Rebuilding the compost containment

Compostable materials from the caretaker's house get put into the compost pile located just behind the cabin. The compost containment system that was in place when I moved in was built out of the pavers moved to Saginaw Forest (for eventual re-use) from the Dana building during its renovation (back in 2000-2002), and were the same set of brick pavers that I used for building the paths to the outer buildings, as well as to the compost pile.

Anyway, I noticed that a corner of the old containment system had finally failed; one corner that had been precariously leaning outward had finally tumbled down. Whether this last event was caused by a squirrel peeking into the container or just the longer process of freezing, melting, and settling is not known. However, much like the pavers used to make the path, the compost pile's walls were set directly onto the soil, which meant that drainage and settling would eventually be a problem.

I decided to re-build the system, locating it a little closer to the cabin, at the end of the brick-paver path that I had constructed just shy of the old container (the gutter's down-spout had been blocking direct access), in a location that is flatter than the slight slope of the old location. As well, I gave it a bed of bricks and built the walls two-bricks thick. I'm toying with the idea of also filling the bottom of the containment with sand -- to aid with drainage.



Right now, I'm trying to find someone to take away the old compost.