Meet my new, $7 composter. Pretty snazzy, huh? I've been hemming and hawing over whether to do a compost pile or a water barrel system first and as I've got plenty of yard waste, the composter won out.
I got the idea for the pallet compost bin from the Compost Guide website. They had some great ideas for building simple bins and the Four-Pallets-And-Rope method seemed like something I could handle.
Finding the pallets was easier than I thought it would be. We drove around places we figured might have them and kept our eyes peeled. These pallets actually came from the old First Technology building in Standish. We spotted them on our way to the giant wood-pile at the Standish Transfer Station. The First Tech people were nice enough to let us have four, which was all I needed to make a simple box.
If you attempt this at home, remember your work gloves.
Now, I'd like to take a moment and paint a scene for you. Our little Subaru can haul quite a bit of stuff, but four pallets of this size are a little much. Three squeezed inside and we used the one bungee cord in the car to attach the biggest one to the roof. Picture it: Hatchback wide open. Giant pallet bouncing loosely on top of the car. Did I mention that Muttley was with us? Yeah. Since he didn't fit in the back any more (due to the pallets), he rode home in my lap.
Muttley is light, but not small and I'm fairly certain that 90% of his body is made up of elbows, which he ground into me at every opportunity.
The trickiest part of this project was finding pallets in halfway decent condition. Building the thing was a snap. All we did was prop the pallets up, using the best one toward the house of course, and tie the whole business together. Can we put a roof on it an live inside? No, but it'll do just fine for containing compost.
I shall now continue with my day in a smug fashion as I am quite pleased with myself. This project turned out just fine.
asparagus with almonds and yogurt dressing
17 hours ago
7 comments:
that's a great idea - I wouldn't have thought of that. And there an abundance of pallets to be found (but like you said, most are crummy).
Very nice! My compost bins are also made of pallets, they work great. How are the grubs?
Hi Rosemarie-
There are gems to be had and I bet in the Chicago area you'd have tons of places to check for halfway decent pallets. The best part for me was no measuring and no tool work. Some folks are lactose intolerant, I fear that I am math intolerant. I wonder if they make pills for that.
Hey Al-
I've got a friend who has a couple more pallets kicking around his store that I'm perhaps going to snag to expand my bins. They are heavy and I don't really fancy moving them around to turn the stuff over. The grub saga continues. I'll give an update tonight. How's the garden with all this cool weather?
Hiya Chris - top marks for recycling and for avoiding maths!
A week later and I'm still pleased with myself. Do I get bonus XP for both recycling AND avoiding math at the same time?
I would have never though of that! brilliant. However i used to build things out of pallets and the first thing i built was a dog house then went on to a tree house. you have no idea how much i needed that tip you just gave about gloves. You have no clue how many splinters i got and infected ones too doing this!
Brilliant! thanks for posting!
Ben
Yeah, I'm always forgetting my gloves until I get that first really good splinter. Pallets seem to have extra nasty splinters.
Dog house, eh? I wonder if Muttly would use one...
Post a Comment