So Long Halloween

Halloween has come and gone once again, at the beginning of the month I posted a picture of one of our Jack-O-Lanterns last year at the beginning of the season. Here is what it looked like around the time we finally scrapped him for compost.

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.

Worm Delivery

I don't really recommend order worms during a month like January, particularly if you live in any northern state. I knew what day my worms should be coming and kept a close eye on the door for the mail so that I could bring them inside as soon as possible.

The mail was really late that day, which meant the worms had spent all day in a cold, metal, postal van. Thankfully the post man knocked on the door when he dropped them off so I was able to snatch them up before he'd even driven away.

The box was cold. Really, really cold and I was concerned that my worms were dead.

Gotta love how the box says to keep it at room temperature.

As you can see they were packed surrounded by a bit of newspaper.

They were inside the same type of plastic container you can frequently expect to buy bait in. They had ample bedding and plenty of holes in the lid.

 The seller even included an info sheet about taking care of your worms.

When I opened it up the worms on the top weren't moving. Harkening upon my backwoods nature to poke dead stuff with a stick - I poked the worms. They moved. I didn't dig through the entire thing checking each and every worm but since I could see the ones on the sides moving I decided enough of them probably survived the journey.

I put them on top of their new oragnic waste-filled home and closed them up.

When I checked later there were no worm bodies on top of the compost. Kalloo kallay!

Since I was previously having issued with producing what I seriously felt must have been an excess of leachate I've been adding more dry bedding than moist and it's made a noticeable difference.

VermiHut - Setup

The day my worm composter arrived finally came and my husband couldn't be too much happier since I've been filling up our large freezer with our compostable food waste while I waited to get it.

My mother-in-law called and said it had arrived at her house and we went down to go get it the very next day.

I had my husband haul it out to my car for me. It really wasn't so much a "haul" because it's not huge and it's not heavy.

 Because we found ourselves at a party that same evening I waited until the next morning to set up the composter.

 Here's what you basically see as soon as you open the box. Exciting no?

 Once you remove that first bit you're looking at you will find your "goodies". An owners manual, coconut chior

 The top and the drip pan are to the left and my trays and stand are on the right.

 On the left if your drip pan and the right is the top of your hut.

 This is the stand.

These are the compost trays. Having a family of what would soon be four I decided to just go ahead with the 5-tray.

For now this is all I should have set up. After all that travel I don't need to add more stress and confusion to the worms by throwing them into a massive composter (you know in comparison to the size of worms) and risk them attempting to escape.

Set the remaining trays aside for now.

 

You will need a gallon of water. I have empty gallon milk jugs laying around so I filled one and used that.

You're also going to need a bucket with a capacity larger than a gallon. Mine is around three to five gallons.

Place your coconut chior into the bucket.

 Pour the gallon of water over the chior, and wait for it to absorb the water.

 As you can see it will "puff up", this is why you need a larger container. Your chior should be moist, not dry, wet, but not dripping wet. If you pick it up and water flows through your fingers you have too much water. If you squeeze and and no water comes out, then you do not have enough. If you follow the directions correctly, all should be fine.

 Place the chior on top of the newspaper.

 I sent the poor hubby out to get me some soil from outside.

 I mixed it in and removed that little piece of plastic.

Now it's time to ass paper shreddings. I've also been saving quite a bit of our compostable "brown" waste in a bag: Ads that are made with newspaper, paper bags, lint from the dryer, receipts that don't have plastic coatings, cardboard, and junk mail.

After shredding up what seemed like enough to add to my mix I threw it on top.

Mix it in.

Now to wait for the worms before I do any more.