So this spring I decided to take my partially composted 'cold' pile and try to get it heated up. I got a bunch of used straw horse bedding. I layered this with the partially composted material (mostly garden and some kitchen waste), a bit of fresh kitchen waste, used coffee grounds, and some old leaves. I also added some blood meal as a read somewhere it was a good way to introduce more nitrogen to the compost pile.

Anyway it seems to have worked! It got up to temps of 145 on days 4 and 5. The pile is clearly shrinking as well. Today when I went out to have a look the temp has dropped down to 130. It's also developed an impressive fungal component (lots of gray, cob-web like mold throughout most of the center of the pile). The straw seems to be visibly breaking down. So yea, it worked! Now my question is when should I turn the pile? Do I do it now since temps are starting to drop. OR do I wait until it gets much cooler. I'm a bit worried that if I mess with it now It'll somehow 'stall' and all that good microbial activity will come to a halt. It's also still pretty cool here with days barely reaching 50 and nights below freezing. I don't want to cool the pile off too much.