Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Wednesday 30 December 2009

Busy busy busy...ouch...

Have been very busy here, despite having a bad back to contend with...

The run up to Christmas was very difficult for me, as I couldn't go to either CG's carol concert OR take her to the school disco...but my lovely CM stepped in and took over, leaving me to rest and recover a little.

I managed to make some Christmas decorations





and also some salt dough figures.



Then we had the sadness of Kitty cat being put to sleep ( see previous post)

However, once the school holiday started we had various friends around to visit, both ours and CG's, so much fun was had by all and we all felt a bit more cheerful. We also had the snowy, icy weather to contend with, with mixed consequences.



On the one hand it made the garden and wood look enormously pretty, the wood especially was like something out of Narnia. And at least the ground lost its swamp like consistency....on the other the hens disliked the cold snowy weather enormously and spent most of the time hiding in the lean to, waiting to mug me for any food on offer.



No 1 Cream Legbar chicklet(must think of a name for her!) contented herself with fluttering up onto my shoulder at every chance...warming her feet I think!



Christmas Day itself was lovely,

Our Beef multi rib was delish, falling apart it was so tender, but rare in the middle and really juicy..mmm...roasties, Yorkshires etc all perfect, and a lovely bottle of wine to go with it..

Dr Who..was..excellent I thought, and then we had fun singing our hearts out ( well CG and I, anyway,) to a Wii Sing disc (from Santa) which she was most surprised to see me belting out Blondie and Meatloaf hits in tune and on time, without looking at the words...

Our lovely cats Tom and Tabitha have decided to become lap cats, which is nice, and with the wood burner going 24/7 at the mo we were all so all cosy!





The decorations and tree were (I think) the best we have ever done and I even managed to tidy up properly beforehand! ( but the Study is a mess...full of stuff I "tidied" into it......!!)

All our presents were lovely, CM got me 40 more hens ! but before you all panic, they were for Save the Children, so he is happy as he doesn't have to deal with them...and I am very pleased by the gift! I have the Sookie Stackhouse novels to read, on which the C4 series "True Blood" is based, so am v happy as we both enjoy watching those programmes.

CM also got me the "Victorian Save All" book which is fascinating and full of good stuff....as was seen on "Victorian Farm" recently.

Boxing Day was quiet but fun, we played/read/used/listened to our respective presents and went for a walk in the wood in the snow. I did the hens etc, and we all settled down to watch Cap't Jack Sparrow on the TV with cats on our laps.

Sunday was going to be more of the same.....but then *I* managed to fall over backwards on the lethal slick ice whilst on the way to feed the hens...landed flat on my back and have made it much much worse....

So...have been laid up in bed for a lot of the last few days...instead of getting on with cleaning out the polytunnel and planting stuff, I am reading my new Sookie Stackhouse books and doing a lot of lying down.

CM has volunteered to do the routine outside stuff, as he says I am not safe to let out....(!)....he has a point....

Oh well..rest and recuperation is the order of the day now, hopefully I can get myself mobile enough to get to the chiropractor again.....

Hope you enjoy the selection of photos from Compost Mansions over the last week or so.

And that you all had a good festive season!

Monday 28 December 2009

Yet more sad stuff, just before Christmas...farewell to Kitty Cat

Yet more sad stuff here, I have a catch up post about the Festive Season, but first I want to tell you all about Kitty Cat.

Lovely old Kitty Cat reached the end of the road and took his last journey to the Vets on the Saturday before Christmas.

The poor old lad could hardly walk and had become unable to even get out through the cat flap to have a wee, so had taken to just going on the carpet. And as he has never used a litter tray (never learnt how to ..always went outside) there was not a lot we could do to help him.

He went from a strong, if a bit wobbly on his legs, old cat...to looking terrible in the last few days of his life. CM and I have been having "the conversation" several times that week as to if it was "time" but had decided he was still getting some good quality of life..but the last 2 days changed all that...

poor old lad, he looked so uncomfortable....couldn't even groom himself and fell over when he tried the last couple of days :-(

Holly the vet agreed he looked in a very poor way, she offered us the option of yet more tests etc but he had already been down that route earlier this year, was on lots of medication for Kidney and joint problems and was still going downhill fast...and had also started to be incontinent .....AND it would have meant an overnight (at least) stay in the vets, which distressed him hugely last time....so we declined to do any more prodding or poking of him. At 18, he had had enough....

As it was he had a nice last day lying on a cushion by the Aga being stroked and loved and fed cheese and other titbits, then he went quietly to sleep at the vets with CM stroking his head...

So...Tom and Tabitha have sniffed Kitty Cat's body so know he is gone on ahead...and he has been buried in the wood near the pool, a place where he loved to hunt for rabbits...he was a MIGHTY fine hunter until a year ago! Full grown cock pheasants, rabbits, adult rats, squirrels, moles, bats..you name it he could catch it and he never played with his food, as a serious hunter he killed it and ate it!

and there is much sadness around here as we have lost two beloved cats in less than two weeks.....

Farewell, old friend, there is a very large hole where you used to be....

