Compost containers?

[NHGardener]

Wow. That's a beauty. Wish I had friends like that.

Wouldn't mind a couple of those to hold sand for my driveway in the winter either...

[rot]

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I constructed my bins out of pallets and nailed down window screen with roofers nails. I set them up on pavers which lets the worms in but not the burrowing rodents or tree roots. Pretty much critter free for a few seasons now.

to sense
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[toxcrusadr]

Mice can get into an Earth Machine and most other commercial composters quite easily. All they do is keep out the big critters - dogs and coons and such - by having a lid.

I wouldn't spend a hundred bucks for a hunk of plastic unless I really really had to. We use 'em at our office building for the food waste, but it's important not to have varmints dragging stuff around the parking lot. At home, I use a circle of fencing or some free wood pallets screwed or wired together.

Finally, the original post said the plastic composter didn't make compost very fast...could be turning as you said, or an imbalance in browns vs. greens, not enough moisture, etc. If you do use a plastic bin, turning is easy - just pull the bin off (or disassemble the two sides and pull them off sideways), set up next to your pile and fork off the pile back into the bin. At the bottom you should find usable compost. And the bottom doors on those things are pretty useless, I've found.

[NHGardener]

I remember thinking that the bottom door on the Earth Machine was pretty worthless too. For one thing, you couldn't fit a shovel in there very well. I used to just pick the whole thing up and move it to get to the bottom.

I really like the pallets and screens idea. Would those have a top of some sort? Sounds like vermin could just crawl over the top. I'm more wary of rats than mice. And then with chickens around, I also have to think about attracting raccoons and skunks. Hmmm. Leaning towards the Earth Machine again...

[toxcrusadr]

If you needed to critter proof a pallet bin I would suggest chicken wire. A lid can be fashioned from lumber - just make a frame and staple chicken wire to it. Use hinges or even twisted wire on one side. Or just set it on top and weight it down with something.

I've used the wire hinge trick to make a front door on a pallet bin - makes things easier when turning time comes.

[NHGardener]

Oh, that's a good idea. The mesh wire/hardware cloth not even a mouse can get thru, but still allows ventilation. I'll have to check the price on that.

[Bobberman]

If you see a old cloths dryer take a look at the tumbler. It is made out of coated steel with small holes all through it! It should be great for a compost maker just make a top for it!

[Heron's Nest Farm]

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I constructed my bins out of pallets and nailed down window screen with roofers nails. I set them up on pavers which lets the worms in but not the burrowing rodents or tree roots. Pretty much critter free for a few seasons now.

to sense
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Can I get a picture of this? My dilemma right now is building something big enough for us!I want to put it closer to the house out of site and this sounds good!
I'm concerned about using pine boards. How long do you think it would last?

[toxcrusadr]

Untreated pine will rot pretty fast and you might only get a couple years out of it, especially if the pile is very active and moist. I prefer oak pallets - white oak especially is very durable. Of course they make them around here, so there's no shortage of free used oak ones at the various stores and warehouses. YMMV.

The treated stuff nowadays just has copper in it, no arsenic and chromium, so it's a lot safer. You could also use plastic deck lumber. I always wanted to try that. But I've never built one from new lumber, always recycled crate wood or pallets.

[rot]

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Mine have lasted a couple of years so far. The ones I busted up were the ones that weren't on pavers but on and eventually in the dirt. The submerged parts rotted away and I made firewood.

I can't tell pine from oak once they're pallets. I can be somewhat picky so I get the clean ones without paint. The ones I don't use get pulled apart for fire wood so clean new ones pull apart more easily.

I'm still trying to get a couple of pictures loaded. Nothing spectacular so don't hold your breath. I just can't remember my flicker account. Or was it photobucket? I need another ID and password anyways.

to sense
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[toxcrusadr]

Pine is softer and lighter, oak is really hard and very heavy. Sometimes I see cottonwood, poplar or maple too. It helps to be a woodworker.

[M.Clark]

I use a black 50-gallon Rubbermaid garbage can with holes drilled into it. I bought the can on sale for $5.00 at a clearance sale. It heats up very quick and once got too hot. (charred my compost into this ashy mess) This year I am going to add more browns when I put in the brewers grain, coffee grounds, and veggie scraps.

[toxcrusadr]

There is a mold that sometimes grows at high temperatures and looks like ash. I've seen it in piles using a lot of fresh grass clippings that got very hot. Although compost can catch on fire, it takes a very big industrial size pile for that to happen. You're probably seeing the mold.

[gardenvt]

I used to have an open compost bed and gave up on that because it just took too long to get good compost. Now we have a closed bin and it makes great compost. No matter how high I pile it, it melts down in a short time and then - black gold!

As for the mice, here is an email I sent to my husband last May when we had one in our kitchen and that I discovered as I was about to punch down the sourdough bread I was baking (never finished that). Here goes:

"OK, so I got some traps - 6 to be exact and the kind where you don't have to see the mouse once it gets inside. That was the only kind they had. I came home and started yelling loud so he would stay away while I put some cheese into 4 of the traps. I put the first one down by the wall near at the edge of the fridge and, while I was filling the other three, it came scooting out!!!!! I yelled pretty loud so missed my first chance to get the bugger. OK, I screamed & screamed again and jumped up into your chair and I know that you are smiling, maybe even chuckling a bit as that vision runs through your head. When I stopped shaking, I covered the rest of the package of your Cabot hunter’s cheese with a bread pan on the table, sent the last three traps flying near the fridge (one discharged when it hit the cabinet) and raced up stairs and closed the door which I know he can't get under. I kept being really loud until I got up stairs since I know it doesn't like that (I'm quite sure he wasn't following me). I'm really disappointed that I scared him but he scared me too! I wasn't prepared for him to be waiting under the fridge while I was getting your favorite cheese out and preparing him a delicious snack. I never thought for one moment that he would come running out to get caught within a minute of the trap going down and he really wants your cheese.

All the way home, with 6 mouse traps in hand, I kept singing “I fought the mouse and I won (to the tune of “I fought the law and the law wonâ€

[toxcrusadr]

Egad, I'd hate to see you if you saw a big rat in the toilet!

[Canadian Farmer Guy]

I was working at a horse farm once.

One day I went to dip a bucket into a water trough, there was a dead rat the size of a softball floating in it.
Mice and rats generally don't scare me, but this was the last place I expected to see it.
Startled me pretty good.

Man he was big, biggest rat I ever saw.

CFG

[toxcrusadr]

Ick. All swole up and ready to pop, I bet. Not so good for the flavor of the water I bet.

[Yogas]

Last year my neighbor was getting rid of a ton of decorative landscaping stones that he was tired of. I hauled every single one to my house - they each weighed 25 pounds, I am a 5'2" female and this was no easy feat! I calculated that I moved over two tons of stone!

Anyway, I ended up building an open air, half circular structure about 3 feet high for my compost bin - I am very proud of it.

One person's trash is another person's treasure!