Oh..one important thing worth noting on outdoor composing for those who might want to do it: I don't want this thread to discourage you by making you think it's too complicated and too much work for you. I've done a ton of reading on composting, and while some sources differ on certain particulars, one thing that should be obvious and does have universal agreement is that
no matter what you do, stuff will decompose.
I feel fairly confident that if I just stacked all this stuff up in August/September and added food scraps through maybe the end of November, much of the matter (at least on the bottom of the pile) would be usable compost by the time I can plant in the Spring. There are plenty of experienced gardeners who just pile it up, ignore it, don't worry about optimizing the pile's heat, and wait until Spring. I'm doing it this way for two reasons:
1. As has been mentioned, I NEED to kill weed seeds. I hated dealing with weeds as much (if not more) than dealing with rodents last year.
2. Anyone who knows my MP gaming habits knows I'm an optimizer.
I find doing it this way to be fun, at least for now. Even though I know 140 is fine to deal with the weeds, I like shooting for 160.
