This has by far, become my favorite thread! lol

Gargamel: I thought of that! I even thought of putting up flyers. I have that thought every single year, but don't do it. (shakes head at myself).

Now read below and you'll know what 'weird' is.

Ok. You all started it, even though mine is not creative on my part or made up.

I just fudged a little.

But it surely fits me!

Well I'm shameless when it comes to loving you
I'll (add) anything you want me to
And I'll do anything at all

And I'm snatching leaves for all the world to see
Oh baby that's (a part of me)
Oh, glorious Compost, I'll do anything at all

You know now I'm not a (wo)man who's ever been
Insecure about the world I've been livin' in
I don't break easy I have my pride
But if you need to be satisfied

I'm shameless, oh Compost I don't have a prayer
Every time I see you (steamin') there
I go down upon my knees

And I'm changin' swore I'd never compromise
Oh but you convinced me otherwise
I'll do anything you please

You see in all my life I've never found
What I couldn't resist what I couldn't (break) down
I could walk away from any(thing) I ever knew
But I can't walk away from you

I have never let anything have this much control over me
I work too hard to call my life my own
And I've made myself a world and it's worked so perfectly
But it's your world now I can't refuse
I've never had so much to lose
Oh I'm shameless

You know it should be easy for a (wo)man who's strong
To say (s)he's sorry or admit when (s)he's wrong
I've never lost anything I've ever missed
But I've never been in love like this

It's out of my hands
I'm shameless, I don't have the power now
I don't want it anyhow
So I got(ta add some leaves and mo')

Oh I'm shameless, shameless as a (wo)man can be
You make a total fool of me
I just wanted to you to know

Oh I'm shameless
I just wanted you to know
Oh I'm shameless
Oh I'm down on my knees...shameless

As theatre fall's into darkness the teary eyed audidence stands uprorously applauding the single cast member of a well written tragedy.

Oh, no! I'm going to get blamed for this one. People are going to say that gawdin was normal when we first met her, then there was that thread...

I know; over the top. Was in a tired, slaphappy, silly mood after a stressful week.

But I definitely not 'normal' when it comes to my compost.

I enjoyed it. It's the others who expressed concern about you.

And Klem made us laugh, so that was fun.

lol

I was only trying to make everyone laugh at my composting 'compulsion'.

Klem made me laugh out loud. My son asked me what I was laughing at....

It's all good. Thank you for being thoughtful, annpat!

I get bored, gawdin, and then I lead people down the gawdin path. Thanks for being a good sport, dear.

Family counselors claim problem children are usually only acting out of boredom. I would consider it a win if they went from neighborhood pest to compulsive composter when mature. Just saying of course. ^_^

HAH! HAH! Oh. Wait. Are you talking to gawdin or me? I wasn't a problem child; I was...okay, I was a problem child...but fun. I was wicked fun.

Anybody else have a compost toilet? We drop in sawdust, wood shavings, or crumbled autumn leaves after every use. There are two chambers, so this one was used until Oct 2020, then closed and not used. Emptied in Oct 2021, it was well decomposed and nothing recognizable, except the wood shavings, which are only half done. Anyway, the idea is turn it out in autumn and cover the pile for winter for more decomposition.

An old thread was recently revived where a lady and her dog each make deposits to their compost every morning. If we start down that road here I yield to those with experience in such practice.

High Cold Desert, OMG. What a set-up! A friend of mine built her own composting toilet when she and her husband built their house, but I believe it had a single chute. And, for some reason, their toilet was literally a throne, with two or three steps up to it, which I always thought might be a problem for elderly users. They had a huge brass bucket next to the toilet, on the throne, filled with a potpourri of leaves, wood shavings, straw, pine cones, cloves---very decorative and the whole situation very pleasant smelling. Does yours use electricity at all?

Ah, "problem child"? I won't even go there, that would be 'doing things that's better left alone'.

I do make my personal deposit to the pile whenever I'm out there, which is quite often. I have actually tried diluting it and sprayed it on ornamentals as a foliar fertilizer, not sure if it did anything or not.

