yipee!! hot compost

14 years ago

Ok I know some of you folks will be saying so but for me this is exciting! Tonight if you were my nieghbour you would have seen me first check my compost bin, then do a little happy hop when I saw a bit of steam. Then you would have seen me go back into the house and come back with a thermometer,then do another little happy dance as the temp kept going up and up. Then you would have seen me go back again into the house and come back with a camera. Cause this is unusual for me, and I wanted proof and a picture to remember. I normally just throw in stuff in the bins as I get it and compost slowly. Last week I got my hands on 100lbs of expired animal feed (free) So I wet it down with 4 buckets of pond water and mixed in with last years falls leaves and grass that was already breaking down, mixed and mixed and mixed. It took and entire bin (4x4x3ft)of leaf mixture to get the feed mixed in, but it was worth it cause I got hot compost :)My thermometer only goes to 120F I don't know how much hotter it would have gone. Debated using my candy thermometer but that would have been going over the line for me.... Looking forward to using this spring.

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Comments (6)

Lloyd
14 years ago
You da man!!

;-)

Lloyd
Jon_dear
14 years ago
you never forget your first time...
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greenhavenrdgarden
14 years ago
I was doing the hot compost dance recently too. It was my first time as well. My hubby thought I was nuts!
LesIsMore1
14 years ago
erm... wait a minute. Hold up. You mean, the excitement over getting a compost pile cranked up AND sizzling hot, is supposed go away after the first one? Beg to differ... thats NOT how it usually works. I still get excited about them all. On occasion, I'll get MORE excited than usual.

For instance, this time (current hot pile) ...I had to hack up a layer of glacial ice with a giant ROCK PICK to get to the LAST pile, so I could build the NEW pile. Never had to do that before... wasn't sure how it was gonna fly. But it worked! (I got stoked, right away... who wouldn't.)

Then, I ran out of ICE to feed the pile, and it started to dry out...Gah! Had to feed it yukky CITY water for the first two flips... worried that would be too much the microherd to bear at this time of year, but they pulled it off...whew! (Got excited over that also...for obvious reasons.)

Now today, were having a BLIZZARD...after record daytime highs over the whole last week. Second flip was only the day before yesterday (tap water...grrr)...and now its COLD, heavy wet snow everywhere. Double-gah! I feared, the whole thing might STALL OUT, and loose too much of its momentum... but we are still smoking, hanging right around 140. Right on time. AND, the pile has shrunk down to about 1/3 of original size already... its only a couple weeks old! Go microherd!!! (Yep. Giddy, all over again.)

After all this, as if it wasn't like Christmas already... I came up with a NEW PLAN this morning...that's designed to insure, that THIS pile (and maybe even the NEXT pile) will NEVER need to suffer with yukky, treated, city water again! You can't stop me from doing the yippy-skippy dance over this one...check it out:

(oops, I'm sorry... almost forgot what I came here to say. Congratulations on your first hot pile. I can totally relate to your excitement, it's perfectly justified. Just be mindful, as you move on to the next one... these hot piles can get a little addicting. Just sayin'...

Les in CO

Here is a link that might be useful: Check it out...
frogged
Original Author
14 years ago
Les that is dedication to your pile! I have to confess that when the snow flies I run inside and hibernate. I have cold/slow composted for years now normally I do not get enough browns or greens together to make things really heat up. This is actually the second time that I have managed to warm up a pile, although last time it was warm and not nearly as hot as this time. The day that getting the thermometer to climb or getting great compost for free is no longer exciting will be the day my friends and family will be composting me. just saying I love my compost wakko status and that there are others out there that share this past time.
LesIsMore1
14 years ago
Rofl... you gave me the giggles, because I can't remember the last time I had only one pile. It was probably way back when the 'other wacko's' on this forum got ME hooked on composting in the first place.

I usually have 3 hot piles going in that cage...where the one massive pile is brewing right now. The cold piles get lined up outside the cage, where I also stockpile my browns. That's how the latest hot pile got so big...I scored a humungous load of horse manure, so in went my winter supply of browns, same day.

Greens are my limiting factor, but I can always get gobs of browns...so I keep a healthy supply of them in stock. That way, when I do find a big pile of greens? I can mix up a hot pile on the spot, no additional foraging required. :)

P.S. Now, as a reward for your achievement, go out and get yourself a REAL compost thermometer. Its a worthy investment, not that expensive. If your excited now, you're probably hooked already... no need to prolong the inevitable...

I'm buying a second one next time I'm at the garden store... just because I'm notorious for flipping mine along with the pile, and then can't stand to be without it...even for a day. (If I had a candy thermometer, I'd be using it already...for that reason. No reservations, whatsoever.)

(Meant to include that with my original post, but lost track of time and had to get the grounds from starbucks... lol. Oops.
Les