Apocalyptic Homesteading (Day 1079)
Hello Everyone!
Another moody day, Gathering firewood, Making ashes, Increased fire danger & Timestamped compost mounds!
It is about an hour before sunset and I decided to go ahead and feed the critters early... so that I could sit down to do the daily writing earlier than when I have been doing it lately. There is no particular reason for doing that aside from feeling like maybe I could avoid getting aggravated during the process... which is what has happened the last several evenings in a row now.
I really do not know if it is because I am trying to stick to my posting routine a bit too rigidly... or if it is more a result of cumulative stress combined with watching the rapid decline of my elder dog's health... or the full moon... or the turmoil happening in the world... or some combination of it all... but whoa have I been feeling frigging moody! Generally speaking words tend to come easy for me... but of late that has not been the case and more often than not I would rather say nothing at all.
Anyways, the day was a mildly productive one because after finally getting a decent night's sleep and waking up early... I 'got to it' rather quickly outdoors and did not slow down much along the way. Well, unless I count bouncing back and forth reading and commenting on Hive counts as 'slowing down' but I best not start 'splitting hairs' here lest I get too bogged down by the minutiae of it all.
Early in the day I noticed another one of those 'special weather statements' for increased fire danger over the next few days (starting tonight) so I went ahead and hauled the wagon to another part of the property, loaded it up with some fallen branches, hauled it back to the shelter site and built a fire. Although I mainly wanted to get some burnables burnt I also needed to make some ashes for the compost.
On that note, I added more material to that new compost mound yesterday and it got me to thinking about how I transitioned from doing one large mound (like I have done at other places) to lots of smaller mounds that are situated next to each other. Basically I have created one or more of those smaller mounds directly next to (and in line with) the mound that I made my first year here.
Doing things that way seems to be working out much better because each mound is essentially 'timestamped' (in my mind) as to when it was started... which may not seem like a big deal... but given that they are primarily dog waste compost mounds... that need to break down for three years before using them for food stuff... it makes total sense. Like I said a few weeks back... the very first mound that I made is now ready and I am pretty stoked to dig into it and see how it turned out.
Well, I thought that I was going to write a longer entry tonight... but I think that is all the words that I have in me for the day. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice time.
https://peakd.com/c/hive-114308/created
Awesome post... is the ash for potassium boosting?
Yes for that and for sealing the compost against flies.
Awesome. I need to try that thanks
I use what is commonly called 'the Chinese method' for composting. Basically you layer everything into the mound (animal/human waste, soil, green plants, soil, dead plants, soil, ashes) then encase the entire mound in clay and let it sit for three years.
Edited for clarity on the layers.
Nice, I have leaves that have been composting for 5 years now with other waste but I never thought of using ash.
The ash is mainly good if you are composting fecal waste because it keeps the flies from spreading diseases and pathogens. Either it or lime will work because when the flies attempt to burrow through it (to lay eggs) it melts their wings.
Awesome. I have a lot of ash, so I'll use that but thanks for the extra advice.