A couple years ago, we bought a composting system composed of two 50-gallon bins on a poll that you can spin.
Idea was pretty simple. Fill one bin over the course of a year. Let it sit and “compost” for a year, while we fill the second bin. Empty the first bin, let the second one compost while we start using the first bin again. Etc.
Because we hadn’t done this before, we put everything into compost. This included bones, as well as the bags we used to hold the compost in the container sitting on the counter.
It’s been a year and the bin we’re currently using has gotten extra full. Time to empty out the first bin.
While some of the composting bags had started to compost, others hadn’t. Plus, the bones didn’t compost at all.
*le sigh*
I believe that the problem is that our compost gets too wet, here in the Pacific Northwest. It clumps together, despite how often we turn it.
One of the reasons why we got a composting system like this is because it also holds my solids from the composting toilet. We know that accelerates the rate of composting.
And it did. Much of what I shoveled out of the composter yesterday I would label as actual compost, wet dirt, basically.
Some of it, though, was not.
Fortunately, for the most part, it smelled like compost, like good dirt, and not like poop or garbage.
I hand-separated out all the bones and bags and stuff that really wasn’t compost. That’s going to the dump on our next trip.
In the meanwhile, the rest of that dirt can’t really be used for anything. It honestly probably needs another six months or so of composting for it to really turn into something lovely and useable.
So I simply emptied it in with some existing dirt. We’re digging out part of the backyard for a new patio. Mixed the “compost” in with the dirt from the yard. It’ll be fine.
Next year, I’ll have to do this again, when the second bin has sat and “composted.”
The year after that, though, hopefully we’ll have enough of a handle on this that I won’t have to do it a third time!
It wasn’t the most pleasant job. But it wasn’t horrible either. Just something that needed doing. What’s a task that you’ve been putting off that just needs doing?
If it’s learning…Did I mention that I’m in a story bundle? The Write Stuff 2020.