Back in Illinois, a dear neighbor of ours had given us a compost barrel. We opted not to give it passage to South Dakota (do you know how big compost barrels are?), so we were out a composter when we got here!

Sarah and I scrounged for materials, and actually found everything we needed for a double-bin compost cage. Old fence posts (there were some straight or mostly straight ones in the mix), baling wire, some miscellaneous woven wire fencing, etc. There was a huge roll of wire fencing tucked conveniently behind the garden shed but, unfortunately, we couldn’t free it. That’s what happens when the garden shed is built underneath a cliff, I guess.  That’s why the house is not underneath the cliff.

Driving fence posts was a new experience for me. It got old pretty fast. That is, after about a third of the end of one post. Putting the little posts in, we started hearing deep reverberations from the cliff face when we hit rock. We decided we hit bedrock, and the mighty pounding from the 12-pound hammer was causing subterranean disturbance that was then resonating from the cliff.

We got it done, though, and the end product was worth it! We put the compost cage next to the garden, so we’ll have easy access to the compost. Hopefully at some point we’ll add a sort of wooden frame to the opening, partly for support, partly to keep the compost from spilling out. But for now, this will do.

Waste not, want not.