My leaf bag collecting operations produce confusion for some neighbors and emulation with others. A close neighbor, whose current preoccupation is the recent resignation of Mark Richt, the UGA football coach, was unclear whether I was collecting the leaf bags in order to keep the paper bags or for the leaves, and if the latter, why? On a more pleasing but also disconcerting note some, or at least one neighbor, has also begun removing leaf bags from the curbside – new competition for next year?. However, this year I have amassed at least 100 bags and much good compost will result.
When I have collected all the bags I need, I will break the bags and mix the leaves with other organic materials and compost. In the meantime the dry leaves are enclosed in the bags, protected from rain and wind and achieving little. It occurred to me – why not make a slit at the top of each bag and pump stored rainwater via a hose into each bag. The leaves would be saturated and the bag would prevent evaporation and retain heat produced by the leaves and so the decomposition process could begin even before I mix up all the materials with the bobcat. I will see in a few weeks if this makes any difference.
the cable sizing conundrum
I need an extension cord for 12 volt dc 3amp power and referred to online calculators which produced very different recommendations. So I tried doing the calculation myself and was pleased that one of the websites has similar calculation results though 2 others recommend much thicker cable. This is not my area of expertise so you should go with the recommendations of a reputable site, but for interest only, my calculations are under the self reliance tab/ups.