Snow caving and Composting

I have wanted a proper composter for some time, but the damn things were too expensive ($250 easy for a 55 gal drum on a spindle) I looked around at plans and finally just decided to build my own. This is the result of combining a few different ideas. The whole thing ended up costing about $70 for the barrel and hardware, but I think it could be done for about $50 without too much skimping. If you are inspired by this, I recommend finding a barrel that previously contained food-grade material (not industrial cleaners), and using stainless steel in all the fittings. This one has two doors; one big one on the side for getting compost out with a shovel, and a small door on the top for adding daily material. A spindle added too much to the cost, so we are going to roll the barrel around the yard whenever it needs mixing! Easy!



I also must show off our snow cave from this weekend. It was a perfectly constructed 3 enterance, 5 person +2 dogs cave that kept us all quite warm, with almost no drippage during the night. We had a kitchen outside, a fire pit with a 5 ft wall windbreak, Cone Peak to ourselves to watch the sunset and get turns all day on, and lots of tequila and good wine to wind the evening down with.



It is currently snowing in Corvallis, and dumping in the mountains, so I am going to play hookey tomorrow, and hit the slopes! Winter is Back!