Composting: A Photographic Essay (Otherwise Titled: Don't You Wish I Was YOUR Neighbor?

I always feel slightly self-conscious when posting things about what we do as parents, as people, as Christians.  Blogs don't give full pictures, just glimpses of a life and when the glimpses are all pretty and slightly perfect then the full picture is lost.  

So balance is called for.........yesterday I spoke of lopsided Christians and today I want to make sure I am not a lopsided blogger - swinging too far towards perfect or too far towards utter hopelessness :)  Although my husband would say that this is utter hopelessness..........I would point him to yesterday's post and remind him what an AWESOME mom I am for the 5 minute car ride to school every day.  In my mind that outweighs my rather eccentric composting tendencies.

I apologize to Ashley in advance...............

There is where my husband would like me to do our composting.  See the big, lovely bin?  It's....I have no idea how many feet from our back door, mathematical estimation is not my strong suit........somewhere between 5 and 500 feet from our back door.  A mere stroll in the lovely fall weather.  The best thing about this is that it keeps animals away from the composted food and makes us all feel wonderful about being responsible people who don't throw all their trash into landfills.

Here is another preferred composting option - right inside our own garden.  It's equal distance away from the back door and you don't even have to slide open a drawer thingy or anything - just dump it right over the fence.  Easy peasy.........one would think.

Here is another option.  This one right out the back door.  Now my patient and sweet husband has very, very nicely explained to me time and again how putting the compost in the bucket and then COVERING it with another bucket would help IMMENSELY in keeping animals away from this method of composting so that it doesn't get spread across the back door.  Another benefit to the double bucket is that swarms of insects, flies and such don't WHOOSH towards your mouth every time you open the back door.  I just like to focus on the fact that the compost made it out of the house..........and landed somewhere in the vicinity of the bucket.  YEA ME!

Now this is my husbands LEAST preferred method and my MOST preferred method.  I call it the open and shut method of composting.  I simply open the window to the backyard, dump the compost out and then shut the window.  VOILA!  It's gone.  It's not in the house and I didn't have to leave the house to do it.  Not to mention the unlimited capacity of the plot of land right outside the window.  My favorite time to do this is right after Christmas.  We JOYFULLY fling Jesus' birthday cake out the window and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS! and let the squirrels eat away.  It is VERY festive.

You can see how the compost has really been helping the weeds just grow, like........well, weeds.  It's really amazing.  You could almost say that the weeds cover the compost and so it's totally ok that I throw food out our back window.

Joe doesn't agree.

I tell him I am a work in progress......whoever thought I would compost or recycle or anything like this?

ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, that's who.

I hope you have enjoyed this photographic essay and have even learned some new ways that you, too, can be AMAZINGLY green.

Oh and one more thing about all things backyard..........have you heard of lawn confetti?

Yeah, didn't think you had.  I made it up just yesterday but I really think it will catch on.

What you do is have your children do art projects outside and then you leave them in the backyard for weeks on end until that have become just dry, withered pieces of paper scattered in your yard.  Then you mow.

And, yes, that's right.

Mow right over those babies.  No need to stop the mower and bend down and pick those bad boys up.

Let them DECORATE your lawn for you.  Watch the confetti spray right out the back and sides.  It's a thing of beauty.

Beauty because it is your precious babies artwork that is scattered so lovingly over the yard and the beauty of not wasting a single moment of your precious time bending over and picking those papers up.

Have a glorious Friday!