Last night, this compost pile went to 165 F before I went to bed. I woke up at midnight, it was a very foggy and spooky new moon night, just to check on the pile and she was holding good at 165 F with no signs of a temperature spike.
The thermophilic compost pile held at 165 F for 12 hours, thankfully. The 12 hour mark was at 6:20 am. So after a quick coffee I turned the pile at 6:20 am. This took about 2 hours.
I had to take the top part of the compost pile on a tarp. This is because I needed to take the hot middle and place it on the bottom of a new pallet first. I removed all layers with hands protected by rubber gloves and a 5 gallon bucket. The hot middle did burn quite a bit at 165 F.
Once the hot middle is placed evenly on a new pallet, while also breaking up chunks and compacted organic material, than I placed the top part of the compost that I placed on the tarp on top of the Hot middle that I just placed in. After all of that I simply placed the the bottom of the old pile on top of the middle section I just placed in. The entire time breaking up chunks of organic material compacted together.
Currently, the thermophilic compost pile is at 131 F after 4 hours of it being turned. It was 80 F after the first turn today. So this means if it sustains at 131 F than I will need to turn in 72 hours.
What's thermophilic compost though? Never heard of that term for compost before. I usually gear it as leachate or digests