Composter getting a little facelift

Step 1 started

Matt and I spent Saturday and Sunday working on the composter at PG. During our last workday the team moved it 90 degrees so it was easier to get to, but so much more needed to be done, because it sits on a slope and gravity is a law, not a suggestion...

We started out with the inevitable trip to the hardware store.That turned into multiple trips to multiple hardware stores because as the universal law states, "it is IMPOSSIBLE to get exactly what you need in one trip to the hardware store. IM. POSSIBLE."

Whacking rebar

We started at Home Despot. We bought concrete piers to hold up the center columns of the composter's front edge. That led to a lot of digging, and using the jack from my truck to lift the (heavy!) composter up to fit the piers in. And bricks - a lot of bricks.

With the composter now supported and level (yes we forgot our level. Then we remembered your iphone has a level app in it: score!) we moved on to measuring for lumber to create not one, but two gravel filled boxes in front of the composter to stand on while working there.

Steps half done!

Back to Home Despot. Buy pressure treated lumber, corner braces, screws, assorted knickknacks. Get lumber cut to size. Back to garden. Build one box, realize don't have enough corner braces or rebar to hold it in place. Also, we need more lumber.

On to Lowes. They don't cut pressure treated lumber, but we buy rebar. Correct corner braces are missing, but we get metal strapping.

Next day: Go to Discount Builders. Buy more lumber. Get it cut to size. Back to garden. More power tool and shoveling action. Realize forgot the corner braces. Lip pursing.

I hate gravity...

Back to garden. Install rebar copiously with 9# hammer and lots of swearing. Drill battery weak. Staple chicken wire to bottom of one box to hold in gravel. Don't have enough chicken wire. Go home and drink.

End of day: stagger to ACE. Corner braces! Also hardware cloth! More spending.

Decide to install hardware cloth at next workday as we forgot to bring tin snips... and yes... we need MOAR REBAR!

Ready!

In other news, Chris and Carrie did a fantastic job putting ALL the green waste from the top of that garden (that stuff we'd normally be composting!) into paper bags for Recology to take away. Look at all the bags!