I post my pics to photobucket, and then post the link here.

[IMG]http:/http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/...xx1/nocchi.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http:/http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/...ckxxx1/001.jpg[/IMG[IMG]http:/http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/...ckxxx1/002.jpg[/IMG]heres a couple more that pile will prolly double over next month. with everone wanting cleanup from the winter.after snow melts ill get a couple of the other ones they are all under snow that ones melts all its own snow.

See there..... Now that's what I'm talkin' about.

Thanx for telling me how to post pics. Over next couple weeks im going to be moveing all my piles. The old needs to be mixed with my dirt for topsoil. Then the new pile gets stacked in that spot. Then another new pile in that spot. I also got a fifteen year old of about a thousand yards i gotta bring in. Ill have a little more time for hauling this year my daughter just turned one in january so i can bring her to the stables and farms now to see the animals and get manure. Ill be posting alot more in coming weeks. Im trying to take advantge of the frozen ground before frost melts.

I hear yuh in re frozen vs. muddy snot.

The sale barn is overwhelmed right now due to the big snow we had, the doubling and tripling of their business in the last year, and the fact that I can't even get in to dump the material on any of my piles right now. I don't remember ever seeing the mud this bad.

maverick those are BEAUTIFUL piles. And what I wouldn't give for a pile that was 15 years old!!!! NICE! I am trying to establish a new garden area and that would just totally make my day!

Yea that 15yr pile is nice its a little bit of a pain to get to the horses are very curious and it is only accsesble in perfect conditions. On the positive side i just need to screen it and its ready to go. I got my track skid steer this year to move it which will be alot better and faster.

heres a pic of the old pile in between the tarped piles[IMG]http:/http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/...ckxxx1/149.jpg[/IMG]thats the front of pile ill get one of the side when snow melts

Forerunner! you inspire me...i remember my parents having a compost pile that would steam in the winter. we wrapped new potatoes in foil and put them deep in the pile....best baked potatoes I have ever had. (they were probably volunteer plants from kitchen scraps.) thought my parents were so corny....just built a house next to them on 25 acres and can't wait to smell that smell again.....thanks for the pics. glad to hear that my dad isn't the only one who builds the biggest compost pile, just cuz he can...

We have a friend who has recently found employment with the local REA. He was here yesterday and mentioned that next month they will start trimming trees and their chipper will be in the vicinity. I asked where they dump and he said they are always looking for a place. They will not be looking further than my place this year! I am posting as a reminder to folks, this is the time of year to contact the electric and/or cable linemen.

I hate this thread right now.

6+ feet of snow so far and spring is no where in sight.

well more snow and rain tommrow. agin on monday and tuesday but its supposed to be warm so who knows there will either be more snow or less. im ready to start my year. im all caught up with manure from the stables and am going to start working at the one of the other places but just waiting on weather agin. i guess ill just keep practicing stacking snow. i guess ill post some pics of extreme snowpiles!

it would seem like a pilgrimage of sorts, yes?. :) if it is a wonderful as it sounds....we could lie prostrate and pay homage and feel small and humble in the great shadow of The Pile....Sound good to me....(GOSH i wish spring would hurry up and get here.....another 14 inches predicted tonight)

on our pilgrimage do we need to kneel and pray every other step or carry 100 lbs of wood chips on our back? Sacrifices need to be made

I can personally attest to the wonders of making the pilgrimage to the Mecca of extreme composting! Not only are Forerunner's compost piles things of rare beauty and a testimony to his foresight and convictions, Forerunner and his family are wonderful hosts. I'm anxiously looking forward to visiting again.

It is still inspiring to see others' composting endeavors and exploits in this thread. My efforts have been limited this winter, having lost my best supplier when the sale barn went out of business in November. My cows are contributing fabulous fertility to the straw and saw dust in the barn. The bedding pack is growing deeper every day. I heartily recommend saw dust as a bedding material which for me is much cheaper than straw. If I load it, I can have it from a local sawmill. It takes less than 15 minutes to shovel about 3,000 pounds of it into my truck (the little truck).

