DIY Compost Bin

Finished building my second compost bin (hopefully many more to come) last Wednesday afternoon, just in time for Thanksgiving. As with everything practice makes perfect, and this second bin is quite an improvement over my first attempt. The bin was constructed using five wooden pallets, four pieces of masonry, two rolls of chicken fence, four door hinges, two metal handles, and many nails.

The first step for making the bin was to level out the area where it was constructed to give a stable base. This process was mostly easy except for one large root of a nearby white pine. We excavated around the root and then sawed and hacked until we were able to yank out the interfering piece. Next I leveled out the ground and set in masonry on the back corners to protect the wood from rotting out too quickly. It wouldn't do to go to all this trouble building a compost bin to then have to re-do it after only a few years. The front corners were already resting on masonry, which made the job that much easier.

Next we laid out the pallets to get a sense for how everything would fit together, and then cut the two top pieces and the front door down to the appropriate sizes. Once completed, I attached chicken fence to the in-facing sides of each panel using a dearth of nails. Pallet wood has a tendency to be extremely dense and hard, and also to split easily when nailed. The best compromise I've found is using thinner nails that are less likely to split the wood, but which are in turn highly susceptible to bending on impact with the hammer. Once everything was fenced, I started nailing pallets together using the previously-determined layout. I then attached the two doors with door hinges and finished by trimming back the chicken fence where it was sticking out.



This compost bin has two doors - one in front, and one on top. The top door is where the compost is tossed in. It's made up of about a quarter of a pallet, and it's hinged and has a solid metal handle.




The front door allows access for turning and removing the compost, and it's approximately three quarters of a pallet, hinged and handled. I call this model the DeLorean of composting because of the way the doors are constructed.



Total cost: about $50 plus time. The pallets and masonry were free, and I'm sure many other components could've been as well had time allowed.

Microorganisms at Work

By next year, all our fruit and veggie wastes will be an awesomely rich fertilizer for the garden. Thanks to the front door on the bin, we'll be able to extract the goods with a minimum of effort.

Audio Log: Beaver Pond

This was recorded on a friend's property from a small screened shelter overlooking a beaver pond. I spent the night in the shelter and set up the recorder before going to bed so it'd be as easy as rolling over and pressing the record button. There's a really nice mix of sounds in this piece including frogs, insects, many species of birds (winter wren, veery, oven bird, nuthatch, and others), and possibly a mammal or two (besides myself). I do make an occassional rustling noise in the right channel. The entire piece is just over fifteen minutes.

Audio Log: Harmonies

4/4. 71 BPM. Seven tracks including vocal1, vocal2, vocal3, whistling, midi drum1, midi drum2, and midi piano. The whistling track came to me while cooking dinner. I stepped out for a minute to record before losing the idea, and then drafted the rest over the last few days.

Audio Log: Winter Stream

This is my first ever field recording using a professional audio recorder (PMD 660 Advanced) with a decent mic (Rode NT5). This recording is from Pisgah State Park in southern New Hampshire in late winter 2007. The sounds in this piece were recorded on a small stream that was mostly covered over with snow and ice with the exception of this one small opening. I used one microphone because the size of the opening caused this to be a truly monaural sound.

A couple notes from my journal:

This (recording) system has been amazingly more user-friendly than the M(ini)DV (camcorder), and provides much better sound quality.

There is quite a lot of depth to this seemingly simple sound, and it's even a bit trance-inducing.

Audio Log: Gap Mountain

This is my first ever field recording. It was recorded at Gap Mountain in southern New Hampshire in mid February of 2007. This was before I possessed or had access to real recording equipment, so I wound up using a miniDV camcorder with the stock external mic. I hadn't really thought through the use of this recorder or I would have taped down the record button. As it was, I had to hold the button down firmly with my thumb through the entire recording - not an easy thing to do when the temperature is in the teens. The fact that the button was on the mic was also problematic as I had to hold my gloved hand completely still so as not to disrupt the recording session. All in all this isn't the best recording, but it shows that you don't necessarily need a high-end recording device to record some interesting material. The sounds in this piece were recorded on a small stream that had frozen over, and the microphone was placed directly on the ice. You can also hear wind in trees, a nearby creaking tree, fluttering leaves, and a few jets passing nearby. The original recording was in mono, and I've "improved" it a bit to make it more dynamic.

Audio Log: Overtone

Time signature's a little funky on this one, but mostly 4/4. 130 BPM. Four tracks including vocals, mandolin, midi drums, and midi bass. In this piece you can hear my interpretation of the sub-class of overtone singing known as kargyraa. To learn more about overtone singing, check out Sed's Khoomei page.

Audio Log: Organ-ic

8/8, 130 BPM. Four tracks including midi organ, midi drums1, midi drums2, and midi bass.

