Michaelangelo
We try to be a very humane and environmentally conscious household and for the most part I think we do a really good job. A nagging thing, though, has been how we use those hated plastic grocery bags to package our dog waste. Any bag that has holes and is thus unsuitable goes directly to the recycling bin, but the intact ones get used as a knottable glove so that our neighbors don't grow annoyed at mounds of dog poop growling alongside the road.
But this makes the bags landfill, and I've never been comfortable with that. I wanted to start a compost pile but it turns out using cat or dog feces in compost invalidates it (or ought to) for use in a vegetable garden. So with some research we found the Doggie Dooley, an in-ground composting system that should exactly fit the bill.
It comes with everything but the hole, however. So I've been working on ours. You need to do roughly a two foot by two foot square, two feet deep, and then go deeper in the middle, as deep as you can to stay below the frost line so the thing has a chance for working in the winter. Then you add the enzyme powder and water, then the dog stuffing, and voila, problem solved.
But you still gotta dig the hole. With a spine like mine, that ain't easy. So far you can look at it as either a five day hole or a five hour hole. I can scrape at it for about an hour at a time before I begin daydreaming of life as an invertebrate. And here in New Hampshire, rock is just about as common as dirt, so there's a lot of digging out and around and hoisting and doubt: you never know if you're excavating a bowling ball or a Volkswagen.
I'm just about done, though. Another day/hour should do it. My strategy has been that of the great sculptors where I lay down on my stomach, torso hanging over the abyss, hand trowel in hand, breaking up everything that is not a hole. After the Zen-like sessions are past, I measure my success by depth, the rocks I've removed, and the actual hole. Ricky likes to stand in it and has become my measuring stick. I'm not sure how tall he is but he's beneath ground level at this point. If I could get Sabrina below ground level I'll call it done.
But then I'll be filling my hole and it will no longer be one for there will be things in it. All grocery bags from that point forward will be recycled, though hopefully using reusable ones will mostly eliminate that problem.
And eliminating is what this post is all about.
But this makes the bags landfill, and I've never been comfortable with that. I wanted to start a compost pile but it turns out using cat or dog feces in compost invalidates it (or ought to) for use in a vegetable garden. So with some research we found the Doggie Dooley, an in-ground composting system that should exactly fit the bill.
It comes with everything but the hole, however. So I've been working on ours. You need to do roughly a two foot by two foot square, two feet deep, and then go deeper in the middle, as deep as you can to stay below the frost line so the thing has a chance for working in the winter. Then you add the enzyme powder and water, then the dog stuffing, and voila, problem solved.
But you still gotta dig the hole. With a spine like mine, that ain't easy. So far you can look at it as either a five day hole or a five hour hole. I can scrape at it for about an hour at a time before I begin daydreaming of life as an invertebrate. And here in New Hampshire, rock is just about as common as dirt, so there's a lot of digging out and around and hoisting and doubt: you never know if you're excavating a bowling ball or a Volkswagen.
I'm just about done, though. Another day/hour should do it. My strategy has been that of the great sculptors where I lay down on my stomach, torso hanging over the abyss, hand trowel in hand, breaking up everything that is not a hole. After the Zen-like sessions are past, I measure my success by depth, the rocks I've removed, and the actual hole. Ricky likes to stand in it and has become my measuring stick. I'm not sure how tall he is but he's beneath ground level at this point. If I could get Sabrina below ground level I'll call it done.
But then I'll be filling my hole and it will no longer be one for there will be things in it. All grocery bags from that point forward will be recycled, though hopefully using reusable ones will mostly eliminate that problem.
And eliminating is what this post is all about.
posted by Rick Ollerman at 5:02 PM
3 Comments:
Are you the Rick Ollerman married to DJT??
Nope, that must be another one. Which is spooky but I have at least one doppelganger in Florida, who appeared disturbingly near to where I used to live. I thought at first I might have been an identity theft victim but it turns out there's a whole 'nother guy with the same name. Bit spooky but now I know how guys like "Bill Smith" feel.
Ok Rick, no problem. There is a Rick Ollerman in Safety Harbor Florida which is in the Tampa Bay area. I thought maybe it was you. Thanks for your time and your reponse.
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