What I wanted to know was simple. The title says it all, and no I haven't went completely brain dead lol. I am well aware that if I grabbed a handfull of compost and squeezed it out and lots of water came out --- that's too moist, but the compost pile have been working on was out in the rain in the last few days and was really wet. I went ahead and turned the soil from the bottom up (once each day it rained). Now however, it is still damp.....I figure if the rain will stop over the course of a week, I will be able to salvage the compost.....but when I turned the pile today, it was hella cold.

What can I do to bring the temp up??? Add cow manure???

Any help apprietiated.

BW

I would cover it with black plastic. You really want the soil to be air raided. Remember its the micro bacteria in the soil that is breaking everything down. If its too swampy it will hinder this process because there won't be any o2 in the soil. If you cover it, that should be fine. You could throw an aquarium heater in it, but i don't think thats nessisary. ALSO, only put the manure in there if its going to sit for more then a year. As the manure breaks down it will rob the soil of nitrogen, then it releases it back into the soil, so for short term turnover, no manure. You can soak the manure in a swampy brine like mixture and let it furment, then all the nitrogen says in the brine. I don't know the details to doing that but you can probably look it up.

simon covered it pretty well, though I cook manure for only a couple months. manure will however help amp up the temp's in the pile. cover the pile with straw... and you can get away with turning the pile once or twice a week. you might want to tarp it if you're gettin' excessive rain.