It was a great long weekend at sanctuary. The school was closed on Friday. I had driven down the night before and enjoyed an easy day. I got out in the yard and did a bit of weeding then treated myself to a trip to the store for some black-eyed suzies to plant in clumps with the day lilies.
Most of the weekend was about the yard. Saturday found me sitting on that crate up there waging war on the weeds. Its hard to tell, but I pulled 5 large storage tubs of weeds. We turned on the surround sound in the shop and took turns picking CDs. Makes the work time go faster. Randy got down on his hands and knees and trimmed the vinca with his nippers. Looks great doesn't it?
Sunday was spent coming up for the big stuff that I needed to move down. I am officially living out of WalMart "green" bags now. Cool beans. When we got home, I got a surprise!
Mom and Ron brought it... but Randy bought it for me. Do you recognize it? That's all I saw of it for a time. Randy BBQed a couple of Cornish Game Hens and they joined us for supper. By the time they left, it was too late to figure out the mystery box. So we tackled that together Monday afternoon.
Do you have a clue what it is yet?
It had 34 pages of instructions and a bunch of bits and pieces. It took us about two hours to assemble it, reminding me of all the bleary hours spent on Christmas Eve trying to put together toys for my kids.
There it is... my composter! It's the kind that you put stuff in, then turn once a day. In 4 to 12 weeks, you have great compost! Randy is making a little patio for it to stand on out of old bricks. I am very excited to see how well it works.
After the composter was finished, we sat around a bit, then BBQed sword fish again and split a baked potato. At that point it was time for me to hit the road back to Dumb Potter's Hell.
But there are only 4 work days in this week, then I will be back at home for a short 2 day weekend... before I begin my LAST week of work.
Right now "soon" seems to be moving in slow motion, but I have a feeling that the last week will go fast. Here's the count... 9 work days left. Two sanctuary days.
Okay... so any of you compost? If so, can you offer advice or make suggestions?
That's one massive composter. I wonder what the Cornish Game Hens will think of it.
ReplyDeleteI'm a lazy composter. I sort of bury the kitchen garbage and then put anual plants on top, then dig everything up the next year.
ReplyDeleteDon't know much about composting but that looks like a mighty bin.
ReplyDeleteAlmost every house I've ever lived in has a "garbage hole." Don't know if they have those out there. Sort of a hole with a galvanized bin in it and a step-on iron cover? Until fairly recently, you put veg scraps &c. in there and guys came to collect it and sell it to the pig farms.
Kind of a pity they don't do that anymore. Of course, the guys are gone and so, for the most part, are the pigs.
We still have milkmen, though. Very popular here in RI.
i dunno about the compsoting thing except a friend of mine does it by bungie cording the lid to a garbage can and rolling it around her driveway.
ReplyDeletei do know that cricket could very well sell me on moving to RI if they really have milkmen and garbage holes there. yes, i am an odd throwback.
Huh. I don't compost - little yard, not even mine - but it looks like a magnificent container!
ReplyDeleteUm, I know you can put in almost anything that's natural and will break down - like paper napkins even. Not banana peels and orange peels? Not sure. I have a pile in my back yard in a fence and have done nothing with it. Um, so no advice.
ReplyDeleteAnd btw, I grew up with milk being delivered! 6 kids in the family we had gallons and gallons of milk. We were given our own cooler by the company.
ReplyDeleteMo-- We will never find out because the instructions say no bones... and that's all that remains of the game hens. ;-)
ReplyDeletelaughing-- Well I guess that will work ok. In fact, didn't the native Americans toss raw fish in with their seeds to fertilize?
ReplyDeleteCricket-- I miss milkmen and fresh delivery in big glass bottles.
ReplyDeleteNo, no garbage holes that I know of... unless you are talking about the hicks that just dig a hole in the yard and push everything in it from sofas to car parts... yep, we have those. We once uncovered an entire boat trailer when trying to dig a garden.
