Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Zachary Domikez <zdomike@yahoo.com>]

I also had about 100K each week from a restaurant
friend, and have a rat and mouse problem, so invented
a simpler way to compost.  I have written a
description of the rodent and fly-proof composters I
have successfully used for several years.  The
materials and ingredients are all recycled except
about a hundered drywall screws and the plastic sleeve
about four feet in diameter ....

I have built a drum that does not rust, from tires cut
to remove the inner sidewall, screwed together with
about eight drywall screws from sidewall remainder to
its twin above and below.  The tires stack well up to
a height of about four feet.  The top and bottom are
sheet metal  - all designed to keep out rodents!

To keep out flies, first of all the whole tire-drum
sits inside a big plastic sleeve, the plastic tied 
tightly at the base, and sealed with a similar tie at
the top.  The top is removeable sheet metal, 
with a few screws needed for the bi-weekly batch fill.
 No fumes, no wash from rain, and the heat is 
retained as much as possible.

This is a batch process, with occasional reloading
from the restaruant bucket. The top gets secured with
another dozen screws when filled tightly.

To keep out flies, second of all, the batch emptying
task gets done every two or three days depending 
on usage.  I use a simple paper cover to keep flies
out of the bucket, so that there is no maggot load
carried to inside the drum.  

The combined thermal effects of the tires and the
plastic enclosure allows the temperature to stay 
pretty high, and so far this has processed within a
year to be innocuous enough to use in the garden.

Every compost heap needs to be turned, and this is the
easiest part.  The whole thing rolls!

Sincerely,
Zachary

.... Re: Heating up a compost pile (Michael Nevin)
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 
> From: Michael Nevin <mikepnevin@yahoo.ca>
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Heating up a compost
> pile
> 
snip-----------------------
>   Some composting in containers or hot composting as
> opposed to sheet composting is motivated by waste
> handling concerns.For example, where I work, we have
> appx 200 -300 kg of rotty, smelly food and kitchen
> scraps to deal with every week ------------snip

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com