Extreme Composting

No dairy farms or chicken fans around to beg some manure from? The classic stump burning technique is to still it full of holes and put nitrogen fertilizer down the holes, but I'm not sure that is viable at your scale. If leaving it, chipping it, and rotting it are not options, what about burning it? Might need a permit where you live.

Yeah, the cost for a load of chicken manure would probably be the same cost as the chipper. Plus, I don't think momma would go for that either. She like finished compost but doesn't like making it next to the house build. I've got a little ditch near by and I'm going to shove as much of it as possible in there and then I guess I will burn the rest.

I just hate to "waste" it.

I didn't get much done this weekend, since I broke my loader tractor. I tried to replace the tire stem, but it broke and spewed Calcium Chloride all over. Nothing a visit from the tire truck and a bunch of money can't fix. I am sad because I had a three day weekend, and instead of hauling sawdust, I broke the tractor, had to feed a round bale by hand. Then I had to dig frozen ground to find my septic tank, which wasn't backed up. Turns out my clean out tee was frozen. Now I am home with four sick little boys, all throwing up.

The good news, the PA Game commission brought me five more dead deer.

My composting efforts result from the same situation; we logged about 50% of the trees and I had more slash than I knew what to do with. I chipped tons of it, but that takes a LOOOOOOOOOONG time. I had two 4 acre sections that were a continuous mat, 2 - 5 ft deep, in tightly packed slash. I ended up burning most of it were I will have a horse pasture. Once the fire got burning hot, I buried the pile in soil (I have sand) and let the piles cook, sometimes for 3 weeks. That gave me lots of charcoal to spread and add fertility back to the pasture. A year after, you can still see the char in the soil and the pasture is very productive except for the fact that wild hogs keep tearing it up.

The other area, I didn't burn. I kept working at the slash to move it to tighter, deeper piles, but they were not decomposing very fast. Then at the suggestion of someone in this thread, I added soil on top and just a few months later I can see the piles getting tighter, smaller, and limbs I pull out are rotting. I figure another year and those piles will be good compost. But that may not help you if you don't want to see any piles.

That is a great idea. I remember reading that. We cut in two areas on the property. To the north and west of the slab (where the fruit orchard and garden are going in) and then on the far side of the property (where the nut orchard is going in). On the far side of the property, I can chip what I can, then pile the rest with some dirt on top. She isn't as concerned over there (out of sight, out of mind).

Austin

After going out and doing a little communing with the piles this AM, I decided to turn them with my skid steer. After the skid steer bucket was over my head, I could feel the heat wave up and into my face. Sure is a good feeling.

I'll bet it smelled good, too, eh Possum ?



Nothing like the raw, earthen smell of working compost.

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“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
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Yep FR, I forgot to mention that. It did smell good.

Tree service was down the road taking down several trees. Dumped it all at the end of my road. Guess who's getting mulch this weekend !

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I'm so done here.

Power Co. spray young trees, so they will not have to cut them later.
Can get sawdust from the mill, but that cost a fee.
I still get the coffee waste for the cost of hauling it.

I found an add on a local classified website, wanted his horse manure hauled away and he would load it. He filled my 11 cu yd trailer in 45 minutes (small tractor) and it used up only about a quarter of his pile so I'm going back for more and he promises to get a larger tractor from a neighbor next time. My garden is going to be happy.

Looking over some of the posts on this thread, I see references to composting deadstock and deer. Makes me wonder about the effectiveness of composting in destroying prions from scrapie or BSE. Found some references online like this: http://www.beefresearch.ca/factsheet...-bse-prions-49
They are hard to destroy, but I like the addition of feathers and hooves to encourage bacteria which break down tougher material like keratin. We follow protocols to keep prions out of rendering facilities at my work and it just got me thinking...

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Progress always seems faster when things are going downhill.

Upon reading the article, I'd have to say........


Chalk up one more high end benefit to be attributed to the "unnatural" as it has been called, process of thermophilic composting over landfilling, etc....


99.9% elimination is acceptable.


I did read that variations in composting process, batch per batch, can allow for exceptions, and that the possibility still exists for survival of the prion....

Sounds like weed seeds and other known pathogens..... though composting does not guarantee a 100% kill, the process still outperforms all other comers available to the
steward of Earth.....


Thanks for the article, Shoestringer.

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

I found this and stored it in my computer but did not stored where it came from other than that it was about compost.
The air-filed porosity test would let you know how long between turns because you would know if you had a little or lot of oxygen. Moisture and temp would have to be used also for when to turn.

How to measure pile bulk density and air-filled porosity

feedstocks). Weigh the container (5 gallon bucket) empty. Add material 1/3 full, tap
the bucket five times on a flat hard surface, add another 1/3 of material, tap five
times again, then fill to top without tapping. Weigh filled bucket and record.
Determine bulk density using the calculations below.
Material measured Example
1. Weight of bucket with material (lb) 20.5
2. Weight of empty bucket 2.0
3. Weight of material (line 1- line 2) 18.5

(line 3 X 40).
Note: this conversion factor only works for a 5-gallon bucket.
Take the full bucket with material and fill with water. Use the spreadsheet

Material measured Example
1. Weight of bucket with
material + water (lb) 46.5
2. Weight of bucket with
material (from line 1 in bulk density table) 20.5
3. Weight of water (line 1- line 2) 26

(line 3 X 2.4)

It is an encouraging study. I am looking forward to getting my pile going. Just a little more thaw, please!

Regarding aeration I had another idea. I will be piling by hand with fork and shovel. I figure that if I have branches and brush on the bottom of the pile it will help bring air in underneath. If I then build a narrow tripod of sticks up the center and pile around it, won't that help to move things along?

Seems anathema to fill a nice compost pile with PVC pipes...

Maybe I am overthinking aeration. I will be including thick layers of straw. There might be enough air in there anyway.

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Progress always seems faster when things are going downhill.

The theory seems to be.....the coarser the carbon material, the more air(oxygen) that will be trapped for decomposition.

Straw...wood chips be excellent for aeration.

But my sawdust-based piles cook down to musky black with no turning.....

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

I'm sure even sawdust has voids to trap some air and you have to realize they are about bite size pieces for your microbe army.

1st time ever...my pile is steaming!

I am looking for a smaller ground driven manure spreader anybody have any input on these? brands that are good bad or in between ??

Don't be sniffin' them steam fumes, Cascade...... they'll make yuh goofy.



On the ground-driven spreaders.......keep 'em well lubricated wherever you can.......

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“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
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