I'm currently working on the old Bobcat I bought last spring. The starter needs rebuilt, but I have to pull the engine to get to it. So, I'm taking it apart. This will give me opportunity to clean the machine, rewire everything, and give it a new coat of paint. I'm planning on using it to collect composting material from people in this area who don't view manure as a resource. I might be able to use it to load out some of the really OLD sawdust from the local mill. I don't know if I can use it to load my big truck, yet, but I'll find out soon.

I'll be spreading a thick layer compost on my gardens and working it in for the first time this year. Some of my piles will wait at least another 8 or 9 months before being incorporated. As I contemplate spreading it, I realize that I do not have nearly enough.

mudburn

Good point, Paintboy...... sacrifices do need be made.

Mainegirl, bowing to the piles seems a bit sacriligious, but they do like when we hold hands and dance around them in the summer rain. :)
The endeavor is a pilgrimage. Started quite humbly and has grown to proportions I'd certainly not foreseen.

Mudburn, I too am looking forward to that visit. Some fellow extreme earthenness would be refreshing. I wish I could share the bounty from my sale barn with you.
I'm going to have upwards of seventy five loads hauled for the year come the first of March. It's been day and night trying to keep up and trying to work while it's frozen just so I can get in to dump. I've been up since three this a.m., hauling, as it's frozen now. I've got three trips yet and the pit will be clean again. :bouncy:

*staggers off to haul another round*

fr was up at 3:30 this morning hauling manure :smack And he is on round 3 right now.

Its a wonderful thing... Lily and I have the house all to ourselves today:happy:

perhaps....perhaps.....The Compost Gods would surely smile upon us then...what would be a proper sacrifice for the Mecca? I like the wood chip idea.......:)

The heathen side of me apologizes for any offensive sacriligious suggestions. Dancing in the rain it is then! Some extreme earthenness would be energizing, this time of year.....i want to sleep under the stars and eat the bounty of the harvest until i am full and quiet.....sigh.....
*staggers off to shovel snow*

well my composting is on back burner agin seems almost like im being worked aganist this week. 16" of snow yesterday 7" tommrow rain sleet and snow monday my dtruck broke yesterday i think headgasket the imfmous international 6.0 liter diesel its still underwarranty. backhoe blew line pushing snow yesterday night. loader has been down. i guess its gonna be a little while before i can start hauling agin. i guess i am really going have to start posting extreme snow piles. im going to have to get loader going now this just way to much snow now. well by the time i get everything dugout my truck will be fixed and spring will be here. hopefully its another year like lastyear and start a month early agin

Last week, while turning the compost pile for the last time before using it in the spring, we found 3 baby bunnies. All nestled and warm in the rich darkness :D

FatCat...what did you do? i almost cried when i read this.....

Since rabbits do a lot of damage to our fruit trees, small fruits and garden, I doubt those bunnies would have stayed in the compost all snuggly and warm. Here, kitty, kitty, kitty. Do the same thing to pinky mice we find in the barn.

MOgal....GASP! (eyes tearing up) reallly? The mice, too? gee....

Ah, Mainegirl, our dear and tender-hearted compost enthusiast......

Rabbits and mice are the bane of the homesteader. It truly is, or, certainly can be, a cold, hard world out there.

I'm sorry, Mainegirl. I truly didn't mean to upset you. When we've disturbed a nests of mice and sometimes rats, it's when we were moving the bales to either feed them or to take them to the garden as mulch. I doubted the mother rodent would find the babies after we'd removed the surroundings and thought it more humane to dispatch them quickly.

The rabbits are so common that they have girdled a number of newly planted fruit trees and killed them. I've noticed several blueberry bushes and grape vines I planted last spring that had been nipped. Last year, we didn't get one single green bean because they'd eat the stems and leaves as soon as any developed. We depend on our garden and just can't allow them to destroy our food sources.

