Here is a picture of the compost tumbler I built and behind it is the horse manure I use to pre-compost kitchen scraps before feeding it all to the worms. The heat produced by the manure and the absorption of the sun kills most of the weed seeds that are in the manure and they will not germinate when used in the garden later.
I got the barrels off Crags List for $25.00 and was going to use them as part of a rain water collection system, but with no rain gutters on the house (another money project for later!) I put this stand together in an afternoon. The lumber is some that I pick up for free and I get a truck load as often as I can. The place I get it from is near where I work and they would rather I took it then send it to the land fill.
The system works pretty well. I load it up to the point where it gets hard to turn and let it compost for about two weeks (turning every few days) and then dump it out, run it all through a sift box I have built for that purpose and then layer it into the worm bed along with bedding material. The worms seem to like it and the migrate into the new stuff a a few days.
The box I have now ( 3' X 7" X 14") is getting pretty crowded now and I will have to build a new one soon. The box is near full with Black Gold (worm casings) and worms and I will harvest both when the new box is finished. I will split up the worms into each box and layer in new bedding and food materiel's to hopefully get them through the cold months ahead and come next spring, two new boxes will be built (for a total of 4 beds) and the worms will have doubled in numbers.
I will keep you posted.
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