Spinning Composter

There wasn't going to be the necessary amount of space in our freezer if I didn't empty out all of that frozen food waste I still had in there from while I was waiting for my VermiHut. Four of my five trays for the hut were already full and I had plans to use my fifth to aid in the collection of compost. More trays didn't feel like the solution, I was going to need another composter or to stop caring about food waste. Obviously I wasn't going to stop caring about my food footprint. Getting another worm hut right now also didn't seem like the option.

What to do? Build an outdoor composter of course! Once again I turned to Pintrest in search of a tutorial that seemed up my alley. This pin led me to Instructables. I've seen a lot of Instructables but never actually tried one before so this would be my first.

You'll have to start with a 55 gallon food grade drum. For anyone who follows me on my Facebook fan page you may remember my posting this picture.

I drove around with this 55 gallon drum in the back of my car until we were ready to build - or very close actually. My husband was kind enough to take it out of my car the night before grocery day to make my life a tad easier.

My father-in-law was kind enough to provide us with the majority of the hardware and tools we were going to need.

We started pretty late in the evening, it was nearly 7PM which would have been just fine in say, June but in February means it's already dark.

Inside the house my husband marked off the spot for the door as well

 as the holes for where hardware would need to be placed using a yellow highlighter.

The little lamb supervised.

Now to head outside

First, my husband drilled the holes for where the hardware was going to attach.

You're really going to want to do all of this outside to avoid having bits of plastic all over your house and in your carpet.

Once all of those holes were drilled we moved on to the door.

Then we cut off the door.

To do so we ended up having to drill holes as a starting place to get the saw moving safely. Safety is always key but it becomes a bigger deal when you're the one holding the barrel and have a saw coming towards you. There's a lot of trust in our marriage.

You can really add the hardware inside and because it was dark and a bit chilly we put the aeration holes in next.

Don't worry, there are more aeration holes in than shown here.

My husbands grandfather built this composter for his wife before he died. According to grandma it's probably about 15 years old.

I know she composts but I've never actually seen her use it before.

 There are no aeration holes. What you see on the ends here is bolts.

He used a much longer hinge for the door

and I didn't see a way to hold the door closed.

You can see over time these have become incredibly cracked.

Here's what you see inside the composter.

 Again I have no idea how long it's been since she's used it.

She says that it's very difficult to turn.

I pre-write a lot of these blogs to try to insure I have regular posts for you. Considering how long the composter sat before dirt was added to the food waste and how long it's been sitting without it's rolling set up I feel pretty confident to tell you it's probably still sitting out on the side of the house, right now, months later, without rollers.

But basically there you have it. Our (manually) spinning composter.