Sheer Doodles

Unfortunately I don't have any before-and-after shots, but I just shorn my first dog - a Goldendoodle (half golden retriever, half poodle) named Fenway. Any dogs of the Doodle lineage are said to be hypoallergenic due to the claim that their hair doesn't shed, but I'm not so sure about this. The interesting thing about shearing a dog is that they're totally happy to receive the attention, and they have absolutely no idea that their hair is being cut. I was tempted to make a mohawk or a spiffy moustache, but figured Fenway might not appreciate a lot of laughter at her expense. The hardest part of the dog sheering process is trimming around the head, which moves around quite a bit. The best method I found for countering this tendency was to hold up Fenway's head from underneath, which helped her to sit still for long enough that I could do some serious whisker trimming. The whole process took about an hour. All in all, Fenway's new 'do came out pretty well and we saved a pretty penny on grooming costs. I threw the shorn hairs into the nearby woods, where I suspect they'll be coveted by the squirrels at which Fenway loves to have a good bark.

Audio Log: Lead

9/8, 120 BPM. Seven tracks including guitar1, guitar2, guitar3, lead guitar, midi bass, djembe, and midi drums. I woke up with the right channel guitar line in my head last Thursday at about 5am. I originally recorded it as a vocal track so as not to lose the idea, and then whipped up this version over the last two days.

Dec. 23 Update: I revisited this composition and found the right channel guitar line to be redundant and blocky, so I removed it. Funny how the initial spark didn't carry over to the finished piece. I also cleaned and polished the rest of the tracks to bring the composition up to speed with my newly developed audio engineering abilities.

Audio Log: Dub

8/8, 160 BPM. Three tracks including guitar, midi bass, and midi drums. Influences: Mad Professor. I'm also hearing horns over this - I'll keep you posted. The bass line for this was translated from a vocal track I recorded. The guitar rhythms were originally longer and more complex, but they sound much better stripped down to their essences - similar to carving a piece of wood or editing an essay.

What Animal?

I believe that for most people there is one animal s/he most closely resembles in terms of appearance and mannerism. It's not always easy to make such distinctions (there are lots of animals out there!), but with the right kind of eye and a bit of patience it may eventually come together. I've had friends who are mountain lions, owls, crows, wolves, bears, horses, foxes, ducks, snakes, rabbits, and many other animals besides. In my case, there are a few animals I gravitate toward and one that sort of stands out as the animal.

Starting with ermine, weasels in general are pretty tough for their size. They have incredible speed and reflexes, good night vision, and excellent camouflage abilities. Weasel people often get a bad wrap for their ability to be sneaky, or for sometimes appearing suspicious. But the flip side of these attributes is that weasels often see what is hidden in others (both positive and negative). And since weasel people are aware of the pathways of personal exposure in speech and action they tend not to expose themselves lightly, even though there may be nothing to hide. Come to think of it, I feel a bit exposed sharing all of this information. One thing from the weasel mix that I possess only selectively is quick reflexes. I remember as a kid when the doctor performed the knee-tap test on me, and my leg wouldn't flinch. I'd have to consciously move my leg by anticipating when I thought my knee would be struck by the little plastic hammer just so the doctor would approve and move on (or maybe this is just a bunk test?). I'm also frustratingly terrible at the card game, slap. Somewhat conversely, I'm great in dangerous situations that require split-second timing, like seemingly imminent threats during winter driving. Go figure.

I have a general love of the corvid family (ravens, crows, jays, magpies), but I specifically love ravens for their playfulness, group dynamics, and problem-solving abilities. A great book for learning about ravens is Mind of the Raven, by Bernd Heinrich. I love puzzles and riddles, and I'm often thinking of ways to play gentle tricks on my friends and family. One really cool thing from Mind of the Raven is the connections drawn between ravens and big game hunting animals like wolves, coyotes, and humans. In some areas, it's speculated that ravens have learned to lead hunters to potential game in order to capitalize on any leftovers. Quite a symbiosis! I also love blue jays for their strong protective qualities. They are quite perceptive and often warn other species of approaching danger such as hawks and other predators. All corvids are known for being incredibly adaptive and intelligent.

Orcas (also known as killer whales) are sort of like wolves of the sea. I've never seen an orca either in the wild or in captivity, but they visit me in my dreams every so often. Orca people are said to have a gift of bringing balance, cooperation, and camouflage. Orcas make amazing sounds:

The last animal I'll list in this post is the red-tailed hawk. This is the animal that I generally feel most closely aligned with. My facial features are somewhat hawkish and my long hair has red highlights in the sun. I enjoy coasting on thermals, and eating small rodents (oh wait... that's the hawks, not me). Hawks are known as messengers in a number of cultures, and hawk people are said to be good advisors for their ability to honor multiple perspectives.

So that's my basic run-down. Maybe I've inspired you to consider some animals you walk with. Or maybe you think it's just a bunch of malarky. Either way, feel free to share your thoughts.

Audio Log: Groovy

7/8, 95 BPM. Five tracks including guitar1, guitar2, guitar3, guitar4, and one midi drum track. Influences: Parliament, John Scofield, and The Allman Brothers. This one will probably get a little lead treatment sometime real soon.

Audio Log: Rockin'

6/8, 124 BPM. Five tracks including guitar1, guitar2, guitar3, and two midi drum tracks. Influences: Fela Kuti and Talking Heads. It's getting much easier to maintain a steady rhythm for recording. This time I kept everything very straight-forward. No fancy stuff. I'll likely clean this up a bit and throw in a vocal track or three sometime in the near future.