Composter Results!

 Today was a perfect day for gardening:

1.  After weeks of 90* temps, we hit a high today of 70*, thanks to a rainstorm that blew in overnight.
2.  I was all ready to teach my Friday class this morning to cover for a coworker, but he made it back from his trip in time and I didn't have any prep to do for tomorrow.
3.  Kaylee, who has stepped out of gardening duties due to a bug or plant that is driving her crazy out there, had a meeting at 3pm.
4.  I harvested the last of the cherry tomatoes this morning, leaving just a few onions and a couple cabbages in our plot.

So it really was the perfect opportunity to spend some time with my girls, digging in the dirt.

Well, when I say "dirt," what I really mean is sand.  That's pretty much all it is.  We didn't do anything to improve it on our last gardening attempt and it didn't produce much except cherry tomatoes and a few green beans and cukes.  We're really hoping to change that with this composter.

I've been wondering how well it was working.  I can't spin it with the door open, obviously, and I really hadn't rummaged around in it much until last week, although I could tell it was fairly mixed up.  The girls and I set a 1/2-inch screen on the wheelbarrow and got to work!

Naturally, we talked about a lot as we worked, but the girls were very curious to know how weeds, grass clippings, chicken manure, lemon rinds, and a lot of other things turned into such nice dirt.  They also wanted to know how it was going to help our garden.  So they got some science knowledge out of the deal as well.

For my part, I was a bit shocked at how well it turned out.  I thought that screening it that fine would surely leave a lot that wouldn't pass through.  It turned out to be maybe 3 shovels-full of rocks, various fruit pits, and a few sticks that hadn't broken down.  And the material we got was excellent!

After we finished cleaning it out, I loaded it up again with our dead tomato plants and then raked out the chicken yard again for the manure, wood shavings, and uneaten fruit/veggies.  It's all loaded up and ready to start working again!

For details about the compost tumbler itself, see this post: Project: Compost Tumbler