Last weekend I joined a dozen hardy souls braving the heavy rain and wind for a workshop on composting presented by Michelle of Organic by Design. I'm familiar with Bokashi composting and worm farms but was keen to find out more about hot composting.
Hot composting relies on heat to speed up the break-down of organic matter and destroy any pathogens and weed seeds; the temperature needs to reach 65-68 degrees celcius. Building a hot compost heap requires a bit of organisation. Firstly you need enough material on hand and a big enough area to build a heap about 1.5 cubic metres in size, and then some old carpet or heavy sacks to lay over the top once its built. Garden and grass clippings, manures, seaweed, hay, paper/cardboard (noncoloured) and food wastes (except fats or meat) can be added.
Here we are building the compost heap.
Starting with a base of branches and twigs you add alternating layers of green/moist material to brown/dry material ensuring there is a combination of coarse to fine material for aeration, and dampening the layers as you go. Adding an activator of beneficial microorganisms to the layers also helps, for example EM. Cover to insulate. Avoid saturating the heap with water so cover with a tarpaulin during heavy rainfall. The compost heap needs turning twice over the first week or so and takes about 3-6 months to mature, which is much faster than traditional cold composting which can take up to a year to mature.
If you were wondering about Bokashi composting I've been using this system for almost a year now, turning kitchen waste and food scraps into fermented material that is ready to be dug into the soil after a matter of weeks. My collection bucket sits in the corner of kitchen with no smell. In the evening I add the collected food scraps from the day along with a tablespoon of Compost-Zing powder (this contains the beneficial microorganisms that ferment the wastes). Pop the lid on tight and that's it. Once the bucket is full you set it aside for 1 - 2 weeks and then dig it into your soil. Easy, fast and good for the environment.
I live in a small coastal community near Dunedin with my husband and two beautiful children. Dunedin is a small city located in the South Island of New Zealand. We have a small lifestyle block with a patch of native bush and several sheep. There's always lots to do; currently we are extending the house, developing a vegetable garden and trying to get rid of the gorse.
I work part-time at Otago Polytechnic in the Educational Development Centre and support staff in developing online learning programmes and resources. Prior to this I taught bioscience (human anatomy and physiology) and environmental science to tertiary students in foundation and undergraduate health science programmes and technician training courses.
Academic background:
Grad. Cert. in Applied eLearning, Manukau Institute of Technology (2011)
PG Cert. Tertiary Teaching, University of Otago (2006)
Dip Grad, Education, University of Otago (1993)
BSc (Hons), First Class, Physiology, University of Otago (1987)
Professional experience:
Educational Developer, Educational Development Centre, Otago Polytechnic (2008 - current)
Course Advisor/Writer/Editor (contract), Flexible Delivery Projects, Otago Polytechnic (2006 - 2008)
Senior Lecturer, Otago Polytechnic, School of Natural Resources and Science (2000 - 2005)
- Programme Manager: National Diploma in Science (2004 – 2005)
- Teaching experience: Bioscience, Environmental Science for National Diploma in Science (NDS) and Bridging Health students (Biology Units Level 4–6; Core Health Units Level 4)
Lecturer, Otago Polytechnic, Applied Science and Technology Department (1991 - 2000)
- Teaching experience: Biology, Anatomy and Physiology for various student groups (NDS, Health Sciences, Sport’s Studies)
- Teaching experience: Anatomy and Physiology for Nursing students
Well done to Ivy Bean who at well over 100 (103 or 104 depending on which source you read) may be the oldest person on Twitter according to this story in the British tabloid newspaper, The Sun.
While her tweets about daily activities at Hillside Manor care home in Bradford where she lives, may not be that exciting she has amassed a huge number of followers since her first tweet on May 14 (over 11,800 already). Apparently she switched to Twitter after getting bored with Facebook and her enthusiasm for technology has inspired other residents at the care home to have a go. It just goes to show you're never too old to try something new!
You can see what Ivy is up to at twitter.com/IvyBean104
I live in a small coastal community near Dunedin with my husband and two beautiful children. Dunedin is a small city located in the South Island of New Zealand. We have a small lifestyle block with a patch of native bush and several sheep. There's always lots to do; currently we are extending the house, developing a vegetable garden and trying to get rid of the gorse.
I work part-time at Otago Polytechnic in the Educational Development Centre and support staff in developing online learning programmes and resources. Prior to this I taught bioscience (human anatomy and physiology) and environmental science to tertiary students in foundation and undergraduate health science programmes and technician training courses.
Academic background:
Grad. Cert. in Applied eLearning, Manukau Institute of Technology (currently completing)
PG Cert. Tertiary Teaching, University of Otago (2006)
Dip Grad, Education, University of Otago (1993)
BSc (Hons), First Class, Physiology, University of Otago (1987)
Professional experience:
Educational Developer, Educational Development Centre, Otago Polytechnic (2008 - current)
Course Advisor/Writer/Editor (contract), Flexible Delivery Projects, Otago Polytechnic (2006 - 2008)
Senior Lecturer, Otago Polytechnic, School of Natural Resources and Science (2000 - 2005)
- Programme Manager: National Diploma in Science (2004 – 2005)
- Teaching experience: Bioscience, Environmental Science for National Diploma in Science (NDS) and Bridging Health students (Biology Units Level 4–6; Core Health Units Level 4)
Lecturer, Otago Polytechnic, Applied Science and Technology Department (1991 - 2000)
- Teaching experience: Biology, Anatomy and Physiology for various student groups (NDS, Health Sciences, Sport’s Studies)
- Teaching experience: Anatomy and Physiology for Nursing students
Have started tweeting? or maybe twittering? not sure of the correct terminology yet, but these are small posts (microblogs) of 140 characters or less updated on your twitter page that all your followers can view.
So how is twitter being used? You can ask a question, provide a link to something interesting, send out reminder post about a meeting/event, or simply tell everyone what you are up to.
Leigh introduced twitter at the last social media class, in the hope this might be an easier way for newbies to start interacting with others before getting going on their own blogs.
Sign up, fill in your profile details, then you can find people to follow. Clicking on someone's username takes you to their twitter page and you can see their recent posts and also who they are following; a click of a button and you can follow them.
Firefox allows you to install Twitterfox (see under the Tools menu, Get Add-ons and search for twitterfox) so tweets automatically pop up in the lower right of your screen. Clicking on the twitterfox icon (see red arrow below) shows you a list of recent updates, and you can post/reply from here.
Here's a neat example from an Auckland primary school teacher of what can happen with twitter: pirates ahoy . Sounds like a lot of fun!
A couple of weeks ago at the Socially Constructed Media course some participants were talking about iGoogle. It's like a one-stop page that shows your feeds and all sorts of other useful gadgets. My iGoogle homepage has links to my google reader, google docs, news sites, wikis, flickr, YouTube and lots of other stuff, all organised on one page. 
It only take a few minutes to set up your own iGoogle homepage at www.igoogle.com. This YouTube video will get you started.
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