Compost Is Ready

I hope you found my first post on my DIY tumbler composting helpful.

Today, I took the PVC door of my greenhouse apart (so that no more PVC's were killed in the process) and by adding a bit of vinyl hardware cloth, built a sifter to sift the smaller particles of compost from my compost tumbler.

I used the PVC clips that I'd made to hold the hardware cloth on the PVC. I was amazed at how well they work and the whole sifter took me less than 30 minutes to assemble. It fits nicely on the top of my wheel barrow and by turning it so the mesh on the bottom, the PVC forms a nice edge that keeps the compost from escaping off the sides.

I was truly amazed at easily my 55 gallon compost tumbler turned out some really nice compost. If ever I had any doubts, they are totally gone now.

I sifted out the smaller pieces and set aside the larger ones for continued composting.

Tomorrow, I may try to run them through my chipper/shredder (that I got a deal on at a yard sale) before I put them back into the tumbler with a whole new batch of green and brown material to kick start the process.

I took a shovel full or so of the compost and wrapped it up in an old tee-shirt and put it in a 5 gallon bucket of water to start a batch of compost tea (pics to come with my next compost post).

Large material that didn't make the sifting.

After all sifting was done, about 1/2 of my LARGE wheel barrow was filled with nice compost. I had enough to fill two empty manure bags that I'd held on to for just such an occasion.

I'd have to say that it was definitely worth the wait.

Going to use some of this nice stuff to fortify some soil for two white grape vines that I'm ready to plant and to side dress some tomatoes.

Don't think I've ever seen soil this black in Georgia!

Spaghetti Sauce Recycling

Last week my wife left me... it was a very sad time for me. But before you jump to any inaccurate conclusions, our marriage is as good as it has ever been over the past 31 years. She travels home every month or so to take care of her mom and dad, helping out with doctor's appointment, clothes shopping for her mom (who has Alzheimer's disease), etc.

Before she takes the trip, she stocks up things for me to eat at for dinner while she's away. This shopping trip I was with her and we decided that spaghetti would be good with a huge salad with the abundant greens we have in our garden, this time of year. So, I picked out a sauce that looked like it would be a good base (I'm near obsessive with adding extra herbs to things... drives her nuts sometimes).

Fast forward to the night of the bachelor spaghetti dinner... I opened the jar and tasted it to add to the meat that I'd prepared for it. Mmmm ... pretty good... added a few things to placate my herb-adding urges.

Then, I noticed something about the jar, besides the label, there was something different about the jar. There were designs of some kind in the glass. No... it was writing. I rinsed out the jar (distracted from my dinner) and noticed that there were measurement lines and other writing under the label.

Then I had a though... hey, since we do some canning of our garden veggies, I wonder if a canning jar lid will fit this thing?

I opened the drawer, rummaged around and found a small lid ring and true to form the thing fit PERFECTLY!

After soaking in some warm water, the label came right off revealing the label: ATLAS MASON.

You have to understand that we're really not brand loyalists in our home, but I decided then and there that the next spaghetti sauce that we buy will be Classico in their recyclable Atlas Mason canning jars.

Wonder if their marketing department knew how people would react to this decision and how directly it would effect someone's buying habits?

Who knew that saving the planet's resources could be so yummy? :)

Chris

3GT