On Wed, 8 May 2013 03:18:16 +0000 (UTC), Danny D
wrote:

My first composting method was a disaster but this second generation
improved method seems to be working well enough to tell you what
it is and to ask about suggestions for improvement.

http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/...g/12877414.jpg

1. A closeable container sits in the kitchen corner
2. Foodstuffs go into the container instead of in the trash
3. After about a week, we dump the food onto a fenced-in area
4. We chop the food into the soil for about a minute or so
5. This breaks large chunks into small pieces for faster breakdown
6. And it thoroughly 'infects' the foodstuff with soil bacteria
7. After a minute of chopping, the food is barely noticeable
8. Then we shovel a thin layer of soil on top to keep away birds
9. The fence & soil, we found, keeps cyotes & vultures away
10. We spray with water, often daily, to aid bacterial growth
11. We wash the plastic (and sometimes disinfect with chlorine)
12. And the cycle starts anew, with foodstuffs in the kitchen

We've found that we can't even find the food after just a few
weeks, although before we fenced it in, the cyotes, vultures,
or whatever would dig up the chicken bones, fish skins, etc.

Any ideas or suggestions or comments are welcome.

I once had a pint or so of spoiled milk, and dumped it on my
compost pile.

Two days later, a neighbor called to tell me that something
aparently had died in my yard, and was stinking up the
place. When I got within a few yards of the pile, I got the
intense urge to vomit. I got a fork and broke open the
pile, and there was a lump, about the size of a beach-ball,
that was highly animated with the squirming of thousands of
maggots. The smell was, well, the smell of death. Even
after spreading it all out to dry, it took more than a week
for the smell to dissipate.

I don't put milk in my compost pile anymore.

--
croy