So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

Cheery_Daff

Glad Mr MV is improving 😊

We're pretty good with compost. Never had a council collection at the old house, and while there is theoretically one in this area, it doesn't cover our little rural round. I made a double bat compost bin in our old tiny garden, and have a triple bay one here which eats everything I can throw in it (including egg shells and tea bags and no end of weeds etc).

The one thing we could do better with is coffee grounds. Mr Cheery gets through a lot of ground decaff, and while some of it makes it into the compost, I confess often we just swill it down the sink 😱 What a waste of an excellent resource! 

Our compost is going to be severely depleted now we don't have the chicken bedding going into it, so I think we need to refocus on coffee (not a direct replacement, I realise, but we need all the nutrients we can get!)

greenbee

Don't forget to compost the hair from your brush/comb/haircut. It all helps add minerals! In my last house I didn't have any synthetic carpets so the contents of the hoover (dead skin cells and hair probably) went into the compost. 

themadvix

Cheery_Daff said:

Glad Mr MV is improving 😊

We're pretty good with compost. Never had a council collection at the old house, and while there is theoretically one in this area, it doesn't cover our little rural round. I made a double bat compost bin in our old tiny garden, and have a triple bay one here which eats everything I can throw in it (including egg shells and tea bags and no end of weeds etc).

The one thing we could do better with is coffee grounds. Mr Cheery gets through a lot of ground decaff, and while some of it makes it into the compost, I confess often we just swill it down the sink 😱 What a waste of an excellent resource! 

Our compost is going to be severely depleted now we don't have the chicken bedding going into it, so I think we need to refocus on coffee (not a direct replacement, I realise, but we need all the nutrients we can get!)

greenbee said:

Don't forget to compost the hair from your brush/comb/haircut. It all helps add minerals! In my last house I didn't have any synthetic carpets so the contents of the hoover (dead skin cells and hair probably) went into the compost. 

Fair warning - if you're not interested in compost, you might want to skip this post! 😂

@Cheery I now have an industrial supply of coffee grounds - allotment friend keeps adding them to my bin from his office (his office loves that they can get rid of them to him (and now me) as it's good for their ESG credentials!). I have never found egg shells to rot down - I have to bake and crush them for my worms and with both the compost heaps we've inherited (here and the allotment), there have been big lumps of eggshell in them - what's the secret? Teabags aren't designed for homecomposting - the bioplastics in them will only break down in a very hot environment... although if you've got metre-squared bins, they probably do get hot enough! Ours at home is only a one bay, possibly not quite 1x1 m square and the ones at the allotment are daleks, which definitely don't have the volume to hot compost. I bet the chicken bedding was great for it!

 @greenbee the hair (and cat fur) definitely makes it to the compost bin (in fact, our bedroom/bathroom bins are only for compostables - tissues, hair, nail clippings (sorry!) and it all goes on the compost - anything else gets taken downstairs - we only have one waste bin). We've got carpets with quite high wool content, but financially we couldn't afford 100% wool, which has always been a disappointment as I would definitely have been putting it all on the compost heap otherwise. We didn't (and don't??) intend to stay here long term, so when it comes to buying carpet again (here or next place - given the cats, maybe here!), 100% natural fibres it will definitely be.

Having cut the lawn on Tuesday evening, the heap is now quite full (although it is going down slowly), so space is limited - I've been good though and taken stuff out every day. Imagine we'll be harvesting the compost soon, so at least that will free up some space. I don't put the home compostable R'ford bags in the heap because, again, I don't think ours gets hot enough (comments on FB group suggest success with home composting varies) - I send them back, but I do put the beechwood pulp fruit/onion nets on there (and have also fed to the wormies).

greenbee

Oh yes -  nail clippings here too! 😂 I’m not a fan of carpets so th old house had hard floors and ancient oriental rugs. Here I have inherited carpet that I hope to mostly replace, but upstairs floors are hardboard so will need covering. I have a hotbin for food waste, but eggshells and coffee pods always need crushing and sometimes a couple of goes. It can do bones too, but I think you have to break them up quite small. Chicken bedding must really help up the temperature and get things going,,, maybe I should get chickens?

themadvix

Do you find your hot bin easy to use Greenbee? We were considering one when we were planning on moving to Norfolk as there wasn't a food waste collection there. They sound amazing but from some of the comments from people online, it sounds like they're not as trouble-free as the ads make out.

You should definitely get chickens 😉 Guinea pigs would work too (although less helpful in the food department - and let's not even go there about eating them! [insert blue shrieking emoji here]) 

greenbee

Love my hotbin - I had a small one at the last house (Hampshire, no food waste collection) and bought a bigger one here. Not just for food waste as I don't make much, but to speed up composting generally. I've been back in Norfolk for a year - the first 6 months with my mum in the King's Lynn area where they have a food waste collection, and have moved down to Breckland - I finally got fed up with the lack of food waste collection a couple of months' ago and as I was setting up the main composting area I ordered one. It does require some TLC - regular top-ups, the right mix of green and brown, stirring, and keeping an eye on the temperature. 