I do however like the idea of that sort of thing. Our cook at the school used to save garbage for pigs.
lime-- I am finding that there are not many people who do compost. Interesting to me. But then, I admit that I have avoided it when I would have had to flip it with a shovel. :-)
ReplyDeleteSuldog-- You don't garden and fall asleep in garden posts... I remember. Ha. But thanks for commenting.
ReplyDeletePamela-- Well I guess I can always research it on line.
ReplyDeleteALL-- Okay, I'm not seeing many garden nuts here. Does this mean that none of you are going to be able to give me advice on building a worm box and the care and feeding of worms?
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool. I've composted on and off for years. Now, I have a little pile by my garden. Once if starts looking like black dirt, just shovel it in and rake it in with your soil and it will make your garden so much happier.
ReplyDeleteChurlita-- Yay! I knew someone would compost. I should have known it would be you.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see how well this works. I am having a ball gardening. Randy is building me a potting bench complete with water... how cool is that! I am very excited.
that's the cadillac of composters!
ReplyDeletewe had to quit composting when a lovely family of rats moved in. rats love composts.
billy pilgrim-- That is one of the nice things about this one. It has a latching lid, is off the ground and no rodents can invade.
ReplyDeleteYou should have seen the tree rats they had where I grew up... the size of small dogs and they would walk on the telephone and power lines over your head. Yech!
I recognized the composter right away. But I have no advice except that if you put egg shells in it yiu will be inviting nightly visits from raccoons.
ReplyDeletesecret agent woman-- Racoons! Yikes. I am glad the lid locks.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest gardening challenge so far are the neighborhood cats using the yard as a cat box. Ick.
Can't help you with composting. No experience with it at all. I'm sure you can find lots of advice on the internet, though. Everything under the sun is in there.
ReplyDeleteCube-- That's right and I am snooping around.
ReplyDeleteI heard on the news this morning that they are expecting the oil slick to reach your state's shores soon. I immediately thought of you. I truly hope that your area is not affected.
Your yard is already looking amazing and I'm glad it is bringing you so much pleasure.
ReplyDeleteI would never had guessed that was a composter! I've never done it, but I like the idea of it :-)
laura b.-- Thank you. I do enjoy it very much, especially when Randy is working with me. Makes the time go fast.
ReplyDeleteI want one of those things!!!!!!! They are sooo neat, where did he get that? All I can ever find are the tiny ones. That is exciting. Loves!
ReplyDeletedabear-- Hi!!!! You can get them at Costco. It was $99.00. A word to the wise, it took two people... only one of whom knew what he was doing... to put it together.
ReplyDeleteHow goes the finals? Are you done yet? Good luck baby!
Unfortunately, I don't see how anyone located near the Gulf won't be affected by this. Imagine all the seafood that won't be caught, and won't be transported to all the restaurants, supermarkets, etc., and then there are beautiful beaches and the hit tourism will take. It's a tradegy that this wasn't contained sooner.
ReplyDeleteUm, that's tragedy. I hate it when I type faster than I spell ;-)
ReplyDeleteCube-- Its awful! I love fish and seafood, though where I live I do not get to indulge much in seafood. I keep seeing a line of dominos falling over. Shrimpers who can't pay themselves and employees, repairs that have to be put off, suppliers who depend on their purchases or goods, landlords who can't be paid, the price of frozen dishes, restaurant
ReplyDeletemeals, etc... all exploding outward. There must be hundreds of domino lines from this mess. Meanwhile all the White House really does is posture and BP blames everyone else.
Amen to that, sista! And I'm one of those bleeding heart libs who thinks this is the sh*ts.
ReplyDeleteFear not, BO won't let a good crisis such as this go to waste. He'll redouble efforts to relegate even more of our lives as a result.
ReplyDeletePeggy-- I hear ya!
ReplyDeleteCube-- I fear the truth in that.
ReplyDeleteWhat the heck? Have you fallen off the face of the earth?
ReplyDeletethe bear-- Nope. Just got back from
ReplyDeleteSanctuary. Scary drive!!