Re: [Organic_Gardening] Re: Looking for some "serious" compost tumbler operators

 

The drill and Auger are a good idea. You should go visit a bicycle shop and talk with one of their mechanics about gear to gear ratios. You would rig a big gear to the tumbler and a smaller gear to and electric motor and not have to manually turn the barrel at all. And if you want to get real lazy you could go to radio shack and get a remote on and off switch and you could activate it from the house and attach a timer for how long you want it to turn and then at the end of the time it would shut itself off. Then you would have all that free time rescuing night crawlers with the spatula you bought at the dollar store.
jeff

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From: James <jmarconnet@gmail.com>
To: Organic_Gardening@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 3:20 PM
Subject: [Organic_Gardening] Re: Looking for some "serious" compost tumbler operators


 
Today I moved the left half of my ComposT-Twin tumbler contents into the right bin and started a new batch of Starbucks UCG (1/3) and shredded paper and cardboard (2/3) in the left half. Now my daily temperature measurements will be of two different batches at wildly different stages of the composting process.

It was rather surprising how wet and heavy the compost was, and than how much easier it was to turn the tumbler with the compost all in one bin and relatively balanced.

But cranking of either the older compost or the new mix of UCG and papers did not seem to do all that much noticeable mixing. So I used my electric drill and bulb-planting auger to mix up the new mix in the left side. That made visible difference and got my arms rather tired, too. Think I'll keep cranking, as appropriate. But I'll also use the auger once a week or so, too.

Heading towards starting the Happy New Year with two ongoing batches of compost in my tumbler!

Jim

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