Holiday, a good time for the compost tumbler!

Okay, so i manage to go deal with the holiday and another one is coming up. I'm a little bumbed that holiday always is about spending money on decorations and presents even if I decorated the house and it looks really good.

One good thing with the holiday except for the company of your family is the food, Boy have our compost got some nice food these last couple of days! I recently gave it half a turkey, bread, chicken, bacon and some noodles. I'm stunned that i cant really see where all the food went. When I look in the compost tumbler the only thing i can see is compost mixture and some egg shell that doesn't break down. Also i realized that it takes some time to compost onions, in the future I'm gonna cut them into pieces before i put them into the compost tumbler.

Our dog hates the compost tumbler, I don't really know if he understand what it is but one thing he knows, it takes hes food away. Delicious turkey, bacon. poor dog.

I still haven't got a thermometer, on the manual they say that you don't need it because you will see stem rise up. I do see the steam rise from my compost tumbler but I just want to know how hot it is. I thought that i could keep a record on this blog. I'll try to get on for the next post.   

  

Wood pellets or Sawdust?

I’ve been looking thru internet, reading blogs about what to use with your kitchen waste in your tumbler, it feels like people haven’t really heard about putting wood pellets into their tumblers. I haven’t tried to use saw dust in my tumbler since Niklas told me that pellets are better, but I would like to try it just so that I can contribute to the discussion about wood pellets vs. sawdust. It would be interesting to hear from someone who tried both of the different supplements and what they think about it.

So far I’m still in the process of filling my compost and I wonder if I might have a little too big tumbler for my needs. It’s not really a big problem but I’m excited to see how my compost dirt is going to look like. I must say, I haven’t really paid any attention to it the last week since I’ve been working with other stuff but when I did look at it today it was going good, the temperature are high and the process is working good. I wish I can get some time off so that I can go to the store and buy myself something to measure the heat in my compost tumbler. Next time I write, maybe I can say how hot it is inside my tumbler.    

Week Four, It's getting hot!

As mentioned in a previous entry, I had issues with having fruit flies in my JK 270. A couple of days ago, I realized that they had returned. Niklas told me that the waste begins breaking down into compost on the outer parts of the mixture before it does in the center, which is why it is designed to rotate. Because I wanted to try to agitate the flies, I took a plastic hand spade and mixed the compost even more. At the center of the mixture, it was a little dry. So I poured about 3 ounces of warm water into the mixture (being careful not to pour in too much). I then closed the lid, rotated the bin a few times and left it to go to work.

Two days later, I went to put some more kitchen waste into the JK 270. The moment I opened it, I realized that something was a little bit different than last time. The inside was hot. I thought a about two weeks ago that it was warm, but this time, it was actually HOT! This has really started to become interesting. It's not just a hobby or something that is good for the environment for me anymore. I even thought about buying a thermometer to see how warm it gets in there. So stay posted, I’ll report back on that next time. The flies aren’t having a party inside of my JK 270 anymore, in fact, they’re gone!

Week Three, No odor

This is so exciting! I Inside of the warm, insulated chamber, the mixture is really starting to have a dirt-like appearance! The compost looked a little wet the other day, so I added some extra wood pellets to soak it up. It seems to be working away in there! 

One thing that is surprising to me is the lack of odor. You would think that all of those banana peels, orange rinds, chicken fat, etc. would inevitably create some type of an odor, at least from the small air holes on the sides, but not at all!

I am impressed!

Week Two, fruit flies

At my 2-week point of using the compost tumbler, I got a little concerned. It seemed like the process of breaking down the waste was going a little bit slow, and I noticed a few fruit flies in.

 I called Niklas (The Composting Warehouse representative in the States) and he assured me that this was a very normal experience during the first week or two before the microorganisms in the mixture begin to really go to work. He explained that when the compost tumbler fills up a little more, and also when it starts to build warmth inside, that fruit flies will not linger in there and I will soon see a cleaner, more hygienic compost. I was told that when starting to fill up an empty chamber in the tumbler (there are 2 chambers, so that while one is working, the other has produced compost ready for the garden), I could put some already made compost in there to help the process start more quickly.

This being the first time I am making the compost, I didn’t have any to do that with, but I did put about 4 handfuls of grass clippings in there, and after 4 days there were no signs of flies. I noticed that the temperature inside the chamber had also increased.

Time to Tumble! (Week one)

 I read up on what I’d be allowed to put in the JK 270, and was impressed with how much of a variety of things I’d be able to put in there! Niklas told me, “Basically, anything you could put in your mouth, you can put in the tumbler.” Of course, there is much more than just that that can go in there, but it was a good rule of thumb. You can even put garden waste in there, but not too much at a time, since you want to be able to fill it up mainly with waste from your kitchen that can be broken down. I was told that hard sticks and twigs shouldn’t be added to the tumbler. The website has a detailed list of what to and what not to add to your tumbler, plus tips well worth looking at.

I had a little trouble finding wood pellets (which they say is the best thing to mix in with your kitchen/ garden waste)in the beginning, but did find them for a good price at the local feed store. I searched ”Feed Store” on Google and found a place that sold 40 lbs. of wood pellets for 13 dollars including tax. I don’t have cats, but apparently, there are places in which you can buy a certain type of wood pellets used for cat litter and that can also be disposed of in the compost tumbler (Sand-like cat litter cannot be put in there). They say you can also use sawdust instead of wood pellets, but I haven’t tried that yet.

I’ve got a medium-sized coffee can with a lid under my sink to fill the kitchen waste in and I dump the waste into the JK 270 every couple of days. Every time I add waste to the tumbler, I rotate it.  So far, I have mostly coffee grinds, banana peels, egg shells and some scraps not eaten off dinner plates in the tumbler. Niklas told me that every time I fill it up, I should put in some wood pellets (the ratio should be 10:1, waste to pellets). By the way, I have only begun filling up the first chamber.

So far, so good!

It’s Here!

On September 13th, I got a knock at my door. It was the FedEx guy dropping off 2 boxes that were sent to me from The Composting Warehouse, Inc. Inside was an instruction manual and the components of a JK 270 compost tumbler. ”JK” stands for Jora Kompost (spelled with a ”K” in the Swedish language, Sweden being where it is designed). The product had some assembly required (like all things Swedish!), and the instructions were included. In the beginning, I put the side panel on the wrong sides, so a good tip would be to make sure the green-painted sides of the panels are facing outwards on each side of the tumbler. One more small detail I realized was that I put part A in the instructions on backwards, so once I turned it the right way, it sat nicely. 

I guess a good rule of thumb when assembling things is to just take your time and really follow each step on the manual, even if it’s not a complicated assembly process. I put it together with one other person and I think that made it easier, but I don’t think it’s impossible to do it on your own.

The entire tumbler weighs about 86 pounds when empty, which although a little heavy, it felt sturdy. I placed it next to my trash cans in the back yard.