>> 6 5-gallon buckets of compost

That's a lot! Congratulations Linda! I bet your soil microbes were delighted.

I work almost exactly the same way except that I hide a pile instead of bins. I turn it a little every week or two. It's small, and it's slow, but it gets there.

I still leave a lot of stiff stems whole when I make the pile, which keeps it airy but hard to turn. Also, they break down much slower than anything else. So I have to screen it to get the Black Gold while it's fresh.

I could chop them or mow them, but then the pile would be more compact and less airy.

Another advantage of having stiff stems and thin twigs: it gives the pile so much stiffness that I can pull stuff away from the bottom and pile it high on top, over and over. Lately the pile has become more like a tower with steep side. I'm not sure that has any advantages, but it is odd.

i can see the soil around the bottom of the pile become super-rich from "drippings".

Send us some new pic's of what you are describing Rick.

It's hard for me to get clear shots of brown-on-brown, but I'll try this weekend. However, then you'll see all the weeds and grass!

I noticed this morning that the "tower" that was almost chest-high when I last piled it up has already slumped down to just above waist-high. Time to screen out the good stuff and use it!

The truth hurts, but is a gardeners reality on occasion Rick.

I am trying to wean myself from only shooting the pretty angles in the gardens here myself and it hurts!

Musing about compost leads directly to philosophy ... gardening is a microcosm and it leads to all kinds of insights.

Many of those truths start "I should have done the ... " and they end "several weeks ago."

lol, exactly

My newest batch DH made with small Compost Tumbler. We now have a collection of tumblers(4), all from Craig's list, except my original one.

Looks like wonderful compost to me.

>> Send us some new pic's of what you are describing Rick.

It was a lazy weekend, and I never got around to it!

sometimes you just gotta have a lazy weekend!

Thanks, Arlene.

I might blush, but I do snooze and laze about all too often on weekends. I just harden my heart to my raised beds' cries of "weed me!"

This weekend my compost heap almost tempted me out into the cold overcast and mist, but I resisted.

I have some weekends like that. Happening more often lately as I'm starting to feel my age.

I just spent the weekend laying in the sun letting eight 5-week old lab puppies crawl all over me. It was lovely.

I tried saying that one I reached 50, I would grow younger instead of older, but I'm beginning to think that didn't work.

Deb,

I call that mature wisdom!

Wish we had photos!

Deb, that sounds like a lovely weekend! Eight of them, huh? Wow! Are they yours to keep?

The pups are my sister's and will be heading off to their new homes in the next couple weeks. Had to get a puppy-fix while they were still around. My camera busted on the way over, but here's a couple I poached off FB. Seven blacks and one golden.

Cuties!

OMG! Too cute. Good thing I'm not around puppies because I would be wanting one and with my going back and forth I can't have one.

So good to see you again, Rick, and you, too, David.

Rick and I were compost friends on another site. My husband, Jack, worked 15 hours (over 3 days) making two new bins of compost recently and it looks wonderful, as usual. We have 6 bins he made, two are now filled.

At the end of the "old bins" there's a Jackmanii clematis, which is constantly fed by the compost bin behind it. Each summer I have to cut that clematis back twice by about 12'. It must enjoy the constant food.