I've gotten myself into something more than I ever expected with this ComposTumbler. Mom is so happy about it that she is talking about getting another one. We've got so many kitchen scraps, especially since getting the juicer, and so much yard waste that I can't stop filling this one up with new stuff to give it time to finish the old batch. It is now full to the screens and diligently dribbling compost tea in the bucket beneath it. What got Mom really happy was the news that the two rose bushes getting the compost tea now are growing more leaves and roses even in this hot, humid weather.

She was already amazed at how much weeding and pruning I was doing from the good effects of the juice and the incentive of filling the tumbler. I was amazed at how bad the yard looked under the heavy growth of shrubs and trees. I had been leaving all of that to her for many years, and the ground under the shrubs is strewn with dead wood, weeds, and many wild seedlings. Once I started lifting branches and looking under there and at what is directly against the fence . . . AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!

The last straw was when one neighbor's ex-husband came back and chopped away at the stuff on the fence between the properties. He didn't just clip things hanging on his side. He reached over and chopped at stuff on our side. About half of the ornamentals are gone along that fence, but tragically enough, that is the fence in the best shape. No, I can't show you pictures of what it looks like, as Mom would probably die of shame after killing me.

The next door neighbor seems to be enjoying it, too. She waved hello at me this week. It has been years since that chain link fence saw sunlight on our side, and it hasn't seen much on her side between her ex-husband's visits. She has tried to sell the house but so far hasn't, even when he has come over and "helped" Mom by doing some yard work for her to abate the "effect" next door. She hires someone to prune a little occasionally, but mostly lets things grow for more spring blooms.

So, I've been going out in the morning and doing what I could as long as strength and cool enough temperatures allowed it. I'm sure I've still got muscles since they are aching grumpily at being used so much. I keep checking that friendly flab under my arms to see if anything muscular is growing in there, but it is still jiggling along like it could fit a pork shoulder with only a strip of bacon currently residing there (how do you think it got there in the first place?). Gravity has been cruel to me in my old age.

My brother is still snickering happily about it all. He got some more produce to juice this morning. I put through a big bag of grapefruit and got enough juice to halfway fill the juice pitcher. The tumbler gulped the new offering and dribbled some more. Now, if I could just get those roses to prune the rest of the yard in gratitude for their tumbler juice, I'd be all set.