Started in Oct-2019 using wood chips from splitting, sawdust from chainsawing, kitchen scraps, eggshells, branches, twigs, leaves from pruning around the property..... I didn't really turn it over that frequently. I'd say maybe half a dozen times....watering when I did turn it over....watering sparingly when it was in a pile..... I'm real happy with the outcome and what a great way to get rid of all the debris from splitting. I found about 50 worms that I could see.....as well as half a dozen june bug grubs (thanks to Farmall340 for the ID) and man it took me 5 hours to move the pile closer to the garden. I wanted to move it closer and also that gave me an opportunity to really turn it over one last time. I also wanted to remove all the bark and larger chunks that hadn't composted and run them through the chipper. That was the most time consuming part. The chipper incidentally kind of broke on me - I looked down and noticed that the engine was wobbling like crazy. It was still bolted to the bottom frame but the part that was bolted to the blades was obviously loose. Less than 20 hours on the unit too! I immediately shut it down, opened up the clean out hatch, but everything looked fine. I looked at my old video of when I replaced the blades and found the 4 bolts that hold the engine to the blades......I didn't touch those when I replaced the blades but it looks to me like they backed out. Since I had a few issues with this unit I decided to call up HarborFreight. I've had 2 mufflers sent to me and had the engine flood once..... The lady at the local store was super helpful and wouldn't you know they had a unit on the truck. She told me to show up at 5:30 and got her manager's approval to do a clean swap. The unit only comes with a 90 day parts and labor warranty (2 year warranty on the engine) so I decided that it might just be worth it to extend that by 2 years for $129. The unit was $449 with a coupon and I've really enjoyed using it. I've used it way more often than I thought I would and plan on using it so I think the warranty makes sense. This allows me to walk in the store and just swap it out for a new one. I had 3 garden carts full of bark like this (2 of which I ran through the chipper until I saw it break on me). Old spot where the pile used to be. Was a little too close to the Japanese maple in the back there so I figured it would be a good idea to move it now before it gets cold. That's a peach tree attached to the string I was given as a sapling 2 years ago by my buddy. It's already 6' tall! Excited for peach cobbler in a year or two. New spot right next to the garden-to-be-area. I watered as I mixed in the new mulch with the existing compost. I will use some of this compost to plant my garlic in October. Close up of it all mixed up. Aw yeah! New unit to be assembled tomorrow.
Thanks! Super excited....now it's time to some landscaping and mix me up some topsoil into it.......And then into the raised planter box it goes.....
Good job on the compost and glad you got satisfaction on the chipper. I will look forward to a peach cobbler report. My favorite!
I too have found that all the splitter scraps and debris makes excellent mulch. I bought one of those cheapie electric mulchers and it actually works pretty well as long as I don’t try to over feed it. But I have a constant source now of mulch I use around the base of a bunch of my new trees and in the compost pile too when I need some extra carbon. Everything gets used.
Thanks! Just put the new one together today. I found these pics from the last time I made peach cobbler. 2017! Yeah it feels good to do your part in recycling....even if it is on a small scale....I'm about to pick up some teak furniture that my neighbor is throwing out and will restore those as well.
Lordy that looks good. My Wif makes excellent pies but for some reason not many cobblers. I may have to start a cobbler campaign! "Honey, I'll keep you warm all winter if you make some cobblers." Think she will buy that?
Here's the recipe I used. I'm making it again tonight just because of you. Peach Cobbler Recipe - Food.com
And here's my blueberry pie that I make from scratch....including the crust....which is the best part.
Do you use lard when you make the crust? My grandmother always used lard and she had the flakiest crust around.
No, I use butter. More taste than lard! And still flaky and delicious. Here's the video I learned from for the crust. I follow it to a tee. And here's the companion video on the pie. I did *NOT* follow this to the tee after doing so the first time. Came out too soupy. I've since changed it up and use tapioca starch and don't cook the blueberries first at all.
Thanks for the recipe link. The blueberry pie looks great! The Wif makes a half blue berry and half blackberry pie which she calls a "Black and Blue berry pie". Has a lot less seeds. Also one of my favorites.
Cobbler came out amazing with the white peaches. Never used them before. Didn't get a chance to take a pic of the innards because it was devoured in about 12 ms.
The HarborFreight spec says up to 3" branches but you have to feed it very slowly and hold a big branch so that only a little bit gets chipped at a time. It's perfectly fine for what I use it for as anything near 3" I use as kindling for the firepit or the fireplace. There is a bit of prep work depending on the species you are chipping. White oak for example has a ton of 90 bends so you do have to do a bit of lopping off. It's nice to be able to process stuff and reduce the volume drastically. Also feels good to recycle it into compost instead of just throwing it away.
