2007 Neighorhood composting project

[Chief]

Regular readers of this blog are no doubt familier with my old compsting thread <a href="http://clarkblog.org/index.php/topic,184.0.html">A steaming heap, literally! </a> where I documented our neighborhood leaf compsting efforts last fall.

We started out using just leaf blowers, figuring that would break the leaves up enough. It kind of worked, but the pile composted very slowly, and in places not at all. The material was simply too coarse to be able to break down effectively. I have long wanted to get a chipper shredder, and I finally succeeded today!

I've had my eye on craigslist.com, and with some diligence, and following up with phonecalls, I landed a 10 Horsepower Troybilt shredder for $375 bucks. It even came with a brand new set of spare blades, which is handy to have around. As is typical with those engines, full choke, and one pull, and she fires right up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/chipper.jpg

You can see the pile of raspberry prunings waiting to be reduced. I'm going to build a sturdy platform that will allow it to shred right into the compost pile, so when we start raking leaves, we can thoroughly break them down this time, without doing too much screwing around....

I need to go up on Troybilt's website and download the owner's manual for it, but that's pretty easy to do these days. These machines are not hard to take care of, and as long as you don't try to shred 2/4s with it, it will last for years.

Score!!

;D

[Chief]

I love it when a plan comes together!!

I just ran about 1/2 tank of gas through it to check it out, and it made short work of all those raspberry canes!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/P1010002.jpg

This is the ticket! I was stuffing the hopper full and shoving it in pretty aggressively, and the motor loaded up nicely without laboring a bit. When it ran out of gas, I snapped these pics. You can see how fine it chops up vegtable matter, I was feeding it shasta daisy stems, gladiolas, and leaves. The screen has 1" holes, and that seems to work very well.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/P1010003-1.jpg

My neighbor came over to admire it, and agrees that we'll have no problem composting leaves this fall. This machine will munch leaves all day and not even cough. In fact, we may have to expand our leaf gathering just to ensure that we can fill the compost bin completely...

The plan is to build a sturdy platform that will be level with the top of the lower fixed 2 x 12 on the front of the bin. My neighbor has some used PT lumber that he's offering up for construction. Once ithe discharge chute is at the right level, I'll make some side pieces out of plywood to guide the debris, and shred everything directly into the bin instead of on the ground.


;D

[Waterbuffalo]

chief: So your offering the service for free to the neighbors for free?

Wonder if City of Vancouver hears your name needed to be called? (You know they cannot allow such a free service to happen without their cut? <laugh>

[Chief]

We collect the leaves in the whole neighborhood, compost them over the winter, then distrubute the finished compost to anyone who wants it come springtime. It worked pretty will this year, the only problem being that the pieces were too big. The shredder will solve that.

The point is that we are doing this alone, completely un-aided, and without any of that $700K grant that the City got last year to teach composting. Since the City doesn't approve of this site any more than the columbian does, the Office of Neighborhoods has turned down a couple of offers from us to come see what we are doing, and how well it works. I even sent them an e-mail with pictures, and it disappeared into the void with no further notice.

No problem, because the project continues, and is now in it's second year.

[karma]

Nice find Chief, they really come in handy!! Plus you don't have to wait for the City or County free Chipper days! :D

[Waterbuffalo]

Nice work Chief..

What you really need is a glad handing and photo op for our glorious mayor? Maybe hand out those nice yard signs as field prizes?

[Chief]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/zappa2.jpg

huh??

[Waterbuffalo]

:-) You didn't take my post with my usual load of sarcasm? (photo ops for the mayor? Yes, I know you would never allow that one..)

[karma]

Ya know Chief, having the Mayor standing in the middle of a huge compost pile just might be great advertisement for composting? >:D

[Waterbuffalo]

Might be a good advert. for where his ideas should go..

[Chief]

Note to John Laird: Glad you finally got with the program!

mrgrn

[Waterbuffalo]

oh no's.. What did I say or do to get the attention of Emeritus #2?

[Chief]

Read Laird's Sunday column and you'll se what i mean...

mrgrn

[Waterbuffalo]

Was he wondering what was thrown in the shredder that was what confetti?

"That’s similar to what I’ve got brewing in my backyard. The project began when I notified my wife that I intended to build a backyard compost bin out of shipping pallets and chicken wire and layer in food scraps, grass clippings, steer manure, coffee grounds, shredded newspaper and other material, toss it frequently and wait for the whole mess to rot. "

Wonder if one can get a semi load of paper and run it into one of those Tecumseh-Briggs Stratton chippers? What would a neighborhood of free paper confetti look like?

<says no more...>

:laugh: