I am currently compost- less.

Last week  I added a bucket of food waste to my tumbler and spun. It remained motionless, so I gave it a good shove. It moved, but not in a way I expected.  The vessel bottomed out and half-rotted compost started spilling out onto the yard — and dangerously close to my sandaled feet.

My husband (thank God) was in the shower. If he encountered the sights and smells of the past 3 months of kitchen scraps — and our last haircut, he would surely gag…or worse. Food doesn’t just turn to dirt on its own. It’s helped along by chemistry, maggots, mold and a host of other un-pleasantries.

I grabbed a large bin and some garden gloves and started shoveling the worm-y mess as fast as I could.

So now I have a bin of half-composted food and a disabled tumbler in my backyard — and a giant bowl of scraps in my kitchen awaiting a receptacle.