Because we make a lot of compost a third bin was made using concrete blocks. As it aged over the five weeks the compost material reduced in volume and the surplus blocks are used to assemble the second bin in advance of turning. There are some other projects in the pipeline where the concrete blocks are needed and in any spare time I've begun building a pair of bins out of hardwood.
The wood comes from two small chicken runs that we originally built nearly 20 years ago and have been gradually dismantling and wood stored. Over the last couple of days the dismantling has been finished and there is enough wood to complete the compost bins.
This is the third re-birthing for this hardwood as it all came from a Tennis Shed in Newcastle that was built back in the 1920s. In those days it wasn't unusual for large companies to build a Tennis Court and Shed for its management to use in the evenings and at weekends as a form of relaxation.
In the early 1990s the shed was dismantled to make way for a further car park expansion. The Tennis Court had disappeared a couple of years before to cater for the ever expanding car park. The Tennis shed had a few years reprieve as a document storage facility. I was working at the firm at that time and was lucky enough to have a chance to retrieve some of the timber before it was dumped. I remember bringing home several groaning trailer loads of this seasoned hardwood.
Our property has a number of completed projects which utilised the hardwood.
I'm always amazed when I see old buildings being demolished and the material being loaded into trucks by huge excavators to be taken to the dump and used as landfill. When I was growing up in Newcastle there were a number of recycling or demolition yards where all types of material was on offer. All these have closed. Just so disappointing.
Next: Building Another NZ Compost Bin(s) Part Two Material Preparation
No comments:
Post a Comment