Sunday, 3 December 2017
my day
I slept shockingly late, having been exhausted by previous week of the Crab Pot Tree (and I did less than half of the helping out that Allan did). We are supposed to have nine or ten sunny, moderately winter-warmish, days, an unusual December weather pattern that started today. This is perfect for my mission of getting the compost area sorted out to make room for more at-home garden debris. I find the subject of compost to be a scintillating one. If you don’t, you might not be as interested in this and the next few posts.
The three rain gauges show the storm that we had Saturday morning (while Allan and Jenna were doing the last minute work on the Crab Pot Tree).
The gauges will be repurposed from rain collecting for the next week or so.
As you can see, the compost area has gotten to be a huge mess, with empty buckets that were used to ferry debris from work, and overflowing bins, along with a big pile of extra debris on the right. I’ve been too busy during nice weather to tidy it up. The look of buckets strewn about is not one that I favour. Fortunately, no one can see this area from the outside of the garden.
The big ball in the corner is from one of the Long Beach baskets. Four of them are taking up room in the bins. Next year, I will pile them somewhere else in the yard. They had been a solid unbreakable mass, but after a month of heavy rain, they are softened and I can break them apart. I so wish we had gotten all of them before the City Works debris was bulldozed. They are good as mulch for raising up the level of the garden beds. (They do not count as organic material, having been fertilized all summer with Miracle Gro.)
I looked and looked for my compost sifter, behind the garage, in the garage, in the greenhouse, next to the shed, and had finally called Allan on the phone. (He had gone out to do some work.) It was in the back of his workshop, where he had fixed the rotting wood and given it a coat of primer as a Christmas present. Oops! It’s just as well I found out, though, because until today he had not understood what I’d been saying about how this sifter is just not big enough.
Someone gave it to me years ago. I need one big enough to almost cover the wheelbarrow.
Now I am hoping Allan can maybe sell this nicely fixed up one on the local sales group. He says the originals sell for only about $40 though. I don’t see how the builder can make enough profit at that price. Are they made overseas perhaps?
Google images has all sorts of interesting compost sifter photos. My favourite, from Scotland, is right here, a pedal powered compost sifter. Of course, I shared the link with Mr. Tootlepedal, who is Scottish, and a bicyclist, and a sifter of compost. I really don’t think that the amusing pedal powered sifter would work as fast as me shoving the debris through a screen with gloved hands.
By 3:30, I had the third bin emptied. The newspaper layered bottom of a bin is a glorious sight.
With no fourth bin, I had to pile the extra debris onto the two big wheelbarrows, to eventually be moved to bin two.
By 4:30, I had the overflowing layer of bin two moved into bin three. As I layered green and brown debris, I chopped it all up into smaller pieces with my hand clippers, to make it compost faster.
With lots of fine chopping, and because I know there at least three big potting soil balls in bin two, my goal for tomorrow is to fit all of bin two into a heaping pile in bin three.
My hands had started out warm, and then got cold as my gloves got wet, and then got warm from work, and now were icy cold again. All my clothes were damp and filthy from hugging piles of compost while moving them. (I do love compost a lot.)
Here is the little float that I scored while helping to decorate the crab pot tree. What a little cutie.
Allan’s day
In the afternoon, Allan went out to do some volunteering and some work.
First, he climbed a ladder to unplug the power cord that had gone to the tent for the crab pot tree festivities. The port crew had removed the tent. Allan was careful to not accidentally unplug the crab pot tree itself!
At the Ilwaco Community Building, he finished tidying an area in the lower garden.
our evening
I sat down to read for the early evening, a book I had started yesterday.
With dinner, we watched four episodes of Stranger Things. It finally came out on DVD and now I understand why so many friends like this scary series so much. I am eager for disc two to arrive! It’s been a long time since I saw a show that gave me chills.
The Black Cat Bookshop Mystery was so enjoyable that I stayed up till three to finish it. I do enjoy staycation.
Ah composting, now there is a really good way to spend time….and it looks as though you will have to spend quite of a lot of time at it. I liked the pedal powered composter but we don’t need quite that much power in our little garden.
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Glad you enjoyed the pedal power composter!
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Love your compost stories!
I enjoy mucking about in the bins, although each passing year it gets a bit harder to switch them over. Of course if I hadn’t expanded a garden bed so close to the bins I would have more room to manoeuvre…
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Who can resist expanding a garden bed! 😉
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Perhaps you should seek out an electric chipper/ shredder to help you with the chopping ? I have also seen people run over their debris with a mower to chop it up.
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I do think about that. A lot of the debris is pretty soft, though. The mower is a good idea; we do that, sort of, but right now it is put away for the winter. With the summery weather, I think we will have to get it out again.
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