Compost Bin for Mother's Day!

Arent i a lucky girl.  It wasnt so long ago that i would be looking forward to flowers, perfume, jewellery etc.  all that girl stuff on Mothers Day.  Times have changed and i am more than excited about my latest gift.   Its a Keter Dynamic Turn & Go Composter - 230L.

Oh I know, what you are thinking.  Shes gone all green and bought a compost bin made from plastic (as in the kind made from petrochemicals)!  Not very green you might say.  I'd like to tell you it was made from recycled plastic but Ive hunted through the manual and i cant find my get out of jail free card.  My friend Jessie who posted about the 400 PPM today (which made me feel even worse) told me i should look after it, keep it out of sun and use it for producing my home grown veg thus reducing my carbon miles buying supermarket food.  So with an embarrassed face (and a big smile) I'm going to tell you all about it.

It has a large door at waist height (no bending) for easy fill.  Air circulation and heat is controlled by switching the aeration vents between open and closed positions.  It has a geared handle that moves only in one direction.  Turning it 5 times every few days should be enough.  When it is in position, open bottom vent and place a container under it to collect compost tea.   Once the compost is complete, remove the door and rotate until compost falls into container for spreading. 

So why, you might ask (or maybe you don't care) did I get one so fancy.  I've seen so many beautiful ones made from pallets or recycled timber.  Yep, they are great, authentic, eco-friendly and cheap.

 They also involve having available space and time to turn the materials and move from section to section and i don't have either of those things.   I dont think i have enough material to fill one of these.  I did have one a while ago that was a big square box with a lid and a trap door at the bottom but it was useless (or should i say i was).  It was smelly and didn't break down anything.  Now, with all my new found knowledge of green/brown ratios, air, water, microorganisms etc it probably worked just fine - problem is i gave it away.  I also like my yard to look neat and tidy.  My last gift was a battery powered whipper snipper - so no blade of grass better get out of place while I'm around - anal huh!

You see, this is all part of a process.  At the moment all the grass clippings and veggie waste are laying on the ground in big holes i created by mixing our clay soil (mineral rich) in with veggie soil (fluffy and full of humus) in order to fill my extremely large raised beds without going bankrupt. I need that patch of ground in the corner to be firm clay (never thought i would say that) to build my chicken coop on.   Rob tells me he cant sink stirrups into grass clippings. DOH!    So the big pile of clay on the front nature strip from building the driveway for the camper will have to be barrowed around the back.  I told you it was a process. 





 I worked today (yes, on Mother's Day) so Hubby and son were given the task of assembling my gift.  I thought this would have been quite a simple matter but NO having just reviewed the manual i can see that they would have needed an engineering degree to do so without pulling their hair out (hard for Tom to do, he keeps shaving his head).

I received a text from Hubby that said "In the beginning there were parts. Lots of parts. And the lord said some assembly required.  All due respect to God."

The instructions go 17 pages under the following headings:

Barrel Assembly 1
Door Frame Assembly
Drum Wheel Assembly
Axle Assembly
Axles Connection
Leg Bracket Assembly
Gear Assembly
Leg Bracket Assembly
Handle Assembly
Leg Assembly
Door Assembly

Do you think that two males would have paid much attention to the manual or would they only think of that after several hours of conversation at various decibels and plenty of expletives? 

Still they managed and the result was Ta Da!

Thank you Tom and Rob.     Happy Mother's Day to all the Mums. 

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