I started a garbage can bin earlier this year. I was going to drill holes in the bottom, but decided to cut the whole bottom off instead and set it directly on the ground. I drilled lots and lots of holes all over the sides and a few in the lid too. My problem has been that it dries out too much on one side. It is near the house so one side is always in shade, but the other gets direct sun for a good part of the day. The "sunny" side dries out all the time. I should add that I'm in Colorado and it is *dry* here! I though it might just be that I went a little crazy with the holes so I've very loosely covered the sunny side with some plastic. So far things are going well in there, but I keep checking on it every couple days and doing a little mixing to make sure. :) If all else fails and it keeps drying out too much, I plan on just burying the compost bin in the ground, its got enough holes that it should make a good worm bin ;)

How frustrating! I can't imagine where you even found brackets that were 5ft deep by 2ft high. I'm not surprised tho that they have metal inside since they were probably made to be true structural supports instead of merely decorative. Since that roof section seems to be staying in place just fine without bracket support, it looks like your brackets just need decorative. If so, you don't need any metal inside. I know you already paid for those brackets and I'm sure they weren't cheap. But, since you want your shutters to be operable, the only other option is to get/make brackets that will fit into the space you have available and that CAN be done. You just need to find someone with the skill to duplicate the style in wood but make it thinner. Are the brackets fairly simple in design or very complex (lots of scroll work)? Obviously, the more complex they are, the more it will cost you to get thinner duplicates made - but a really good millwork shop can duplicate just about anything. I've linked to one place in California that I'm pretty sure could make you whatever you want. Here is a link that might be useful: Blue Ox Millworks

Happened to me recently...I used a flashlight first to see what I could see in there, and saw nothing odd, no utensils or food. However, there was the head of a large bolt or a nut at the center of the disposal "floor". Using a racheting socket wrench with an extension, I found the right socket and turned it a bit...be sure to turn it in the direction to tighten it, you don't want to loosen or remove that thing. This easily got the disposal freed up and it has worked fine since then. In the process of fixing it, though, I did some internet research and there are lots of sites out there that tell you exactly what tends to clog up disposals and subsequently clog up drains after going through the disposal. I'd suggest taking a look there to see what not to put in your disposal for future reference. -Roger

Here's mine. We got it at Sam's for about $60. It's *heavy*. I was tired of our trashcans blowing over. I was also tired of my dogs being able to get into the trash. The only bad thing about this is that the top is pretty heavy, and that makes it harder for very small children to get it open by themselves. Our kids are 10, 14, and 15, but we entertain friends with smaller kids and they can't ever just throw their popsicle sticks away. I like some of the wicker cans, but some of them look like clothes hampers to me!