cup, a coffee or tea cup out of your cabinet, a canning jar (an old favorite before measuring cups were readily available), or any other container you like, as your dry measuring devise as long as you keep to the standard ratio of ingredients using the same measuring devise, and don't fill the baking pan more than 3/4 full of batter. So you can make one cake or a hundred cakes by sticking to the ratio of ingredients. A standard plain cake has, by measure (whether by dry measure or scaled measure), one-third as much fat as sugar; two-thirds as much milk as sugar; and about three times as much flour as liquid (bakers ratios or percentages). This is why you might not get the same results using grandma's recipe. She may have used a large coffee cup or a mason jar for measuring, while you are using a cheap set made in China from the Dollar Store that are much smaller than what grandma used. Your "let's say the weight of one cup of flour was 6 oz." is off already because there are no standards for the weight of a cup of flour, just some "suggested" amounts. King Arthur Flour used a 4.5 oz. (weighed on a scale) measure for a cup of flour in their first cookbook and changed their mind in another to 5 oz., while other "experts" use a 5 or 5.5 oz. measure for a cup of flour. And now your 6 oz. arbitrary measurement.... Who's "right"? The weight per cup of different kinds of flour vary as well.... A cup of whole wheat flour weighs more than a cup of National brand of bleached all-purpose flour, which weighs more than a cup of Southern All-Purpose flour, which weighs more than cake flour. This brings us to the moisture content of flour, which is unstable and will contribute to the weight - or lack of it - of a "cup" of flour. This is why we give a generalization of 18-20 cups of flour for 5-pounds. Even if you use a scale weight as the "exact measurement for a cup of flour", it too will be flawed due to the amount of moisture in the flour, which varies from brand-to-brand, bag-to-bag and home-to-home. And for this exact reason, amounts of flour in a recipe are just a good (or bad) guess. When you make yeast bread and the flour is really dry in the winter, you may need more flour than the recipe calls for, while during months with high humidity, you may need a lot less flour, because we add flour to yeast bread according to the "feel" of the dough, not the stated amount in the recipe. Add to that, the amount of protein in flour, which also varies from brand-to-brand and bag-to-bag. The higher the amount of protein in flour, the more moisture it will absorb. So if you happen to normally use Pillsbury All-Purpose Flour in a recipe and you switch to King Arthur All-Purpose, you will need less King Arthur because it has a much higher protein content than Pillsbury. If you substitute whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour in a recipe, you may need to take 1 T. of flour from each cup.