<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">What timing! This was in the Washington Post today: <a href="https://wapo.st/3ZWgbSw">https://wapo.st/3ZWgbSw</a><div><br></div><div>Tom, if you are willing to donate one (or more!!) composting structures to FUUSM, I think we’d be crazy not to take them! If you can put them behind the RE building to the right of the bike rack, that would be great. From the Huntington Bank parking lot, it would be easy to move them down the hill to the spot where they’d be most useful. THANK YOU!! </div><div><br></div><div>I think the right thing to do is to put as many leaves as will fit into these cylinders, but also, there are plenty of areas of bare soil beneath the tall spruces (or firs, or whatever those conifers are). It would be good to spread leaves out in this area to benefit the soil. </div><div><br></div><div>I will gladly ask Wendy to do this when I see her on Thursday—unless someone objects.</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks!</div><div><br></div><div>—dawn<br><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPad</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Oct 16, 2023, at 12:15 PM, Tom Cunningham via fuusmchat <fuusmchat@fuusm.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Hi all,</div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I've always built my compost pile using cyndrical "structures" made from old chain link fencing (see photo of my current pile). The material composts better as this allows air circulation. Since moving to Vienna, I have a great source of maple leaves (my neighbor), which allows me to store a good bit of the leaves for next year's compost, using a couple more of these chainlink circles.</div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I have 3 extra chainlink cylinders that I can contribute if they would work to store our FUUSM leaves, promoting some composting. When filled with leaves, they are 3 feet in diameter and 4 feet high. If we want this, let me know, and someone tell me where to put them on our church property. </div> <div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As a footnote, the best compost comes from not 100% leaves, but a mix of brown and green, plus water, air, and optimally. occasional turning. But I've found that one of these circles filled with leaves still seems to break down fairly well, maybe with the occasional stir, and makes a decent mulch, if not actual compost.</div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tom </div><div><br></div>On Mon, Oct 16, 2023 at 10:53 AM, Fuusm Office Assistant via fuusmchat <<a href="mailto:On Mon, Oct 16, 2023 at 10:53 AM, Fuusm Office Assistant via fuusmchat <<a href=" class="" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" target="_blank">fuusmchat@fuusm.org</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="protonmail_quote" type="cite"> <div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal">Dear FUUSM family,</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">As I am writing to you, our hard-working, conscientious, and very sweet building steward, Wendy, is sucking all the leaves in the FUUSM courtyard into a bag for disposal elsewhere. Soon, she will blow all the leaves under the trees into a pile and haul them off, too. </p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Recognizing that leaves hold eggs of beneficial insects, and that leaves decompose to build hummus, and eventually, the soil, “Leave the leaves!” is the new mantra of ecologists. </p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">I can’t in good conscience let the leaves that have fallen on FUUSM property be carried off with out objection. But neither can we leave the leaves on the city sidewalk, or on our steps or walkway or courtyard, where it would kill the grass. Would it be best to move those leaves onto the vegetation of the walled areas beside the courtyard? Or maybe under the tall conifers, to the right of the bike rack?</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">What is the ecologically right thing to do with fallen leaves in an urban area with no suitable “brushpile” site? </p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Surely we UUs want to do the ecologically right thing, and hauling off leaves is NOT it. But what do we do with them?</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Thanks.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Dawn Hewitt</p><p class="MsoNormal">Office assistant</p><p class="MsoNormal">First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p></div><div id="DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2"><br><table style="border-top: 1px solid #D3D4DE;"><tbody><tr><td style="width: 55px; padding-top: 13px;"><a href="http://www.avg.com/email-signature" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener"><img src="https://s-install.avcdn.net/ipm/preview/icons/icon-envelope-tick-green-avg-v1.png" alt="" width="46" height="29" style="width: 46px; height: 29px;" data-unique-identifier=""></a></td><td style="width: 470px; padding-top: 12px; color: #41424e; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Virus-free.<a href="http://www.avg.com/email-signature" target="_blank" style="color: #4453ea;" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">www.avg.com</a></td></tr></tbody></table><a href="#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2" width="1" height="1" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> </a></div>
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