This past weekend I got tired of having weird piles of compost all over the place and I built a formal compost site… pit.. whatever. I was originally going to build a 3-sided pen with old cinder blocks, but Marlin suggested I use logs from an old firewood pile that’s been slowly rotting on the perimeter for several years now. I was happy to do this because it kills two birds with one stone and looks a lot better than a pile of concrete blocks.
I dug out a 3x3 square a bit, lined three sides up to about 4" with wood, and filled it with forest soil and leaves, then went around and dug up the little compost piles and tossed the fermenty stuff in there. The screen, which didn’t work at all on its own, works just fine to cover the top and keep it tidy. The idea is to gradually build the walls up as needed. Eventually the wood will turn to compost as well.
It will be interesting to see if I can actually get something for my garden out of this, but as long as we’re breaking the stuff down and it doesn’t get smelly I’m satisfied.