I've been experimenting with compost-making. I had a load of wire fencing
going spare, so I made a circular pen, aboit 5ft diameter and 3ft 6" tall,
filling with my compostable material, which is a mixture of grass sods and
stable straw mixed with horse excrement - and some dry straw which the
horses missed!

I have a book on self-sufficiency which tells me to shelter the heap from
the rain (very important, it says). So I did so, using a tarp.

I then aquired a few more bags of stable straw, mixed with horse excrement.
so I decided to make a bigger heap, interspersing this with the contents of
my original heap. So I created a bigger wire-fencing 'pen' and turned heap
1 into it, mixing on the new horse straw/excrement as I went. I also
sprinkled in a 3kg bag of compost accelerator, as I went,out of curiosity
to see if it really will accelerated matters. I hoesed water onto the new
heap, as I went, aiming to moisten the material, to a degree that struck me
as condusive to rapid rotting.

While forking the contents of heap 1 onto heap 2, I discovered that my
original heap was too dry at the outsides. So, after I had completed the
new super-heap, I wrapped a large tarp around the outside to prevent it
(hopefully) from drying out.

However there is still the question of how mucg rain should I allow to fall
on the heap. Anyone got any strong views on this? My objective is to
produce good compast in the shortest time.

Thanks...

Al