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Question from Phoebe:
Do you have a compost? What can you compost - just fruits and veggies or can you compost anything perishable like stale bread or meat/bones - or is that just an invitation for animals? Do you throw yard waste into your compost?
Yes, Ben is an expert. I'll call him in as a guest commentator.
Thanks for asking me to come over from my blog, beninthehood, to answer questions. You can compost fruit and vegetables and plant-based kitchen scraps. So bread is okay, meat and bones are not. Eggshells can be added to compost, but they don't decompose; they break down into tiny bits and add calcium to the soil.
How to compost:
1. Find a bin. Ours is below. We purchased it from our local dump for $35. Many companies like Smith & Hawken sale compost bins as well, but they charge over $100. The bin keeps the compost in a neat pile, concentrates heat and keeps animals out.
2. Locate the bin close to your kitchen. Seriously. Ours is just off the deck so I can carry scraps directly from the sink without having to put shoes on. Its much easier to feed the bin continuously than to collect scraps in the kitchen.
However, if you must collect scraps, place them in a plastic bag (bread bags work well) in your freezer. This "compostsicle" will not stink and is easy to dump as the bag fills.
3. Compost both vegetable based kitchen scraps (no meat) and yard waste (but no weeds).
a. Balance: Keep a good mix of ingredients so that your compost is moist like a damp sponge; not dry like a pile of leaves and not nasty like a pile of watermelon rinds.
b. Inoculate: Introduce a shovelful of good garden soil to bring over the good bugs and worms.
c. Stir: Mix the pile to keep the flies down and to keep the compost cooking. Also it gets you out of the house when dishes need to be done.
The most important thing is to start. It's hard to go wrong, easy to correct mistakes as you go, fun to watch the transformation of waste into soil, fun to watch the bugs and worms and it's very rewarding to add the finished compost to your soil after it's done.
Hope that helps answer your question. Now I'm back to beninthehood, the original Oregon Lewit blog.
Take a look at the map and you will see the border between North America and South America is horizontal- creating North and South America. If the border between the two were vertical- we would have an East and West America.
Thanks for the question Alex... and after your parents read this answer to you, don't forget to ask, "Why?".
Volunteer at Second Hand Rose Thrift Store.
Second Hand Rose Thrift Store is part of the Washington Gorge Action Program. For the past year Fern has been running the store and she has done a fantastic job. Today is her last day and we will miss her dearly. Good Luck with your new job Fern.
Hanging laundry.
I had to use the dryer today- haven't used it all summer. I prefer drying laundry on the clothesline.
Pumpkins!
Swim at the base of a waterfall.
This is Dog Creek Waterfall located in Washington not too far from the Hood River Bridge.
Gas Prices!
We paid over $4.00 a gallon at Brant Lake.
Bob and Jane built a new house next to their house at Brant Lake for their children and grandchildren. Ben and I have been here for about two weeks and are enjoying the lake and the new house. Here's a view of the house from the lake.
