drk

Nice pile there! I'm guessing this Composting Day is a (US) national thing? A quick search shows 'Learn About Composting Day', is that the one?

Please tell us more. Over here (Netherlands) we do have a 'national compost day' in March, where you can go and get compost from the municipality. Great initiative, though the quality of compost is questionable as it's the end product of whatever the municipality collected in the green bins over the year. And people put in, well, everything. So, it is definitely not a 'Learn About' day, while we could use that for sure over here in my experience.

Sounds good to me. I wouldn't sweat it and just give it more time. You have a somewhat decent balance of greens and browns? Not trying to compost a humongous amount of orange peels?

Just to be sure, your pile is directly on the actual soil? Second, how are the moisture levels? In my pile, I noticed an increase in worms when I things were wetter than they were before. Depending on your setup that might be tricky to control. But moreover, time. In the first months I hardly spotted any worms in my pile. After say two years, there are plenty. Never added them myself, they just found the party.

Main mod here! I won't dispute I have been less active over the last couple of weeks (holidays and other reasons), but I think /c/composting is not doing that bad. It's not high-traffic, but there are posts every few days and I'd say it's not anywhere near dead.

When I created the community, I thought about how much I should post and opted to hold back to see how many other compost enthusiasts would come out of the woodwork. Perhaps I have been a bit too conservative, though?

So, the words I definitely didn't remember while in bed too late at night: Tremorgenic mycotoxins. Please note that I am in no way an expert in any of this, but as a fellow dog-owner I got very cautious when I read about someone actually losing a dog which ate from a compost pile. I found a source (link below) which highlights a few points, amongst this one that might be important:

"Mold growth, particularly Penicillium mold, and production of mycotoxins in food (walnuts, dairy products, pasta), animal feed, or food waste (compost) can result in tremorgenic toxin production. "

My compost pile definitely contains some of the above, but a pure garden waste based pile might not.

Another point worth highlighting as 'vomiting' is mentioned in this thread:

"After ingestion, the onset of clinical signs can occur in a few hours. Toxins ingested in lower concentrations appear to cause fine muscle tremors lasting for hours to days, whereas large tremorgenic toxin ingestions can cause seizures and death. Vomiting can be the first clinical sign and may help limit the severity of the intoxication. "

I suppose the size of the dog and the amount they ate from a pile all come into play here. Again, I am by no means an expert on any of this, just a (overly?) concerned dog owner. Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, and enlighten us all. If we promote composting in this community, and there is any danger to any member of your household whatsoever, I feel we should inform people and err on the side of caution.

https://www.msdvetmanual.com/toxicology/mycotoxicoses/tremorgenic-neuromycotoxicosis-in-dogs

Please watch out, there supposedly can be very toxic things in a heap in certain stages of the composting process. I'll try to find out proper info and sources when it's not hours after bed time but please watch out.

Fun little game. Also reminds me that I proooobably should check on my real bin.

This is how it's done, nice! Already thinking about expanding to two or three bins?

I was wondering, is there a specific reason for the cardboard on the bottom?

For f-droid you can consider adding https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/ to the tracked repositories. New builds might be available sooner there.

Maybe the "Crust of Rust" series by Jon Gjengset? (Mobile is giving me a hard time, but search for that on YouTube)

While I don't have hands-on experience with such a cold climate, two things popped in my head. First, maybe you are better off with one big pile. More volume means the heap will be able to keep higher temperatures. The snow on the cover might actually be a very good insulator as well. Second, and this might be the number-nerd in me, but I'd actually track the temperature with a compost thermometer. I guess you won't be turning the pile often, and for sure not in winter when it's covered in snow, but that way you can keep track of what your pile is doing.

I hope someone has better, actual practical tips for you, but keep us updated on this one!

Perfect, there we go then! I guess we have an actual moderation team now!