Anybody making compost?

I have a big compost pile that is steaming away. If the cold weather holds off maybe it will work long enough to break down most of the materials before winter. There is still a pile of dried out hay, weeds and horse manure to build another pile, that's my project for the day. Each layer gets a good spray of water as the pile gets built. Does anyone else build compost piles that get hot?

Mary, we must be living in almost-parallel universes. I popped in the house for a "bio-break" and had to check in at DG. And saw your post :) Today I'm doing creating a lasagne-style compost in a 3 ft x 90 ft long daylily/daffodil bed. (At least it'll be a daylily bed next spring, with daffs added next fall.)

After I get the newspapers and chopped leaves laid down, the next step is to head back to the cow pasture behind us and gather enough manure to add a nice layer on the leaves, then top it off with some straw and more leaves. Rain predicted for tonight, so it should get a nice soaking and get started cooking.

we always have compost going here. i have a few bins and also a tumbler. i have to put everything through the shredder before putting it in the tumbler. the bins we turn once in a while it gets so heavy. but yeah when i have ready compost for my beds.

I turned one pile over last spring and put it under black plastic for the summer. Unfortunately, it was a dry summer, so it didn't cook down like it should have, but I put it over a layer of wet newspaper, put a thick layer of straw over it, and some sandy top soil over that for a wildflower bed next spring. Jess and I found some daff bulbs that had been dug out in the proccess of another project and we buried them down through the straw. Then, I turned over the weed pile from this summer, let it get rained and snowed on a couple of times and if it really is nice tomorrow, I'll go flip the black plastic over that and see if it works any better this time.

There are two piles of hay and manure out cooking in the barn yard and one of these days when Stan is out with the loader, I'm going to get him to put some of it where I can get to it next year. All that lovely cow poop and I have to shovel up scraps! Hehehe, the milker's secondary product is just toooooo liquid, high protein rations will do that. I suppose I could scoop it out with a bucket...

I am always making compost. My 72 year old neighbor just topped off one bin with lawnmower shredded leaves. This week we will fill up the leaf storage bins time permitting. My oldest well driller son keeps getting me out on those rigs for "just a day" about 4-5 days a week. I'm too OLD for this and I am RETIRED doggone it...OH well the MONEY is nice.

I compost with one of those drum type things. DH was helping an elderly gentleman do some stuff at his house one day and they guy wanted to pay and dh asked him if he still composted and he said no. So, dh said I know my wife would be over the moon for the composter so that's how I got it. All my kitchen scraps, leaves, and when dh vacuums the water garden, the fish waste, etc. The people next to us have horses so they allow me to have some of their manure. I LOVE composting. :-) vic

Thanks, y'all just reminded me what it was I was supposed to do.

"eyes"

I have 2 compost heaps on the go,but i am now lucky that i can get a load of free well rotted manure, so go every weekend and get a few bags and putting it all over the garden as a thick mulch about a foot deep, and i have millions of worms who are going to work hard for me all winter, so next year my garden plants should be very very happy.

We loaded up our lawn trailer with a huge load of cow manure this morning, and spread it on top of the leaves on my soon-to-be 90 ft. long daylily bed. Watered it in well, and we'll put another covering of shredded leaves on top in a day or two.

Then we picked up a trailer full of rabbit berries. I'm busy spreading them on my year-old shade garden, around the perennials, along with about 8" of fallen oak leaves. I'm hoping this will help the leaves break down faster, as well as provide an organic fertilizer for the plants.

My source for the manure is my neighbor, who has a beautifully landscaped lawn and garden (created and maintained by him), but he doesn't use his own sources of fertilizer, so they're mine for the taking. Go figure.

This week I turned/stirred the big pile and finally made it into sort of a square about 4 feet high. It is covered with a 12x14 tarp tucked down between the pile and the pallet fence and anchored with bags of leaves. I hope this will keep the pile warm enough to keep it working and the air spaces around the edges will give it some fresh air when the wind blows (often here). Our weather is forecast to stay above normal for a few more days but it does freeze every night. I covered it when the outer edges were frozen about an inch deep. It got turned and then covered so I hope the microbes are happy and get back to work. I don't plan to uncover it till spring but might get curious before then and just have to peek and poke into it to see if the plan worked.