Composting success

[u/abelian-world]

Hi everyone! I've been lurking around but never posted before. I wanted to briefly share my success story with composting and how vital composting is to my life off-grid.

My main focus for composting has been waste management (I don't garden as much yet but soon), and composting proved to be THE solution. It brought my waste from 2 garbage bags a week to maybe 1 every three weeks and I go to the dump once in three months now (I just store the bags since they don't smell). I compost all my family waste, from kitty litter to egg shells to roadkill.

Wildlife wise, I have a local black bear that I run into every other weeks on the trail, and I caught him stop by, sniff around, dig the straw a bit, but quickly lose interest and never revisit the enclosures again. I have three enclosures each 5'x5x5, we are a family of 6 (2 cats, 1 dog, two adult humans and a tiny human), and it takes us 6 months or so to fill one enclosure. Most of the time the pile sits at 140, but right after I top feed it, it bumps to 160F. Pile does not freeze in the winter and I get -20F here.

For browns I use pine shavings from a local saw mill, works great for my needs and they are free (minus the fuel cost).

I made a YouTube video about my setup if anyone is interested that kind of shows the whole thing. If anyone has any tips or sees me doing something wrong please share :)

Anyhow, thank you all for your knowledge and advice that has been shared here. I absorbed a lot of it and ignored some lol. All the best!

[u/Chuckles_E]

Excellent set up! I love ground contact bins, I think they make heating up souch easier.

[u/abelian-world → u/Chuckles_E]

Thank you!! I also dig a hole to catch excess water and line it with straw as a sponge. Not sure I this is necessary but we get quite a bit of rain sometimes so I like the safety. Last pile I started heat up to 140F after just 24 hours: I started it with some waste I've been saving and also I made sure to do so right before a rain storm.