Earth Machine Composting Bins - It's all the rage (at least I'm hoping it will be)

We became composters about a year ago at our place in the San Rafael hills and my mission is to spread the word and help reduce landfills with all the of kitchen and yard waste that could be turned back into usable soil.  We've managed to cut down from our big garbage bin to the smallest the city of Pasadena offers and that isn't usually full.  (Except for the big party we threw Saturday night but that's another story).  We keep a small compost pail under the sink for kitchen scraps and use a biodegradable bag liner.  I've been using Bio Bags and you can find them online - even found them on Overstock.com once.  And, no folks, it doesn't smell.  The pail has a charcoal insert which keeps odors away.  (Money saving tip - Marshall's has compost bins sometimes).  The soil has been usable to spread in our garden and mulch our yard for a few months now.  Great stuff!  Our bin came from the city of Pasadena and you can find information here  Pasdena Compost Info.   Recently though I was at the Burbank Board of Realtors and the city of Burbank has a program as well that uses a bin from a company called Earth Machine and I had compost bin envy.  Yes it's true.  It is user-friendly and even borders on sexy - for something that turns garbage into soil. Their compost booklet is excellent too. Click here for their website Earth Machine  or you can contact the city of Burbank as well here. 

See what I mean?!



(Image courtesy of Earthmachine.com)

1015 Oak Grove - Sold!

The beautiful estate in San Marino has sold and with it my record time of 15 minutes (running with shoes off) to turn on all the lights, open it all up, turn on pool fountains, put out patio furniture cushions etc.  It was a good workout in beautiful surroundings!