Monday, February 09, 2009

Son of Composter

Now that I'm officially living with Marc, we got the composter from mom. It had enjoyed its 4 month rest and was ready for action.

The first night I got some dirt from the edge of the grass, put in some baking soda, sawdust pellets and then let it go. It was plugged in and we went to bed, but the dogs weren't used to it. When it did its churning in the middle of the night, the dogs went wild. Marc went down and unplugged it.

The next day it got both relocated to the back yard (which is better, as it is just outside the kitchen, and a full dosing of veggie clippings and some left over Chinese food. Marc made me swear that I wouldn't open it for a week, per its instructions. Well, I was good, I let it go for a week and over the weekend I opened it up for a look.

Unlike previous adventures of excessive moisture - which, due to the rain, was not surprising - we had mold! It almost looked like frost at the edges... little white fuzzy crystal things. I was disappointed, guessing I had not enough starter soil. I let it sit for a day and then, Sunday, took it on. I took the spatula, opened the top and was confronted with a light brown mush that smelled like vomit. Not what I was suspecting. But I dug up some additional dirt and added it in, mixed in the moldy bits (probably not the best idea) and added the tailings from the bok choy-mushroom stir fry we made for dinner last night. I haven't checked it yet, but soon.

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