:-(

Friday 11 December 2009

Catch up post about work in November....

It has been manic here dear friends, simply manic!

I am curently doing an adult teaching qualification and it is great fun but hard work and very time consuming! I have also been very busy with getting lots of paying work to do...which is wonderful BUT all this takes me away from doing other stuff...like blogging!

I have managed to find time to post about really important stuff (the loss of poor Sid puss, for example) but the everyday stuff you all seem to like so much, about hens, cats, garden, work...I have had no time..

AND I have ( sigh) been ill or incapacitited AGAIN..yes, my rubbish immune system has let me down and I have been poorly for weeks after getting swine flu...it is a nasty flu tis true, but no worse than other flu....which means it leaves you feeling terrible for several weeks...I basically "lost" most of October as I was too ill to do more than the minimum chores around Compost Mansions and I had to cancel a number of things I really wanted to do!

ANYWAY...here are a few pictures of some things I got up to in November...

I had several trips to what I am rapidly thinking of as my spiritual home..the Worcester Scrapstore...

This time I got lots of ribbon and assorted stuff to use in my recycled Seasonal craft workshop....which I ran during Novemeber.




10 adults attended and made some lovely wreaths from both recycled and natural materials ,

as well as twig wands and stars and music scroll tree decorations.





I really enjoyed teaching them stuff and they all seemed to really enjoy themselves, which was nice for me! The next 2 courses I am running are already fully booked, anyway, so I must be doing something right.

Saturday 5 December 2009

Busy busy busy...ouch...

Have been very busy here, despite having a bad back to contend with...

I managed to make some Christmas decorations





and also some salt dough figures.



We also had the snowy, icy weather to contend with, with mixed consequences.


On the one hand it made the garden and wood look enormously pretty, the wood especially was like something out of Narnia. And at least the ground lost its swamp like consistency....on the other the hens disliked the cold snowy weather enormously and spent most of the time hiding in the lean to, waiting to mug me for any food on offer.



No 1 Cream Legbar chicklet (must think of a name for her!) contented herself with fluttering up onto my shoulder at every chance...warming her feet I think!









The decorations and tree were (I think) the best we have ever done and I even managed to tidy up properly beforehand! ( but the Study is a mess...full of stuff I "tidied" into it......!!)

Thursday 3 December 2009

RIP Sid



So....this morning CM has brought Sid back from the vets. He has dug a very large hole under the Swamp Cypress in the wood, where Sid loved to sit at the very top and shout down to us...

We have shown his dead body to the other 3 cats, so they know where he has gone... all 3 cats had a really good sniff and Tom and Tabby both gave Sid face rubs and meeped at him, to try and wake him up.........and then..their tails drooped and they sniffed him all over very carefullly..then went slowly away....

Tabitha is very upset, she won't let us stroke her at all.....Tom is curled up where Sid used to sleep....making little mieows now and then...

and I have just found myself walking in to the room where Sid is currently lying on the floor, and still sort of expected him to jump up from the blanket and say hello to me....

But he won't.

Goodbye lovely Sid, we all love you very much and you gave us many happy times in your short time with us.

Some pictures of Sid.



Sid in characteristic mad pose, fast asleep!



Sid on his first day with us, last year, playing...always playing!


Sid, up a tree, always ready to climb...anything!

Wednesday 2 December 2009

Am very sad here..

Am very sad here..

Just after Compostman left to take Compostgirl to Brownies, at 6.15 a knock on the door was followed by a man saying he had found a cat in the road...it further transpired that his car had hit Sidney our lovely cat outside our house.

The man ( all credit for having the guts to tell me what had happened, and not just drive off...)
had brought Sid in to the garden, so I rushed inside to get a solid board, towel and warm blanket, plus phone..we lifted Sid ( who was alive but not moving) onto the board, and I covered him up and went inside to phone the vet...

I got Sid (on the board, wrapped up) into my car and sped to the vets, ..at 6 30 pm he was given oxygen..at 8 pm a phone call told me he was stable, seemed to have a broken pelvis from the initial X ray but his breathing was still worrying them...but they could see no major, other injuries...so we were all happy and I was telling a distraught CG that maybe Sid might be OK, eventually....

but as the vet was talking to me there was a shout for her as he had stopped breathing...and when she called me back 5 min later it was with the news that he had stopped breathing and despite CPR, had died....

CG is over come with grief..we are numb with shock..Sid was the rescue young cat we got last year..after the Monty puss shaped hole had ceased to hurt quite so badly..he was lovely, friendly, a character and so motherly to the 2 kittens Tom and Tabitha...


RIP Sidney Puss, we will ALL miss you so very much.....

Monday 2 November 2009

A very busy half term holiday

As well as having fun with Compostgirl, I spent the half term holiday week leading up to Samhain/Halloween working with groups of children on various seasonal craft activities...mainly involving pumpkins ( now there's a surprise!)







All told I have been involved, one way or another, with the carving of 54 pumpkins, over the last 5 days in October.....



