Composting!

There were a lot of things that factored heavily when we bought our house. Fenced in yard? Check. Two car garage? Check. Crazy elevated playhouse behind the shed made of deteriorating particle-board? Che-what? Yeah, so, in the back corner of our yard, there was a tree-house that looked like a deer blind (except for the lavender paint) more than a child’s play area: it had a simple box construction, about four feet by seven and a half feet, and was elevated about five feet off the ground with a trap-door entrance and to simple windows that were just squares cut out of the wall boards and attached with basic hinges. To be honest, it looked like it had been well-constructed, initially, however the walls were made of particle board paneling like you would find in any reputable 70s-era basement rec-room.

Oddly, one thing the house did not have was a compost bin. I know, weird. But what is a mere mortal family such as ours to do? After considering many options, and consulting the best minds NASA had available, we decided there was really only one course of action; we started dumping our scraps over the fence into the neighbors compost bin. Hey, they were barely using it, so really, we were doing them a favor. We existed in this fence-straddling reality for a little while, never sure what our exit strategy would be. Then, a Christmas miracle occurred. Santa brought me a SawzAll. Suddenly, that treehouse didn’t look so high. All at once, our back yard did not have an elevated death-trap, but four well-anchored four by four posts sticking roughly four feet out of the ground… and a big pile of reclaimed lumber and rotting particle board. The skeleton of the greatest compost suite had started to take shape.

Okay, maybe not the greatest ever, but I can say with certainty that it is the best for at least three houses in either direction (I can see their yards from ours). So, I feel that it is a pretty small step to greatest ever. Also, it is a pretty permanent structure, which means that the next family to live here will already have a fully functioning 2-section compost bin already up and running. So unless they just hate life and are horrible people, they will pretty much have to compost!

This is all part of Operation Back-yard Ballin’, which includes raised bed gardens, a laid stone patio, and NOT chickens (unfortunately). I would say more, but this transmission may be monitored, so that is all for now. But to make up for the great sense of loss you are no doubt feeling, here is the cutest little guy in the world helping me put some leaves in the pile.