We had a week of deliveries getting things done to fix up the house, but the high point for me was the arrival of a ComposTumbler. I bought the smallest sized one after deciding that something had to be done about my poor garden. My brother Steve isn't willing to get the tons of peat moss that it would take to loosen up this clay soil but he is all for anything that would put me to work while saving money; recycling old newspapers and weeds tickled his fancy. Mom got swayed to the idea after someone threw a dead rat into our yard; evidently they don't appreciate the lush growth of weeds following the few spring flowers and think we are housing the rats.

As for me, I couldn't discreetly compost enough leaves tucked around the shrubs as mulch to help enough. The clay soil is so bad that the few surviving mustard plants got about an inch tall and then sent up straggly bloom stalks with a flower or two in a desperate effort to make seeds before dying. The only thing growing reasonably well is the weeds, and even they don't look very happy.

So, Friday morning was spent waiting for the promised arrival of the ComposTumbler. It is a big plastic drum with a door to load it on a stand so you can spin it to mix the materials and speed up the composting without any rats or other pests getting into it. Just about noon, I heard a scraping and banging beside the house that sounded like we were being attacked by clumsy burglars. It turned out to be the Fed Ex man dragging a big box too heavy to carry.

Everyone repeat after me: some assembly required . . . some assembly required . . . after spending most of the rest of the day assembling the modern wonder, I finally had a ComposTumbler sitting before me in all its plastic glory. At least it wasn't as bad as assembling an Iraqi nuclear reactor, but I was glad I had only gotten the little one. I dragged it out onto the terrace and started shredding newspapers and pulling and throwing in weeds and trimmings. It was almost sacrilege to besmirch it with weeds after all that work, but I wasn't about to take it apart to send it back.

It took two and a half days to fill the thing with my brother and mother rejoicing over all the hard work, and I've hardly made a dent in the newspapers and weeds available. I'm still glad that I didn't get a bigger one so far, but I'll have to see how well this thing makes compost. Maybe I'll want a bigger one if this thing does work, because it is my best chance to get enough compost to do something about the little garden patch. This one is said to have the capacity of about a bag and a half of a thirty gallon garbage bag, and that looks about right.

Composting can be analyzed scientifically. You are trying to raise the organisms which are going to eat your garbage and leave compost behind, and you have to feed and water them right. They have to have enough nitrogen available to break down the carbon-rich material, but if you put in more nitrogen than they can use it is wasted and makes your compost pile stink. And they need oxygen to do the job, too, which is why tumbling the material to mix more air in helps to break it down faster.

How long it takes depends on a lot of factors. For this little tumbler that doesn't retain heat as well as the big ones, the instructions said about 4 to 6 weeks after you stop filling it. The big ones can turn out a load in about 2 weeks if the material is well shredded to begin with. It goes faster in hot weather to help keep the material warm.

So, now I get to turn it several times, several times a day, and keep putting water in to keep it moist while adding more weeds and newspaper as it digests what it has. It is getting the kitchen trimmings, too, including pulp from the new juicer (yet another reason to get the ComposTumbler). I may not have the strength to lift a glass of juice to my lips after spinning the ComposTumbler. The experience is like a cross of The Price Is Right Big Wheel with a swamp; one hopes for good stuff while the muggy aromas of the good earth slowly rise from the air vents. At least I hope that means that it is starting to make compost.