[Sharon]

Sometime over the next few days I will be emptying an inherited compost bin.  It's about 4 foot square and almost 5 foot high.  One side opens, thankfully.
I need to empty it to get at the good stuff lower down and also to modify it. I will be putting a pallet down the middle to make it into 2 bins.
My questions are, is there anything I should be wary of in moving that amount of compost when I don't know what might be in there? And any tips for making the job a bit easier?

[lincspoacher]

Wait for Bob-A-Job Week ?

[DIGGER]

Just be on your toes and ready to move

[woodburner]

Lol I second what digger said.
Moving compost heaps (or turning them in my case) can be a scary business. I'd nearly finished the second big bin, going around from one corner to the next, just a little bit of compacted stuff in the middle to shake up, in goes my fork and out shoots a mouse! When my heart stopped thumping I resumed where I left off and lifted a forkful of half rotted compost and dumped it on the stuff to one side, it twitched! My first thought was, "Oh god I've killed one this time!" Closer inspection revealed an unharmed toad.

Less pleasant potential occupants include snakes and rats.

[Aidy]

Just be on your toes and ready to move

My thoughts too  

[Sharon]

Thanks for that guys.
I don't think I want to do it now.  :cherry:

[DIGGER]

Thanks for that guys.
I don't think I want to do it now.  :cherry:

Sharon, you big girls blouse. Get yer wellys on and tie yer trouser tight at the bottom [of the legs I mean] and get turning.
Report back  on your progress,I can be very stern. :evil:

[Sharon]

I'm not scared, honest.  I grew up in the middle of nowhere, so little creatures don't really bother me.  It's just they run so dam fast and make a heck of a noise when you tread on them.  Past experience, trod on a mouse when I only had socks on.   :ncool:

[lincspoacher]

I had a temp job once, Grain Sampler for a Grain Merchants. the job involved driving round farms taking samples of the wheat and barley and taking them back to the lab for analysis.

When farmers store grain, they tend to store it in Drying Sheds. These are sheds with a grid floor adn a tunnel down the middle, usually two or three meters height and a meter wide. there a huge hot air blower  at one end blows hot air up the tunnel, and out through the grid, which dries the grain.

I went to one farm, and for some reason, he opened the access door at the end of the tunnel. It was incredible. A wall of mice fell out - it looked like someone had just emptied a big bag of mice on the floor, there was hundreds of them scattering in all directions.

I also noticed a fat black and white cat asleep on a haystack........

[woodburner]

I'm not scared, honest.  I grew up in the middle of nowhere, so little creatures don't really bother me.  It's just they run so dam fast and make a heck of a noise when you tread on them.  Past experience, trod on a mouse when I only had socks on.   :ncool:

Never having trod on a mouse in socks I can't say which is worse, but I stood on a big fat slug in my socks once, it went 'pop' :puker:  :puker:  :puker: I retched at the memory of it for years.

[FCG]

Shrew bit me when i was 6. Rotten *.
Mice are funny little things that seem to move at the speed of lightning. Get a bunch of kittens in. That'll sort any mice/rats out.

Be careful of putting a spade through a hedgehog though.

[hecateh]

Never having trod on a mouse in socks I can't say which is worse, but I stood on a big fat slug in my socks once, it went 'pop' :puker:  :puker:  :puker: I retched at the memory of it for years.[/quote

The mice round here don't wear socks      

[agapanthus]

I also noticed a fat black and white cat asleep on a haystack........

....sounds about right!!!!

[happy chick]

You guys have me in fits  
I thought I was the only one who gets freaked out in the garden by fast moving critters.

[Kate and her Ducks]

I consider myseff fairly unflappable so when I emptied out a dead mouse with the straw when cleaning out the ducks it didn't really bother me to pick it up by the tail to throw it out. The mouse did mind and ran off like lightning when it found out the playing dead wasn't working. I screamed and jumped about a foot in the air!