I will have to look into this one. Our compost bin is a bit cumbersome and hard for me to tumble once it starts filling up but hey it was free so I'm not going to complain too much but an easier one would be nice. Thanks for sharing.

JenW~

This year I looked at compost tumblers and decided that the cost was beyond my budget. Instead I found a number of really good instructional videos on YouTube and, picking one as what would meet my needs, I proceeded to acquire two black 55 gallon drums from the local farmers' co-op for $10 each, and, having a bunch of lumber lying around that wasn't doing anything, I proceeded to build a two 55-gallon tumbler side-by-side unit in April or so. Since then I have filled up both tumblers at least five times. My last trip to them was yesterday in which I noticed that the contents have again rotted down to about three-quarters of their original volume. That's TWO 55-gallon drums rotting down to 3/4 of their size. Since it's now late fall and winter approaching the composting will slow down. Nevertheless, I'm astonished at how much refuse I put in there (including fish skins, egg shells, coffee grounds, garden refuse etc.) the bins can hold. Going to be great in the spring when I can spread that on my raised beds.

it seems everybody here is doing a much better job with these barrel-type composters than I ever did. Mine would dry out the contents so quickly it was like a barrel full of dry leaves, which of course never composted. I have read that to rot properly, compost needs to be around the moisture content of a wrung-out sponge. I can never keep my compost anywhere near that high of a moisture level, except in winter when the rotting slows to a crawl. What am I doing wrong? I do live in Tennessee which has seen pretty hot summers for quite some time now...