Extreme Composting

Hey Forerunner,
I've been following this thread from the beginning, and have to say I am in awe what you and others are doing. Here, we compost horsemanure and whatever else we can get. Not on the scale of yours, but, doing as is available with limited equipment. Our garden over the years is greatly improved from gooey clay to mixed though still heavy. More to be done but it IS a process that is rewarding both for now and for future harvests.

We have some acreage we are going to use for pasture here, after timbering and brush cleanup, so the information here on the forum is guiding the planning. Some is hillside where we'll have to prevent erosion and work around a wetweather spring or two. Information and examples in this thread show us what is possible thanks to all of you.

Be assured that this thread is not ignored. I find it very interesting and inspiring. However, whitetail season is upon us, and you know, priorities have to shift for awhile. so we are out freezing our toes this morning.
My thanks to all the contributors to this thread.

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Galations 5:9
You may as well eat the devil as sip at his broth.
Mom

I plan to grow a lot of my own materials via cover crops. While waiting 6 months for a pile to mature, I can grow an additional 5 tons/A which will be sending roots deep into the soil to help create worm tunnels and organic matter deeper than I can plow.

If you are interested in cover cropping, the best book I have found is "Managing Cover Crops Profitably" produced by Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE).

It is available FREE in PDF format here: covercrops.pdf (application/pdf Object)

I too check in here a few times a week but with winter upon me I have nothing going on in the composting department so it's volunteering season.

I am still in awe of forerunner and was in deep thought with his "life's work justice in so little time as his allotted 75 years" comment. I have often given thought to the pioneers who settled the land and created our fields out of the bush. They must have laboured for many many hours to get the land to a state where I can drive my tractor over it. I wonder who these people were and if they ever gave thought to the future generations that would benefit from the sweat of their brow.

We never did get the last 30 yards screened, rain and then snow shut us down. It'll be there in the spring!

Lloyd

Rusty'sDog, welcome!!! I haven't been around much in the last few weeks.
We are building our new compost pile at a pretty good pace from our barn cleanings this winter. At about 2-3 wheelbarrows full everyday, plus kitchen stuff. It has been so very cold here lately (sometimes as low as -15 but normally about +20) that I don't think my pile is going to do enough to be ready to use in the spring even if I stop adding to it. The back might be close though. I guess I still have several months before I need to worry about it LOL
I know it's not on the scale of some of you guys, but I am happy to give it all I can anyway

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Trisha in WA
Visit my blog @
Diamond Belle Ranch

What else does a man have to do in his short time here on earth than build soil and feed people~Forerunner

Awesome piles everyone!!!!!

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You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.

It has been awhile since I have been on to post... We used our compost piles in 4 new raised beds 4' X 20' (garlic mostly). There is an area behind those raised beds for another in-ground vegetable plot. Interjecting here...raised beds are a must here where it is very wet, rainy, and soil has drainage issues. Our goal is moving towards Permaculture, however, I will look for any and all opportunities to get discards of compost materials from all givers! Forerunner, you remember how I buried the dead litter of bunnies (born during a cold snap) in the composting manure? In only six months, there wasn't a bone to be found. Our compost piles were rich, black, and wonderful!!! In the Spring, I'll be taking pics of those 4 new beds, to show the progress. Some rotting compost was put at the bottom of a few of them, covered with straw, Comfrey leaves, rotted compost, composted manure (rabbit/chicken) and a dirt/compost mix. The Garlic Cloves/Bulbils were planted last month. We are using what is left of our composted manure in our Asparagus beds. Back to Permaculture. For our property, that is a wonderful way to utilize, conserve, and also produce abundantly. It also requires compost, and diverse plantings. Just recently, I watched a video showing a Permaculturist harvesting Comfrey, using it to mulch around his fruit trees. That is also a wonderful compost igniter, can be used to make fertilizer with, feed livestock with, and made medicinal treatments (Salve, Oils, fresh applications). Nettles are another wonderful herb to have, many uses, too, including fertilizer and medicinal treatments (wild edible & tea, too). Our little orchard will be my first Permaculture conversion. The rabbit hutches are in there with room for compost piles. Once established, less work to do. I plan on growing a lot of different vegetables in my orchard. Yes, Freya, want MORE awesome piles here!!!

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Christie Acres
www.SequimForLife.com
http://www.irealtyvirtualbrokers.com...lori-christie/
http://luxurywaterviewhomes.com/
SequimLiving@gmail.com

Expecting 16-20 inches of snow last night and today and so it's a good time to catch up. We've had quite a bit of snow already this fall and it's fun to see the tops of the compost piles (so small compared to most everyone's here) bare to the weather from the heat that is generated within. Anxious already to begin spreading that this spring.I expect that with -25to -30 tempts to come, those bare tops will disapear. Stay warm everyone!! Welcome Rusty!!

Oh, and thanks for the picts Forerunner! I am forever amazed. What are your are in the buckets that your boys are tending to?

We're just wondering here what that storm you refer to is going to leave us.
So far, just a little occasional drizzle.

Those boys, (and Rachel) are picking up sticks, rocks, bones, pop cans, etc. out of the compost that we get from Canton and the sale barn. Most other sources come fairly free of debris to begin with. I cherish my trash picking crew.

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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.
III

The bags of leaves that we get from the city crews have all sorts of things in them as well but I pick them out as I empty the bags. (Small time in comparison to the work you and your family do, but I am happy to have all the leaves for sure) Lots and lots of snow here and high winds. 4 foot drifts as I walk out to the kennel. Truck is stuck as my right hand guy has been trying to keep ahead of the worst. Gotta go help...... this must be the kind of storm that my grandparents have told me about, when they used a line of rope tied to the barn from the house so they wouldn't get lost on the way back from evening milking. Getting hard to make out the trees across the road. Gotta go help....

