My compost bin was dog-proof, just as I hoped.  Unfortunately, it wasn't squirrel-proof.

We usually walk past the compost/worms/parking area at least twice a day while walking Lucy, and that tends to keep critters away, but when we got flooded in, the wildlife got bold.  As soon as I was able to cross the creek, I peered in the compost bin and saw two big holes where some kind of wild animal (I'm guessing squirrels) had squeezed through the lattice and had a feast.

Although it doesn't matter too much if a few squirrels nibble on the food scraps, I want to keep my compost, so I added a layer of chicken wire around the outside of the bin.  I'm not sure if even that will be enough to keep out a determined critter.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see if someone else breaks in to eat.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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