Sadly it can't take cat poo - I was thinking of getting some kind of pet loo/pet poo wormery (my brother had a dog poo one!) but found a poo bin about 20 yards down the road. 

Not keen on guinea pigs (they smell funny, so do hamsters - I guess it's a rodent thing) although I do have to admit to having eaten one when in South America. It looked remarkably similar to my A-level biology rat dissection... 

themadvix

greenbee said:

Love my hotbin - I had a small one at the last house (Hampshire, no food waste collection) and bought a bigger one here. Not just for food waste as I don't make much, but to speed up composting generally. I've been back in Norfolk for a year - the first 6 months with my mum in the King's Lynn area where they have a food waste collection, and have moved down to Breckland - I finally got fed up with the lack of food waste collection a couple of months' ago and as I was setting up the main composting area I ordered one. It does require some TLC - regular top-ups, the right mix of green and brown, stirring, and keeping an eye on the temperature. 

Sadly it can't take cat poo - I was thinking of getting some kind of pet loo/pet poo wormery (my brother had a dog poo one!) but found a poo bin about 20 yards down the road. 

Not keen on guinea pigs (they smell funny, so do hamsters - I guess it's a rodent thing) although I do have to admit to having eaten one when in South America. It looked remarkably similar to my A-level biology rat dissection... 

That's useful to know - and you are right where we were planning to be too! 

I think with any of these things, if you want to compost excrement (of any variety) the wisdom is to do it separately and keep it away from edible planting. We do put our non-poo woodchip cat litter clumps in the garden waste bin, having done research into it (and knowing it's going to a very hot environment, but the poo still goes in the landfill bin. 

Ooh, I loved a guinea pig - we had two when we were growing up and they were great entertainment. Even if I ate meat, I definitely couldn't eat one! 🤢

themadvix

Morning Afternoon all,

Have finally finished the piece of work for my main client and returned it (and he's just sent me something else 🙄). Have done a quick bit of Cambridge work but was planning on doing a bit more this afternoon. Hopefully the bit from main client won't take too long.

Our mattar paneer was lovely for dinner last night and we had more peas than expected, so no beans required and there were still some peas left. I have some cream left now - I really need to make a list of recipes we like that require cream as when I occasionally buy it for something I can never remember what these recipes are! I may use it to make some profiteroles - I've never made choux pastry and this is on my 40/40 list, so a trial run at the weekend might be one way to use it up. (Also need to make yoghurt and strain my kefir, so both may be recipients of some too.)

Today I plan to finally get some bits to the charity shop and out of the house, get caught up with work and get to Wickes to buy fence paint. I have a growing list of possible activities for the weekend - what gets done will depend on the weather I think, but include fence painting, prepping shed for painting, shed painting (?), finishing removing the 'sides' from my allotment, a dump run, potting on chillis, some rag rugging (during the F1), yoghurt/kefir making, choux bunning and booking some experience presents we've been given. This evening we'll definitely be going to the pub as it is our pub friend who works for Mr MV's last day - and Mr MV is still WFH due to the chest infection (we're pretty sure it's viral as the antibiotics haven't done anything). No idea about dinner as yet - it's usually something I can prepare in advance, but it might will be eggs on toast! (Diary writing is great for inspiration!).

Had the very sad news this morning that one of my cat/Olio friend's cats has a huge tumour which has already spread. He is such a lovely boy and a real character. 😿

MS things:
* Having a dinner plan for tonight almost always solves the 'shall we eat out/get takeaway' risk - there is, I suspect, a small possibility that this might change, given the 'leaving do' circs, but a plan is essential!
* Clicks and HW done - 7p won 😂
* £17 interest on tax money transferred.... although because Nationwide has been down it hadn't arrived at last check - heading to savings
* £2.67 TCB claimed - also for savings - every little helps, as we all know!

Gratitudes:
* Plenty of work - I am *not* complaining
* Lovely cat cuddles - they are getting extra today, whether they like it or not (Ginger is sat on a fleecy blanket on my desk - this seems to be helping with the desire to get my attention without wrecking my desk!)
* Had fun cutting the grass at the allotment yesterday with my new mower. It's so easy to use and quiet compared to a motorised one and everything looks much neater!

Have a good day all!

greenbee

Woodchip cat litter here sadly goes in the bin as it isn't supposed to go in garden waste (and garden waste is usually full anyway). Having the poo bin down the road reduces the overall stinkiness of the bins. I'm hoping that once I've got the catflap put in, there will be a lot less need for cat litter anyway, although I'm probably going to keep them in at night to minimise the impact on the local wildlife. 

redofromstart

My compost was much better when we had the chicken bedding to add to it  - although they free roamed the garden as mobile top dressing.  We use leaf tea rather than bags so that all goes in, but have never had any success with egg shells. 

Got to love a Ginger cat