Thursday, April 9, 2009

Back in the compost groove

Behold the coolest new compost pail in all the land . . .

We have had a compost pile for several years. We dutifully stored our kitchen scraps in a plastic bucket under the sink and carted them out to the compost pile every few days. I added fallen leaves and straw and this and that. We had a pretty good thing going for a while . . . then we got two puppies.

They started off their lives on a bad note. Someone pitched them out onto a highway in a cardboard box when they were six weeks old. A kind woman stopped and grabbed them and took them to a shelter. We had been looking for a dog for a few weeks. We lost the best dog ever - teddy - a few months before and Shiner (our crazy white mutt) was feeling lonely, so we had been searching. After a few tearful trips to the shelter, I just couldn't go back. I told the Rock Star that I would trust him to find us a dog whenever and wherever. A few weeks later he called and told me I needed to come home for lunch, and I opened the door to find two puppies galloping around at full speed. A few days later they had names - Deuce and Dakota - were feeling like part of the family, and had gained a sense of adventure.

If you took your eyes off them outside they would wiggle through, under or around the fence and head out to visit the neighbor's horses, or their swimming pool, their dogs, their trash cans, their BBQs, anything and everything. After several unsuccessful attempts to contain them, we surrendered. The access to the compost pile had to be blocked off. After that, I needed a ladder to climb up and over the fence to get to it, and well . . . you know what happened.

They are older and wiser now, and no longer try to escape at all times. So, the walls came down and we are back in business. It took about 3 days for composting to go back to being second nature. Our nifty new compost pail sits under the sink again waiting for scraps.

It's good to be green and task 20 is COMPLETE!