Yeah, I heard it was a harsh winter here. Though one friend rolled her eyes when I said that and replied, "People always say that."
Compost I enclose in a wire fence cylinder. I like what they call "hog fence" because it isn't any stronger than it needs to be, and I can manipulate it just fine.
It keeps everything contained and provides for plenty of aeration. When I'm ready to harvest compost, I just lift off the cylinder, fork the top parts which are still working onto a tarp, removed the lower parts that are ready to use (and put them in some container like a Rubbermaid bin or the like), replace the cylinder and used the unfinished stuff to start the new pile. Easy peasy.
This is my previous compost you can sort of see in the center of the image. That wire fencing is a bit sturdier than what I have now but I was fortunate to live near a farm supply place that would cut me a length of it! The stuff I have now I had to scrounge. But scrounged fencing works just fine. (I'm sure I have better pictures somewhere, this one was just easy to find.)