As for the composting toilet, I would love to but the DW says "no way"! This past summer we were backpacking in a wilderness area and used one. It was also built up fairly high, I believe to faciliate the removal of the contents by just dragging it out. They had a 55 gallon barrel of wood shavings to add after each use. The odor was actually quite pleasant as they used pine or cedar wood chips, no bad odor what so ever. I might add that it was in need of emptying, as the contents were almost to the top.

Oh, I think you should veto her veto, old_dirt. Tell her about the pretty brass bucket part.

HCD, do you add kitchen scraps?

My favorite time of year. I get around 130 truck loads from the village every fall.

Delta, I am so envious!!

That's unbelievable! (And the landscape is pretty, too.)

A lot of you probably have some place like that, where the leaves go to reside, nearby.

deltaohioz5, That's a LOT of leaves. I'm guessing you have a commercial operatiion? Years ago a nearby city used to dump all the leaves behind the cemetery and we used to get all our fishing worms back there. Not sure if we were allowed to take the leaves. Now I get enough from my own yard and a few bags along the roads to me. I just did my fall garden clean up and got the makings for another pile.

No not a commercial operation. All of the compost gets used some where on my six acres.

Frank

You have a beautiful 6 acres, Frank!!!

Yes, we do add kitchen scraps in our compost toilet. So aside from wood shavings, actually some bones and eggshell chips are still recognizable, but the bones are going.

Today I got 10 big sacks of leaves from a neighbor

I worked hard today, raking, mixing, and piling, spraying. Still nowhere near as sweet a pile as Franks! I still have more to come though. Some on my oak trees are still green! Luckily I get a lot of shredded paper from work too. I'm going to Starbucks tomorrow for some coffee grounds and banana peels! It's the simple things in life that make us happy.

The simple things indeed and I will never look at compost after this without smiling. When newbies ask "is it ok if I ____ my compost" I may just link them here.

lol

I hear ya!

I just finished building three additional wire compost bines. 1 extra one so I can turn my older compost bin easier. 2 more bins for leaves. Here are the 2 leaf bins as I was filling them.

I did not have enough leaves collected to make two full bins 3x3x3. So I combined them into one bin after adding a 1 foot extension and filling a 32 gallon Brute garbage can with the extra leaves. Here is the completed watered leaf bin which now measures 4x3x3.

Wow that looks great! Good idea to use zip ties

That's nice looking work. What's your plan for the leaves? Leaf mould? Or storage?

Gargamel - I used the zip ties because I ran out of electric wire. I don't think the zip ties will last too long. So when I turn the piles I plan on replacing them with electric wire. Maybe keep the zip ties for the door to the bin.

Annpat - My plan for the leaves in the bin is to use them for leaf mold. If I need them for browns then I will use them in the compost pile. I do have a 32 gallon trash can full of finely shredded leaves for storage that I can use for compost making before I get into the leaf pile. The leaves are mostly Live Oak Leaves which are super hard to break down. Therefore I may waste a little time keeping them moist and also turning just to keep the pile from compacting too much.

That's exactly what I would do. I think you'll be surprised how long zip ties last.

Your yard looks neat as a pin.

Those are nice bins and your yard looks way neater than mine!

Had to bump this thread up. This time of year, I add lots to the compost pile. In the past few weeks I've added over 150 remains of filleted bluegills, crappie and perch, 25 at a time. I cover them with leaves, hoping the critters don't get to them. Of course they freeze solid until spring but will really cook up then.

That's gold in the compost! All I have is shredded paper, coffee grounds, and some fruit and vegetable peelings. My piles are frozen, as well.

OH! How do you find yourself with this bounty?

I don't know what I was thinking yesterday when I decided to throw all my driveway snow on top of my winter bins. I didn't leave any room for my compost. You're making me want to go see if the local fish monger has any dead lobster or fish filets lying around. I could pick up dead fish on the lake ice if I wouldn't have to carry them home in my mittens.

annpat - My winter hobby

What do you do with those? Eat them? Are they as small as they look?

Bluegills, yes we do eat them. Excellent table fare when filleted and average about 7 inches long.

