Work must go on, though. Today is the day we’d been dreading: cleaning day. Sure it happens all the time, but the drainage is sucking the wheelbarrow into the earth. Help, help!

Things are looking good. There are fewer runny noses and more sunlight. Let’s hear it for Spring! And we’re back on track to make the outdoors our own again.

We’ll miss the black gold the alpacas and llamas provided, but there is just as much manuer on the pile as there ever wa.

The problem is here:

Specifically in getting the set in his way kitty to use the shavings as litter. Caliban has protested the change in his litter box since it first started. We finally gave into our tiny excessively particular overloard.  But if he won’t use the box, we can’t keep the box in shavings.

And now he is happy. And we don’t quite know what to do with clay kitty litter. Any suggestions?

Here is our usual composter. It’s a large plastic barel on feet made of very strong wood-substitute. This thing is made to last years and years. We got it off someone in NorthEast on Craigslist. It was a bit of a drive, but boy was this composter worth it. We’re not sure how long it takes to make compost exactly. It just does its job.

Nature Mill makes a number of composters. They are all electric. You plug them in. . . Now judge not, people. The composters use remarkably little power, they turn the compost regularly, raises and maintains the temperature, and seperates liquid from solid copmost. Most importantly, we are using this composter ONLY for cat litter. For all kitchen waste we have a freestanding, hand turned composter.

So here’s the deal. It keeps the compost at a temperature that the EPA is alright with using this compost on food plants. Everyt two weeks it produces another load of compost.

Instead of using clay cat litter, which does not compost, we are using pine shavings. These come from the same feed store we get the chicken, llama, alpaca feed, etc. from.

The litter seems to work out very well for the cats. Even Caliban, the picky weirdo is using it.

The Nature’s Mill composter itself sits on the back portch. The specs say that it can take temps between 0F and 120. I think that we can do that.

The composter runs all the time. Ray says that it takes less power to run than the computer. And goodness knows we have a lot of computers running 24/7.

And now for the piece de resistance: The compost not quite the “black gold” that comes from the alpaca piles in the barn, but this will definately do well on the apple, pear, and cherry trees. Maybe on the sunflowers, I’ll have to think about that. There is a small odor with the composter when it’s opened. But as long as the load inside is balanced with wood and baking soda, there is no smell from the composter.