Backyard composters on the cheap

Last year we decided we needed to do more composting. Our gardens could use it, and we certainly have a lot of compostable materials. But there simply isn't a place to put a big pile like we had at our old house. The back yard there was enormous with a small front yard. This house is just the opposite. As the HOA president it probably wouldn't be good for me to put a compost bin in my front yard.

So last year we looked into smaller backyard composters. Expensive little things, aren't they? And if they don't work as advertised, you'll need quite a few of them. So instead I decided to build my own.

I got a 50 gallon trash can and several lengths of 1" pvc pipe. First I drilled three sets of holes in the side of the can, one opposite the other. Then I cut the pipe to lengths the width of the can (with a little overlap). Next I drilled a series of holes in the pipes, and inserted each through the holes in the side of the can, securing them with hot glue. I also drilled lots of air holes in the bottom and lid of the can.

Here's the finished product:

How well do they work, you ask? Well, I'm not rushing out to patent the design. Though the design is intended to get as much air into the compost as possible, it's still a cold-pile composter. Perhaps if we were more disciplined in how we layered materials it would work faster, but I'm not sure.

That said, it does work, even if it's slowly. All the stuff we put in last year was composted by this spring. The top layer wasn't composted, but below that was some pretty good compost. The stuff we've been putting in this year is not composting very quickly. I recently went through four of the cans to get some compost for a tree I transplanted, and only one had very much usable compost in it yet.

Also, if I were to do it again I'd find a better way to secure the air pipes. Hot glue doesn't hold for long in the hot sun with hot compost. Nor do you really want the pipes to stay put permanently. It's good to be able to remove them when you empty the compost out. Next time I'd probably cut them longer and find some sort of clips or cotter pints to hold them in place.

I'm also considering drilling some air holes in the sides of the can, but I'm worried about weakening the structure too much.

The main advantage to this approach is that the cans look much nicer about the yard than an open compost pile, and do contain the smell reasonably well. I suspect that those with better discipline in their layering technique might find these composters work fairly well. But for myself, I have to rate this project only a marginal success.

Tee-ball tees

Yesterday my son informed me I needed to make him a tee so he could practice tee-ball. They've been playing in PE at school, I think. At first I had no clue how I would do it, but then it hit me. We already had the perfect tee.

We bought a whiffle-bat and ball set a few years ago, and the bat, being plastic, is getting old. The end of the handle came off recently, which provides a nice cupped end that, if the bat were set on end, might be big enough to hold a whiffle-ball steady.

The next problem was how to get it to stand on end. My first idea was to place the bat in a bucket and fill in around it with gravel. One small problem. I forgot that my son would be hitting the tee more often than the ball. The gravel wouldn't hold it in and, once out, was hard to put back. Back to the drawing board.

My next attempt was to drive three stakes into the ground close enough to hold the bat erect. That worked, but it was essentially the same problem. Every time my son hit the tee it would push the front post loose. Scratch Idea #2.

I then realized I didn't really need that front post if I could just keep the tee upright. I grabbed a couple of rubber bands left over from the newspaper and rubber-banded the tee to the back two stakes. Yes, the tee would move when he hit it, but the rubber bands would pull it right back into place. Voila! I present you Thom's Cheapo Tee-ball Stand!

Databases and homeowners associations

I'm the president of our HOA. I knew I would be the moment I heard the previous president was moving. Not because I'm popular at all, but because I tend to volunteer for things like that. And because no one else in the neighborhood was likely to step up.

And I was right. I went to the meeting and there were five other people. They saw me approach and declared me president on the spot. They'd all be deathly worried one of them would have to take it. I didn't say no, and that's all it took.

On the bright side, there was someone there willing to be my vice president as long as he didn't have to be president. He's more than happy to be the "heavy" as far as collecting late dues and enforcing the CC&Rs. Great! Perfect, even! I'm more than happy to be the leader/administrator.

And being the tinkerer that I am, I immediately set to work organizing the records. The previous president had used his Outlook contacts to keep all the homeowners' information. He gave me a printout of his address book when he moved. I knew pretty quickly that wouldn't work for me. And, what's more, spreadsheets probably wouldn't cut it, either. And that's saying something. I'm a spreadsheet fiend.

Nope, it was time to discover Microsoft Access. Not quite a real database, not quite a real development environment, it is nonetheless sufficient I've found. I'm able to track who owns each home, who manages the property, and whether they've paid dues in recent history. I've got queries and reports set up to print out address labels for everyone or for overdue dues, kick out an email list (which reminds me, I've got to update it from the latest mail daemon failure notice), give my VP his "hit list", or provide a list of rental properties.

It's a bit kludgey, and the interface is not entirely seamless, but it works quite nicely. I'm rather pleased with it and with my growing Access skills. And heaven help the next president if they don't have Access. They'll get a stack of reports a foot thick. Mwah ha ha ha....!