I have a 6'w x 4' long 1/2 hardware cloth set upon concrete reinforcement supported with 2x6 slanted to self slide. I just throw material on top across the screen. Top is bout 4 and half ft. bottom is maybe a ft. I have some barn tin on the bottom keeping the big stuff out. I can screen an 8ft pick up bead full in 4 hrs or so. But I tell ya I like the trommel set up I saw in earlier post. It looks to be bout 4 ft long made with hardware cloth and bicycle rims with an angle iron frame. Should be very easy to make. It could easily triple my output. One could use rivets or small bolts and washers to fasten the wire. I would make it high enough to use my small loader to move material. go to apolice impound auction and buy some old bicycles with straight rims. Maybe 5 -10 ea and sell the frames to some one else at the sale.

This may be the trommel you are referring to, we built it using the frames from the fuel tanks we got for the multi-tumbler. The bikes we had laying around and the motor was a spare for an auger we don't use much anymore.

Lloyd

I am curious as to how much it cost you? How big is the motor? 1 to 5 HP? Does it run off 110/20? How long is the tumbler? I guess 6-8 ft. What is the aproximate angle of the tilt? What kind of production do you get?

I can get a 6.5 HP generic honda engine for 150 which would alow me to run it any where without a generator.

Total cost? Under a hundred bucks but we had a lot of the parts/materials already.

Motor? I think it is a 1/2 HP motor from a 4 inch pencil auger, plugs into a standard 110 outlet. (not waterproof so needs a cover or store it inside.) With the gear reduction it turns about 20 rpms. Any faster and it flings the stuff.

Length? Six feet. (good guess)

Slope? Can't recall. I think the low end is 12 inches and the high end is 22 inches but don't quote me on that.

Production? I can do a yard in under an hour, faster if I don't use the tubs or stop for a beer.

Did you see the slideshow?

I'll try and get a video of it working next season.

Lloyd

show him the fertilizer bill / cost of bagged compost

The nearest town collects leaves with a big vacuum truck. And they are glad to give it away, by the dump-truck load. Got me about 20 tons of the stuff, nicely pre-shredded. Been filling in bare spots on the place, building compost piles with horse manure, etc.
Theres plenty of organic material out there, you just have to look around and ask the right people! More often than not, they're just looking for someone to take that 'useless waste' off thier hands!

He is on board now When we bought compost, it was by the truckload, not the bag. Changing our methods a bit, making/using our own compost, and making our own fertilizer

My next project is our orchard, a Permaculture type conversion, which works for the topography, weather, challenges in it, and I am looking forward to using every bit of the compost we are making, rabbit manure, chicken manure...

__________________

Christie Acres
www.SequimForLife.com
http://www.irealtyvirtualbrokers.com...lori-christie/
http://luxurywaterviewhomes.com/
SequimLiving@gmail.com

ok ok back finished reading it all lol last comment was partly thru the tread
as for "mass composting" not being natural it is. ie if a seasonal or beaver flood knocks down a tree and it catches debris heading back twards th river . also reintroduce a few millon pooping bison dropping their goods on trampled prairie grass of course we have to truck it to the pile of "prairie grass".. yes it is different but it is seen in nature to a point.
as for the cost/free thing i would say 110% charge the town something if its 3/4 - 1/2 - 1/3 of their normal cost they will be happy and they wont refund the tax money budgeted to dispose this but 'waste' it elsewhere.
now for questions .. what IF we were to use an anaerobic digestors to make methane from critters and people to make some power. what is left? is it still high nitrogen to make compost?
green manure.. could or should someone plant say clover into a pile / row. will it survive? since volunteer plants do well wouldnt a targeted plant that will fix nitrogen to the pile be better? is it better to clover and plow under a field or add clippings to compost? if mechanical cost was irrelevant. or rowing cut ground cover from say 4+ runs and adding material ie excess carbon or manure into the rows and if the snow isnt too bad turning the rows over to start the break down instead of just plowing it under. and then spreading it?
btw thanks for the thread was interesting

One reason not to charge for taking leaves and material is that when you do that you be come a commercial operatrion subject to certain rules. Lots of small clean fills have been shut down with this rule. When you become commercial you have to either remove, cover, or be permitted as a landfill or commercial compost site.


I know a man that was taking stumps and tree wastes from the county and others. he was taking in 5 bucks a load. That made him commercial. but with out a Permitted liner and certificatin he was made to close it down and cover up. They told him to not charge for it and it would be ok.


I can take all the trees trunks branches and, chips and leaves as long as I dont charge for it and as long as I use it for personal use such as mulch firewood, and for onsite composting.


Its a bunch of BS but its kinda sticky with all the illegal dumps folks threw up around here.

Hi there this thread is amazing! thanks for all your amazing info Forerunner, Mudburn and everyone else. I currently live on 1 Acre in the city so my composting can only get so extreme but you guys have inspired me, and I can't wait for some land to try this on.

Currently i have around 150 bags of leaves that I have collected from neighbors and I am hoping for 50 more before the end of the week. Once a week I get food scraps from a Chinese restaurant I used to work at and as soon as I have a truck I will do more. My pile is steaming in the middle of the Colorado winter. Took a temperature reading last week and we were pushing 145 in the center, although some edges are cool. Once we have a better/more nitrogen source I imagine it will heat up very quickly.

My current question is what kind of a chipper/grinder would you guys recommend I saw forerunner you had said you tried a Canadian and Finnish brand? Which would you say works better? I plan on purchasing land in the very near future and then taking my composting to a more extreme level so I am okay buying something that is more than I would need now so it will also do larger scale jobs when I get to a more extreme scale.