The Little Blue Composter

Many Sundays (last October to be exact) ago I was in the backyard working on the un-ending-backyard-renovation when I noticed Ethan, my wonderful four year old, going in and out of the house muttering the follwing words : compost, george, garbage, dirt.  I knew he was referring to the Curious George episode on recycling which kind of worried me because it didn't work out well for the man in the yellow hat that episode. I very discreetly followed him to side of the house where I noticed coffee grounds and a pineapple top lying on the ground in sand.  I asked him what was doing and he told me he was making a compost bucket like Curious George did.  I was very impressed with his iniative, creativity and devotion to making his own compost pile -- just not in the middle of the walkway!

At lunch we decided to look at You Tube Videos of composter and recylcing ideas.  There were so many amazing and creative ideas for creating your own composter and after veiwing several we decided to get the materials to make our own.  We bought a fifty gallon water drum from a guy on Craigslist for $20 and bought some hinges and a latch at Home Depot for $10.  I drilled  probably to many holes in the barrel, cut a hatch and we put on the hinges and latch.  We took an old bench from the front of the house put four wheeled casters on the top (wheels up) then mounted the barrell on top horizontally.  Voila! our very own-cheaper-than-buying-it-at-the-store composter -- and did I mention one can mix it by spinning it on the casters?  Yes it really works.

I wish I would have taken a picture of the results to show the composter did in fact work like composter should -- it took a really long time though -- four months to be exact.  We used the compost we generated in our raised garden beds (that is another blog).  This has been a great learning experience for Ethan and a great way to not add more waste the the landfills -- not to mention keeping my house looking nice and not sharing in the fate of the man with the yellow hat.