Compost

Last week I went on craigslist.com to find some free manure. I found a horse farm in Morristown that was happy to get rid of some. I could not believe the size of the pile they had. Unfortunately I don't have a pickup or I would have filled it up but instead I took 3 contractor-type garbage bags full. So this past Saturday I went to work on my compost bin. It's 3 bins and I had one bin sitting since last fall and another that I have slowly been adding to just this spring. I took the new pile and turned it into the empty bin and added some layers of manure and layers of shredded leaves. It's about 3 feet tall and 4 x 4 feet. I have a 16 inch long thermometer that is supposed to be for grilling but I bought it for checking my compost. It's 50 degrees out today and the inside of the pile says 120 degrees! I also took the old pile and turned that. I added a little bit of manure in layers while I turned that pile too because it didn't really look finished enough for me yet. That pile however has not heated up at all although it did last fall. I guess it all of that out if it's system already but I figure a little extra manure never hurt anybody's compost.