Bluegill have always been one of my favorites for the table. 8 years ago I heard about a hybrid cross betrween Bluegill and Green Sunfish so I ordered 400 for a small spring fed creek feeding a 1&1/2 acre lake. We caught up to1 pound fish the secound year and up to 2 pounds after 3 years. To date,the largest weighed 3 pounds 4 oz. The stream had a population of flat head minnows at stocking and I fed pellets the first 2 years. I'm sure we could get some larger by feeding pllets but they are plenty fun on light fly and spin tackle. Unlike native Blue Gill that can overpopulate unless heavly fished or predated,hybrids reproduce high precent males.

klem1 - Nice! Don't tell me where that lake is or you might have a late night trespasser. :)

My ex-husband and I successfully stocked a 5 foot deep, 50' pond on our property with Brook Trout. Our success was so unexpected that a biologist from the University of Maine took interest in the project and visited the pond regularly over the years. We stocked with 3" fry, and, subsequently, had annual fishing derbys for the local kids who caught lots of 16" + Brookies.

A real treat was when my husband cut a square hole in the ice in the winter with a chain saw, and persuaded unsuspecting guests to kneel with their faces inches from the water's surface, looking into the pond's depths. Then he would toss a handful of pellets in the hole without warning. The trout would rise in an intense boil to go after the liver pellets floating on the surface, and come busting out of the water inches from the visitor's face. It was quite a thrill.

This is an early photo of my leaf pile, collected from nearby neighborhoods. It is at least twice as large, now. Unfortunately, I am now facing divorce and sale of the house. Do you think it’s worth it to rent a trailer to drag the leaves 80 miles to my new location? Would most buyers appreciate the value?

I'm sorry you're going through that. (Nowadays) I would rent a trailer.

I'll tell you why you should take them. They'll make you feel good when you get to your new place. You might be blue at first, but then you'll walk outside, and see those leaf bags, and they will cheer you up. I kid you not. Then, it won't be long before you're spreading them on your new beds---with new, exciting, garden plans occupying your thoughts---and you'll think to yourself, "That trailer money was the best money I ever spent."

Here's what you do not want to do. You do not want to leave an especially well-balanced compost pile behind, with your failed marriage. You don't want to spend the next two months resenting that you had to leave that hard-earned bounty behind; the resentment fermenting until you find yourself in a fit of pique some day, back at your former husband's house, shoveling chipped leaves, carrot peelings, seaweed, lobster shells, eggshells, worms, and their casings, directly onto the unprotected, carpeted back of your 1984 Ford Escort station wagon.

docmom; I totally agree with annpat. Something positive to start off with.

You are both so right. Thank you. It is comforting to have my feelings supported and reflected back with clarity. My family will think I’m crazy, but gardening is my therapy, and the cost of transporting leaves is far less than a session on a shrink’s couch.

I would also, if the house isn’t for sale yet, dig up some plants that I particularly liked and take them as well

A long time ago before a big move, a friend who had moved a lot internationally told me to "take whatever makes you feel at home." Basically, no matter whether it made sense or not - that's what you take, and everything else is secondary. After several moves (incl international) I very much agree. I'd add - throw out/donate/discard/sell as much as you possibly can before moving - and be ruthless, anything that's a question mark is something you do not need to move and years later will probalby still be in your basement.

So I agree with the above - does it make "sense" to move a bunch of leaves and compost? Probably not financially or logistically. But if it makes you happy, do it.

If I were moving to a new place with a big yard, I'd probably try to get a big pile of free wood chips early just to have around and let it age; sooner or later will be useful.

I've been here many years and don't recall a thread I've injoyed more. I wish I were able to expresse it as eloquently as docmom.

Thank you to everyone for your input. I have ambitious plans for my garden this summer, on my mother’s property. The ”old house” will be listed for sale when the divorce proceedings have progressed to that point. I would stipulate in any sales agreement that I be allowed to take divisions from perrenials, and I might postpone closing until after plants have broken dormancy, so I can take shovels of favorites. Despite having been there just two years, it it’s amazing what I have invested in blood, sweat, and tears (though never observed by anyone).

It's a painful chapter that many of us have turned the pages on. I wish you a fast recovery from it.