The Composting Diaries

So it's been quite a week in composting...

Week 2:
After the first morning, woken by the sound of the churning we realized this little automatic composter was going to be be a bigger part of our lives than we thought. When you live in a small apartment you can't get away from the decisions you make of what you bring into your place. Good or bad.

Then came the smell...

As someone with a hound dog sense of smell, it hit me like a ton of bricks, a sour milk smell taking over the house. Day after day we would light scented candles, open the windows, turn on the fan (freeze in the process!) and wait out the week with fingers crossed. Since we had to wait the full week we knew we'd have to deal with it before adding more baking soda & saw dust pellets.

Last night was officially the full week, we made it! We also decided we'd take advantage of our balcony and stick it out there. Phew. I couldn't be happier. We sacrificed the airtight seal we had put on the balcony door to keep the draft out and relocated the Nature Mill outside. We braced ourselves, and opened it! Gone was the beef, mozzarella, potatoes and other veggie scraps, compost soil! Whoohooo, it appears to have worked. We are both skeptical still but have a positive attitude about the future of our compost making.

Update: We added a few moldy corn tortillas, an old apple and a huge handful of dead leaves from pruned plants around the apartment. Can't wait to see them disappear.