What started as an extremely chilly morning, turned out ok as the sun rose in the sky and the wind died down. We set up out in the very back of the nursery - this was to be a "hands on" class with Master Composter Paul Pflimlin taking the lead. Paul has an extremely beautiful yard here in Fallon, and has been on our garden tour in the past. The entire back area of his acre is devoted to composting, vermiculture (worms) and perfecting his humic acid. The first hour of the demonstration we discussed the benefits of compost/ compost vs. mulch / how to get started / 
variety of methods /and a questions and answer session.Then it was on to building some compost bins. Paul uses a variety of systems in his own yard, and one very effective one for him is the rolled bin. He discussed the benefits, including the low cost, and set about putting a few together. (We purchased a roll of this wiring at our local Ace Hardware -Louie's for 33.00 including tax. It made 6 cages)
Michelle then took over with her bin process - using old pallets, another low cost method considering you can find old ones for free at a lot of locations - including The Flower Tree!!! During the construction came the hands-on part of the class for many volunteers as we put together the bins and then raked and pruned around the nursery to gather material to start filling them. At the bottom of the page I have included some great links about compost and project lists. (Thank you to Paul Pflimlin and Jim Anderson for the compilation of these sites)
Hope to see you at the next class this coming Saturday the 20th, when Michelle and I will be presenting #4 in our Think Green Garden Series "Edible Gardening" otherwise known as Eating up the Landscape.
Vermiculture: This is Darren Murphey's site, Sierra Worm Solutions. He does classes at The Flower Tree on worm composting, as well as furnishes worms for us to sell.