So I took some time this last weekend to mine me some black gold. Not the stuff floating around in the Gulf, but compost. How do you mine compost you might ask, well you don’t mine it, you make it. I had some blue 55 gallon barrels I scavenged a long time ago, so I built a frame for it, and turned it into a composter.
I roughly followed the instructions here, but I made my stand much taller (i’m 6’3″) and a LOT sexier IMNSHO. It’s tall enough so I can dump it directly into a wheelbarrow. I had a section of black pipe floating around instead of PVC. As this is a 55 gallon drum, a steel pipe is mandatory, as the compost-to-be is real heavy when wetted down. I did have to buy the PT lumber, as I had no scraps to work with. I could have built it from regular 2×4′s, but I build stuff to last. Plus, I had the cash.
I also added 3/8″ holes all over the place to aid in drainage and to add airflow. Another addition was a strip of non-PT wood inside that acts as a spoon to help mix things up. It’s 1″ x 1″ and screwed lengthwise just above the door. I did not want any change of contamination with the PT chemicals, but that means this natural wood will rot and have to be replaced.
I filled it with a mix of “green” and “brown” vegetation, and it’s been cooking. I wet it down and turn the tumbler every day when I get home from work. Along with watering the garden, it’s a daily chore that needs to get done.
My garden seems to be doing a lot better now that I took down a maple tree on the south side of the yard. It was infested with carpenter ants, and it was severely diseased. It’s all cut up for firewood for Mum, and starting to season. Maple dries fast, so I think by jan/feb it will be ready to be burned. I don’t like using chemicals to kill stuff, but I did spread a ton of stuff to kill off the carpenter ants. These little bastards love to eat houses, and I want to make sure they are dead. Last thing I need is for them to move into my house when the stump is finally eaten up.
Sorry for the delays in posting. The combination of great weather, endless chores and the new job have kept me busy. I’m working hard to get the in-law apartment ready, I need the additional cash.
Speaking of additional cash, It’s time for me to dump anything and everything I’ve been squirreling away for cash. I bought lots of hand tools that should be able to be sold on e-bay, along with my water-cooled pc case and some excess computer equipment. Any cash proceeds will be set aside for the purchase of land. Once I get these items sold, it’s time to start turning and burning on making pens and wood bowls to sell. I also will advertise on craigslist to build furniture for cash.
I’ve never been one to chase money for moneys sake, so this is a radical new line of thinking for me. Along with cutting all unnecessary expenses, I will do whatever I can to increase my cash flow to get that land I want. Along with land I will be investing in precious metals as much as I can. I recently got lucky and bought 250 pre-’65 dimes on e-bay for only a couple % over spot. I have a few silver rounds, and I think a mix of rounds and 90% coinage is the way to go. If I ever get some serious cash, then I’ll look at ingots – bullion – whatever they are called, but they are a pain in the ass to sell. I was surprised to see that you can buy 1/10 oz gold coins – in my ignorance I thought you had to buy it in 1 oz coins.
So far I’ve invested about $350 of the $1000 I wanted to put into silver this year. Maybe I’ll buy a 1/10 oz. gold coin for giggles, but I think silver is undervalued more than gold, and I can buy it almost anywhere. Although there is something visceral about gold coinage, and if you need to bribe your way past a checkpoint, a gold coin might get you farther than a equivalent amount of silver. Who knows?
The silver is nice, but only if you have your food.
Michael
Hello Natog.
I’ve just finished reading your blog. Took me a better part of a day, but on the other hand I was always a fast reader.
I was born in Poland in bad old days when Soviet Union was a power and held eastern Europe in its grip, locked behind Iron Courtain. (We still blame mainly Brits and Americans for that)
We thought of America as a mythical land of plenty, land of freedom, where anyone with 2 hands and a will to work hard could have a good life. Free from beeing handicapped by State, from paying bribes to countless legion of useless penpushers, free to live whereever you wanted.
But times are changing. We still got some shit leftover from commie times plus all new shit that came with opening to the West – like multinational organized crime, big corporations buying factories just to bankrupt or simply close them down to get rid of competition, big unions that try to muscle their way into politics, incompetent/corrupt politicians, you know, the whole 9 yards.
Your country used to be free but you have lost that freedom, slice by slice. Slow boiled frog comes to mind if you remember that story. Freedom, once lost cannot be taken back without a fight and a lot of spilled blood. You can take my word for it, Poland was partitioned between its neigbours and we lost our independence for 123 years and it took a world war to get back, then we had 40 years of russian occupation after WW2.