On one of my days off working we went round to see our very good friend M and her 2 lovely children for the day, we had lunch, the children played, M and I chatted and we carved ( you guessed it!) pumpkins!



Here is Compostgirl carving pumpkins with her friends.



The craft sessions I ran also involved lots of glue and glitter and orange paint





And lots of bats and spiders, of course!

I DO like my work :-) (even though it took a very long time to wash out all the glue and glitter in my hair.....)

but I think I will give pumpkin a miss for a few days...... :-))

Sunday 1 November 2009

Update on Spike the hedgehog









When Spike the little Hedgehog was handed over to us after being found on the School playing field, he was a weak and poorly little hoggie. He only weighed 150 g and was desparately in need of food and water and warmth.

Once I got some drink and a bit of food down him he perked up and has twice in the past 3 weeks been into school to have a look at the children and for us to answer questions about hedgehogs.

We weighed him on 18th Oct and he had increased in weight to 300g....so he doubled his weight in 5 days!



he is getting bigger and eating more and more cat food so we weighed him again on 30th Oct and he weighed in at 450g.....



and when we weighed him again last night, he was a wopping 550g!





At this rate he will be big enough to release outside before the end of November and he will be big enough to go into hibernation!

Oh, and he looks a bit dusty in these pictures because we have just scrubbed out his cage, dried it, put in fresh bedding and dusted it with Diatom powder to kill off mites and fleas.... he isn't really grey!

Wednesday 28 October 2009

Wonderful new hen run!






Wonderful new hen run! To go with the wonderful new hen house !

Built by clever Compostman, as a ( very) belated birthday present for me...and to go with the house he has already built for me....



Except we have swapped things around, so the new run now goes with Cluckingham Palace ( a boughten house) and the home made house (called Peckingham Palace) is now attached to the run which came with Cluckingham Palace ....

It does all make sense, honest!

Anyway, its a wonderful, wonderful present, the hens love it and it will make my life a lot easier, as all the hens now have lots of dry, sheltered space if they have to be left shut in for any reason.

THANK YOU lovely Compostman, you are a star and I love you very much!

Sunday 18 October 2009

Ruby and the chicklets, week 5

The Cream Legbar chicks are now 5 weeks old and have largely lost all their baby fluff and have proper feathers now. The cockerel is a bossy little chap to his sisters and steals their food whenever he can. He comes running to me whenever I go outside, though! I think he has worked out I mean food is on the way!



I turn out Ruby and the chicklets into the veg patch every day, they are safe from the other hens in there although not from cats!



They love to scratch and furtle around in the soil, eating all sorts of stuff. Ruby is a very attentive mother and teaches them well.



Ruby and the chicklets dust bathing in the sunshine. See how big the chicks are, now!

Friday 16 October 2009

Spike goes a visiting....

Spike went a-visiting yesterday !

I am rather unwell with a sore throat and cough so Compostman stepped in for me and helped at Eco club yesterday. As Spike is now recovered and eating well, Compostman took him into school as the plan was to make some hibernation houses for insects and things...

and Spike was an absolute star! He uncurled and trotted around the inside of the circle of children sat on the floor, stopping to sniff at them and generally be very friendly. The children adored him!

Compostman talked about hibernation and how/why hedgehogs hibernate. He also discussed with the children about what happens to the late summer baby hedgehogs and why "autumn orphan" hedgehogs are unlikely to survive the winter and hibernation without human help. (For those who don't know, a hoggie needs to be at least 500g to survive hibernation and waking up in spring, and the late babies often don't have time to get to this weight before the food runs out)

Compostman mentioned that Spike wasn't really ill, as such, when he was found on the school field (although he looked it) but was just cold and hungry and thirsty. When Compostman added that Spike had probably got separated from his mum, several of the children had to be stopped from running up the field to look for her....ah bless!

Spike is now back in his cage, in the warm, tucking into yet more cat meat and has gained 10% of his body weight in 1 day... !


Wednesday 14 October 2009

Spike, our new house guest!

We have a new guest at Compost Mansions. A young Hedgehog! He was found wandering around the School Field and so we were asked to take him home, as we have reared hedgehog babies before. He was in a bad way from cold and lack of food and he is too young and small to make it through hibernation this winter and would die if he tried. He only weighs 150 g and ideally needs to be around 500g to make it through hibernation AND WAKE UP AGAIN ( very important, that last bit!)



So this poor, small, lost little baby needed help. Urgently.

He perked up a bit that evening when we put him in a spare rabbit cage we had in the shed, with a nice warm dark bed and cat meat to eat, and we thought we had sorted him out, but the next day he had started to wobble when he walked - never a good sign in an animal!

So, we brough the cage in the house, I put him in a box by the woodburner to warm up and then dropper fed him rehydration fluid.

And gave him a massage ( with all those spines, tricky, that! )

until he roused enough to eat a bit of mashed cat meat from my hand.

BTW, do NOT give bread and milk to hedgehogs as it is VERY bad for them!

He is now stuffing his face with cat food today and making a hell of a mess in the cage.....



We have called him "Spike".
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