Hello one and all.
I took the initiative to fashion a compost bin for my parent’s home. I looked on the ‘net (google searching works well for “how to build a compost pile” and other variations… one site gave good information on what to put in a compost pile http://www.compostguide.com/)

but yes.. i basically scavaged scrap wood from the flipper house i’ve been working on. (one of the basement walls had a drainage problem due to the gutters not being cleaned out and the knotty pine panneling (old school style) got all rotted on the bottom) we were tossing some of the really bad stuff out, and i tossed it into my trunk instead and dumped the pile on the patio for a week.

but today i constructed our compost bin. It’s 30″x30″ around… don’t know how high, but i just used the scavaged wood, and drywall screws to make a square, and left like open spaces, and a little bit from the bottom… basically bs-ed my way through making it. and then i was considering a top for it. after i live in Rochester NY, and we like our lake effect snow. in another project i’ve got lots of windows that were where my parents wanted the compost… so as i was moving them, one of the windows fit perfectly as a lid. Tada!! it made me really really happy. and then i went about the task of finding a bucket for the kitchen… my dad just tarred his driveway and so i took to rinsing one of those out (probably about a 3 gallon bucket) and such so we can use it. I officially put the first organic thing in the actual pile (A pear that one of the clients gave me and the guy i work with from her pear tree (she also gave us some tomatoe plants back at the beginning of the season)) and i put in some tomatoe goop in our new compost bucket. Just gotta figure out where to put the bucket.

but i’m super excited about it!! we can finally start composting, reducing our waste, and helping the environment out. I always figured why the heck i was throwing biodegradable waste in with all the plastic we throw out. cause it’ll never decompose. And the new trash dumps are all like lined with plastic or something else, so nothing really leaches into the ground (until mother nature takes over)… So it’s a good feeling to have a compost bin now. Although, one of the articles i looked at talked about the top layer of the pile drying out, and keeping it moist, but without washing all the nitrogen out of the bottom of the pile. so i’m not sure how productive this window will be. once the pile gets big enough it will generate it’s own heat, so it won’t need the magnification.. i may paint over the pane, or find something else as a lid by then. the author of the article uses a tarp. (http://www.rivenrock.com/compostpile.htm) *shrugs* it all works out.

and my mom just joined a farm co-op thingy… porter farms. it’s actually a CSA .. community supported agriculture project.. she picked up her first bag of produce. I got really excited inside. (don’t know if she actually picked up on it) but it seems really cool. I’m gonna check out the website sometime soon (www.porterfarms.org) and see what’s up. seems real cool, the newsletter thing speaks about how they are a supplier for Aubundance co-op, lori’s natural foods, whole foods, feel rite and lexington co-op. (the last two are based in buffalo NY) I only know of 2 of those… so i’m going to be investigating shortly.

I’m also on the hunt for a cooler job. My job kicks ass, super kicking of fun-ness. but i wanna get more in the “saving the world” so i’m slowly gearing up for that. there’s not much of a scene for it here in Rochester. I haven’t resigned myself yet to leaving though. we’ll see what the man upstairs says about it. he’s the one that knows and wil provide. thankfully.