How do you know when it is done?

[nina norman]

Or is it ever done? We are moving in less than six weeks and I am already thinking about how I am gonna move this stuff. Granted, we are only moving five miles down the road but I am wondering if I need to build some sort of sifter to strain out the finished materials and go ahead and put it on the new sod when we move in. I know this will make my pile much smaller and I am looking forward to finally being able to shred all these stacks of newspapers I have sitting around, adding them to my new pile at the new house. Any suggestions? If I do build a sifter thingie how big should the netting stuff be?

Thanks!
Christina

[Gar]

Christina,
Why don't you move it all? You don't want to leave any of the ' Texas Gold' as I call it. Set up your compost bins and put the compost back in to finish decomposing. When you shred the paper add it in small layers for each layer when you rebuild your compost. Also spread it out so it doesn't get to thick. From my past experiences, it just clumps up and takes longer to decompose if not not spread out in thin layers for each layer of the compost. I add alot of shredded paper to my bins, but I make thin layers for each layer of compost. My bins are 4 foot square so there is quit a bit of room. I currently have a 55 galon plastic barrel full of shredded paper. It is all junk mail, but no glassy sections. I will add about 1/3 each time I turn the compost.
I hope you understood my mumbo jumbo. Let me know if you need more info.