composting, as requested

So, since we got the allotment, I have had to dig out my composting knowledge. The previous lot holder has left us with a small mountain of biosolids in various states of decay.

It's a good thing that I have a degree in Ag/Bio Engineering and have studied composting intensively, thanks to a certain Terry Fonstad. Also, I might add here, just to continue the name dropping that I know Joy Agnew, discoverer of the Agnew Coefficient - of much use if you need to calculate the bulk density of a large pile of 'who know's what'. So yes, composting is something I know about.

Anyway, here's the science bit: Everything that was once living can be composted, from bones to soild waste to phone books. There are millions of wee creatures from several animal and plant kingdoms that will eagerly help this process along. Fungi, molds, bacterium and even small mites. The good news is that they are pretty much everywhere and there is NO NEED to add any sort of 'innoculant' - eg: magic potion from the garden centre to 'start' your compost.

This little army of microorganisms is all set and ready - they just need the right conditions to grow and work. There are three biggies - air, water and nutrients, and one smallie - temperature (although that usually sorts it self out).

Let's look at each of them:

1. Air - most of these bugs need to breathe, so they need air. This means no completely sealed buckets and the pile must be porous enough to let air in. Alternatively, and this is often the case with your home compost, you must turn it. Your compost will still break down without air, that's called anaerobic digestion, but it will stink like rotten eggs or various other nastiness.

2. Water - Your compost needs to be damp. How damp? Probably damper than you think it aught to be. It should have enough water than when you squeeze it, a tiny bit of water comes out, but not so much that when you pick it up, it drips. Think - wet sponge. This is very often a problem if you live in a dry climate - such as the Canadian praries, so you will need to add water, and keep adding it as it will dry out. Remember, some things come with water in them already - manures and a lot of food wates. Getting this right is really key.

3. Nutrients - These little guys need Nitrogen, but not too much. Ideally you want 30 parts of Carbon to 1 part of Nitrogen. Pretty much everything you put in the pile will have Nitrogen in it, but not often at the ideal 30:1 ratio. You can fix this by adding a bit of high Nitrogen things in - grass clippings or pine needles being common things. If you are really stuck, you can cheat by putting a tiny bit of Nitrogen fertiliser in. Too much nitrogen is also bad and will slow the bugs down.

4. Temperature - The great thing about these little bugs is that when they work they make their own heat. When they are working very hard, they get very hot. If your pile is smoking (literally) hot that's means they are working. Some of the bugs will not like insane heat levels, the normal temp is between 50 and 60 degrees C. In the summer, turning will help keep it from getting too hot. In the winter/spring/fall, not turning it as much might help - usually just keeping the right balance going of nutrients and water will be enough.

Some other notes - mix well and make sure you don't have bits that are too huge. I've composted whole chickens before and they will go right down to nothing, but that was a BIG pile. For household piles, keep it smallish. Another thing is meat - they always say not to, but this isn't because you can't, it's just because rotting meat tends to attract rats, cats, dogs and bears. Use your own discretion there.

As for commercially available composters - I pick the rotary composter. I like that fact you don't have to dig and move all the compost. It also keeps things neat and tidy and pest free. The round black ones work okay, but the idea that you just pull 'finished' compost from the bottom... I've never seen that work super well. There are always bits that need more time.

Anyway, that's all really. Enjoy.

Flock and Zotero

So....

One of the many perks of being married to a fully qualified librarian is access to knowledge.  I love knowledge.

This morning I set off to school to look after some dreadful thesis tasks.  My plan for today was to start integrating my transfer report in to the outline I've developed for my thesis.  It's a big step and fraught with technical problems.  The main problem was trying to figure out how to migrate my references, which were all done in EndNote, over to some sort of system that would work with OpenOffice on the Ubuntu operating system I have on my laptop.  I mentioned this to Mary Beth as I was leaving and shortly after arriving at school, she sent me an email suggesting I try Zotero.

Zotero is amazing.  In under 10 minutes I transferred all of my old references and began adding more.  It is such a good tool.

Being the person I am, I decided to watch all of the tutorial videos.  I also did this with EndNote, it was painful and took over 90 minutes.  These lovely little videos introduced me to Flock, a browser based on Firefox which bring together all sorts of our favourite Web 2.0 applications - YouTube, Blogger, Facebook and of course - Zotero.

Anyway, I'm trying this post out via Flock.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

an update

Blogging.

Blogging is one of a multitude of things I am not nearly as proficient at as my wife. You see, I looked at my blog today and realised that I haven't updated it since October, when I was single and not even engaged.

I shall refer you to my wife, MBC's blog:

www.librarianpants.blogspot.com

It contains all the information you might find interesting.

This morning I've found myself sitting in the office feeling that I should be at home with my new bride and coming to the realisation that work and school must go on. My task for today is to prepare a comprehensive outline for my thesis (MARK I). I feel like I probably should have done this some time ago, but have been dallying for whatever reason.

The title of my thesis is Design and Salutogenic Food Systems. I have decided to start with a series of questions which help refine my overall research question. I am going to prepare a mind-map, a la Tony Buzan, to help clarify my position and organise my argument. Tom once told me Tony Buzan owns a small island and presumably sips cocktails all day. I also presume his shoe laces are made from £20 notes.

Oh Tony Buzan, help me with just a sprinkle of your success...

Right, I'm off to make a mind map using this fab software I got from Davin called Smart Ideas, insert plug for Smart right here.

Right, off to work.