Compost update

The second of the three compost bays (bay #3) finally started heating up.  It has slowly been going up, about 10° every day, and this morning it was reading just below 140° F in the center of the pile, and 120° F about 8" from the outside of the pile.  That seems like better heat distribution than I ever had in any of the bins last year, so I hope it's composting more evenly this time.

The temperature at the center of the pile is just below 140° F. 

The other two piles though are just sitting there all sullen and not doing anything.  I figure when the hot pile cools back down, I'll turn it into bay #2 (currently empty) then turn bay #4 into bay #3 and see if I can add some "greens" into the center to try to get it going.  I'm not really sure why that one isn't heating up.  I thought I had roughly the same combination of raw materials in it as I had in bay #3.  Apparently not.

An although this isn't really a compost pile, I have started gathering hay/straw/manure from the field and putting it in a pile at the end of bay #4.  

Pile of rotting hay/straw/manure.

Today I collected four cartloads from the field and just piled it on the ground south of the last compost bay.  Why?  Well, I'm going to try some "no-dig" potatoes this spring.  This stuff most definitely will NOT be going on my garden (it's full of weed and grass seeds!) but I think it will work to hill up the potatoes as they grow.  I just need to find a nice sunny spot for them and give it a try. 

I don't think this new pile will heat up because it doesn't really have very many "greens" in it (wouldn't it just be my luck if it did!).   I don't really want it to.   But I'll be keeping an eye on it because the "what-ifs" are always there in the back of my head.