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Actually this is about the horseshit. On Saturday I was gifted some horseshit. Not just a little bit but 4 or 5 trailers of the stuff. Before it came I had cleaned up the area it was going to, and then put some of the random concrete stuff found in that area next to the trees so they wouldn't get piled up with horseshit. My idea was to create a visual boundary of where the cleaned up area awaiting shit ended, but apparently that failed. I don't think the apple tree really appreciated waking up to find out that it's foot deep in shit. But hey, what do I know, I'm not a plant whisperer After googling I decided to experiment with hot composting - the Berkley Method. 18 days until compost? sweeeeeet! That's what I thought up until today, when I had to go turn it inside out, and realized that it is a LOT. It took more than 2 hours I think to get it all nicely done. I'm hoping that was me being slow, and not the real amount of this this will wake. Apparently one of the benefits to hot composting is: They are not kidding. Well I hope they aren't because I'm sore. It doesn't help that my pitchfork is broken and not yet fixed and I couldn't find the spare handle to temporarily attach to it. Not only do you get a workout from your arms, you also get a balance workout because slipping in shit makes you really worried about face planting into the pile of horse manure. I succeeded in staying upright - YAY me! Anyway the Berkley method pretty much tries to have a large pile that gets hot, and ever day or 2 you get to move the outside part into the middle, and the middle stuff onto the outside. That way it all gets cooked, and hopefully stays the same volume through the process manure->compost. Who knows, I'm not sure I piled it up high enough. I'm not sure I have to correct carbon:nitrogen ratio. I already have plans on how to turn it in two days to minimize work, and hopefully I can get the pile a bit higher without too many problems. As for the rest - in a fortnight I should know