So I spent a delightful hour or two yesterday sieving and sorting 
composted soil, thirty minutes rounding up lost worms which had 
fallen out of favour and were determined to retire to the chest 
freezer via the floor, I had to darg out the vacumn afterwards, 
and since it was out I got sidetracked into housework, and then 
I thought: 
                   THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY
especially when it comes to rotating the columns of 20-litre 
compost pails in the laundry closet. The oldest ones are always 
at the back ..... 
For $24 I can get a 10-foot length of six-inch diameter PVC 
sewer pipe from the builders-supply store. Being as I am, 
vertically challenged by nature I could saw it into three equal 
lengths and stand it vertically, well-bolted to the sides of a 
bin, with a gap of about four inches between the floor of the bin 
and the bottom of the 3'3" tube. 
Paper, soil and vegetable and even meat waste goes in the top, 
Wossname Newton does his work, and composted soil flows out the 
bottom. 
Worms hate light, and dryness, so as soon as they get near the 
base, they rocket upwards to where it is dark and warm and moist. 
I've got potting-ready worm-free soil coming at me from the 
bottom of three pipes. I can use one as an experiment ("Let's see 
if the little wrigglers can survive on just office paper"), and 
the other two as production lines.
The soil and waste gets mixed up and has plenty of time to mature 
on its downwards journey. I don't have to worry about riots as 
the worms in one pail realise they've got poorer food than worms 
in the other. Worms can migrate to where the food is most 
plentiful. They've got brains, just like the rest of us.
I'd probably use a simple wooden frame, so that both the top and 
bottom of each pipe is securely held upright. Vacuming the best 
part of a 3' length of half-rotted breakfast debris would not be 
a pleasant task.
I've not actually *done* this yet, you understand, but I'm 
starting to think that if I lived on the 2nd floor and was very 
friendly with the tenant on the first floor, we could rig up a 
super-tall vertical continuous feed composter. Maybe tomorrow.
A pipe composter has to be less work than a series of pails, it 
seems to me.
christopher.greaves@ablelink.org     www.interlog.com/~cgreaves
 * 1st 2.00b #6263 * Don't Brake!
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