Forerunner, MOgal....(sniffle) i understand.....i do.....i will try to think pragmatically and make peace with the harsh reality that is Homesteading.....

it's just that wee little mice and fluffy rabbits are not a problem here so i have no experience with that sort of necessity....Our bane is 150 lb. deer (eyes narrow, lips pressed together at the thought) who eat EVERY green shoot as soon as it emerges....and i've never had to figure out a good way to "dispatch of them quickly".........thank you for the dose of reality...keeps me grounded.....*off to shovel more snow from the roof*

seems like the compost gods are working aginst me. my truck has broke down twice in last 30 days starter went in loader i blew a transmission seal on back hoe and today i broke a cable for the bucket on my skid steer and my excavtor is 60 miles away right now. im ready for winter to be over.

Don't feel bad. I lost count somewhere around 100,000 invested over the last 15 years in my soil-building effort.
I don't regret a dime of it.....

Patience and perseverance must be highly esteemed virtues in the next realm, for all the opportunity we get to exercise and perfect them, here.

Thats an intersting perspective i havnt heard that before. Those are the words of encourge i was looking for and needed. I have found lately more people online that are more people out their that have same hopes dreams ideas also insight. I try not to let things like that get me down. The other day i found a website that sells alot of attachments and things i have dremt up and havent got around to makeing yet the big one was a universal skidsteer plate that mounts on the end of your miniexcavtor to run skid steer attachments or tractor. It was very inspiring as well as looking at monster piles of compost. Looking through the differnt threads has also giving me some other ideas i have been wanting to plant some fruit trees in spring but not buying my shop i didnt want to plant them and not be able to take them and now im going to plant them in some old loader tires i also have acsess to the gaint tires. Well i guess this is getting of subject so i guess ill continue this in gardening forum.

Yep, reading the site got me started again. Stopped and talked with tree crew trimming and there bringing loads of chopped tree trimings, double dump truck load per day for next week and may be more. Will go from small garden compost bile to humungis rotting wood pile all in 1 week!:run: Only problem is with the wet weather can't get the trucks into a low area I wanted to stack it in. Dumping on high spot in front hay field instead. Hopefully it will rot quickly and can use it in a couple of yrs. :clap:

Yup. If we based our successes on the almighty dollar we would all be petro-chem farmers. With the exception of fighting ground moles, I have haven't used a fertilizer, pesticide or herbicide in YEARS.

Cost effective does not equal good stewardship.

I hate to say it but one of the tiny (maybe a week old) bunnies was on the pitch fork my son was using, of course he started freaking out, as it was screeching so I had to put it out of its misery. We put the other two back when we were done (thou I would have done away with them) but my sons wouldn't let me. They were both dead the next day, sorry, I know they are cute but the wreck havoc on my garden :( Yes, they too, went into the compost pile. Sad but true.

If mainegirl isn't already gone for good, that might seal the deal.

Sorry, not trying to detour anyone, just stating the facts. One thing I found out with trying to be an organic gardener and trying not to make an impact on the environment is that JUST by being there in the garden I upset the natural flow. Stepping on ants, moving earth and building compost changes the landscape. I just hope I am changing it for the better, thou I do hate that some things may die and not even purposely.

Noob question, are worms smart enought to get out of Dodge when a compost pile gets hot, or do they become crispy compost?

They're smart enough. You'll often find them around the edges when it's hot, and then they move in while it's cooling. A few do get fried, though.

What amazes me is their extensive activity just six to twelve inches into the pile in the dead of winter. I've given up moving working piles much at all during the freeze, for the thousands of worms that come pouring out only to freeze to death.
It would be a real effort to kick up a pile fast enough to cook a worm.
Of course, what with the dumbing down and lower education standards, these days....

All my worms are homeschooled.