damian is trying his hand at a big-batch 18-day compost project. this is in addition to our ongoing compost of kitchen scraps, chicken manure and humanure*. he started with goat manure, alfalfa, and straw bales. in most climates you would use free stuff like fall leaves and grass clippings instead of buying bales of alfalfa and straw, but organic matter of any kind is hard to come by around here, so we spent about $100 on materials (the manure was free). it’s gonna make a LOT of compost.

the raw materials:

here’s the pile mixed (oliver helped, of course):the pile is supposed to sit for 4 days and then get turned, but ours got super hot and stinky really fast. it also attracted a lot of flies. damian figured it was due to lack of air and too much nitrogen, so he layered in a bunch more straw and made the pile longer to allow for more air:that changed the smell from “dead goat” to “horse pasture.” thanks, honey! it’s still pretty hot (160F, we want more like 140, i think). damian assures me it won’t catch fire. i bought one of those bag-style fly traps that worked well when we had horses near by. stay tuned for more exciting compost adventures!

* i wasn’t going to tell you that we have a humanure system, but i feel like i’m being dishonest with all the blogging about water use and permaculture if i don’t mention the little fact that we quit pooping in drinking water. it’s been close to a year now and i’ve gone from very nervous and squeamish to a true believer. and no, it doesn’t smell. not even like a horse pasture. ok, maybe it smells a little like sawdust, but that’s different…