"Alan Gould" wrote in message
news
In article , davout
writes
My heaps are under trees, protected from the elements and will hardly ever
get wet from the rain.

Each heap is about 6 ft wide x 5ft deep by 5 feet tall. The heaps were
almost completely filled by the end of last Autumn. When I turned them a
couple of days ago they had reduced in volume by about a third.

I find the best time to turn my compost heap is when the temperature indoors
becomes rather frosty. This is usually soon after the Christmas holidays or
when the mother-in-law comes to stay. By choosing the lesser of two evils
(ie. out in the freezing rain shovelling muck) I find it gets rid of any
less than charitable feelings and is great exercise. Only trouble is, last
Christmas was unusually harmonious and my mother-in-law hasn't visited yet,
so my compost heap is in a sorry state :-{
Jim R.