December 9, 2009
Winter Worm Windrow – 12-09-09
Finally looking like a real winter worm composting extravaganza!
Figured I might as well include a winter windrow update along with the winter cat litter bed update I just posted. As mentioned, a big winter storm has hit our region and things are finally starting to look pretty wintry out there!
🙂
Things have been a little crazy as of late (those on the newsletter list will know why), so unfortunately I haven’t done quite as much work with this bed as I had hoped to do by now – and this neglect is starting to show.
Last time I reported that temperatures in the bed seemed to be right in the range I wanted to see (20 C / 68 F), but clearly there has been a temperature drop since then!
I actually did manage to get over to my dad’s place last week and we started bringing over some of the rotten straw bales from the old winter worm composting bed. We even added the material to the windrow – but I am starting to realize that the bed really needs a fair amount more material.
I’m still very optimistic though. My dad and I also brought over a LOT of wet coffee grounds that had been sitting in open containers out in his yard (reminds me, I really need to write a post about the worms we found in this stuff!). As I’ve written before, coffee grounds seem to be an excellent material for generating heat, so I’m hopeful that adding a bunch of it will help to get things back in the range I want to see.
I also have my jumbo food scrap bags which are still getting filled with food. My plan is to fill three of them, then bring them inside to warm up before adding the material to the bed. Hoping to also get a hold of some more straw bales (new and rotten), so that should really help in terms of keeping everything nicely insulated.
Stay tuned!
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Winter Cat Litter Composting – 12-09-09
Whoops! I forgot to put a tarp over the cat litter bed before the big storm hit!
Looks like our very first winter storm of the year is here! Of course, I totally forgot to put a tarp down over top of the cat litter composting bed as I had planned! Oh well – no biggie!
I think the layer of “packing snow” will actually help to get things going a bit in the pile. The highest temperature I could find was around 10 C (50 F) – actually not too bad considering the fact that the bed has been completely exposed to the elements, but I’d still like to see it go up.
I poked a bunch of holes in the heap with my compost thermometer so that should help to get some oxygen down into the composting zone. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens over the next few days. If the snow doesn’t melt away at some point, I will likely just brush it off before adding the tarp(s).
Will keep everyone posted!
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