What We Bin Doing

New compost bins arrived this week. Yesterday, the noble Morgayn did the digging while I assembled the first bin. Since we previously had 2 bins, she had to shovel the contents of one into the other. After I set up the new bin, she then had to shovel the contents of that bin into the new one. It was our first really hot day this summer. We worked in the morning, but it was 93F (34C) before we finished.

There were potatoes sprouting in the second bin, lots of sal bugs and some earthworms squiggling around in the compost, and a fat alligator lizard hanging around the edge of the bin.


The New Composter

The new bin has a simple-but-clever design, of tiers that can be moved one at a time and stacked in any order. Turning the old bins was a bit of a problem. The front slats could be removed (and, in the past few years, couldn't really be replaced), but there was a bar across the top of the bin that limited shovel angles.

The old bins were definitely ready for a ride on out of here. I pulled the pieces out as Morgayn shoveled. They're waiting for the boys to take the screws out of them, and then they'll be cut up for kindling.


Old Compost Bins

The new bins are plastic, but recyclable. They're a grade of plastic that should be able to be recycled indefinitely, as opposed to down-cycled.

Remus John was hanging around while we worked.


Upside-Down Boy

Later, he discovered the most important part of the new compost bins.


Boy in the Box

During the heat of the afternoon, the boys built castles and towers out of Kapla.


Malcolm's Kapla Castle

This morning, the top tier of the new bin and its lid had been knocked off. I suspect the opossum that lives under the woodpile, but Garry thinks it must have been a raccoon. Or it could have been a dog. The bin was full of stellers jays and squirrels this morning.

We'll have to figure out some way to keep the animals out. We gave up with the old bins, and now all the neighborhood vermin are used to a free kitchen.