You can pee on it or you can add some high nitrogen fertilizer. I don't have any problem with how fast mine breaks down, but then I am not looking at it with a glass or scope. I let it develop, and some times move part of it to use as mulch and break down in place. Never had trouble being flexible with it.
I use Urea to help add nitrogen to the composting proceedure. You can buy it in 25 lb. bags, cheap, at most larger lawn and garden suppliers. Urea is water soluable so gets to work fast.
Urea is pee in bagged form. Also very hot nitrogen content. It is so high you need to be careful about using it on young plants until it's had the chance to leach or work it's wonders on the pile. Never use the compost on seedlings if you can see those salt like granules. They will burn young plants. And many plants don't need all that nitrogen in one gulp anyway. Especially if you are growing veggies, it promotes green leaf growth with very little root or fruiting benefits. It's a great cheap source for greening up your lawn, though.
Guess I didn't make myself clear. I only use the urea to kick start my compost. Not on the lawns or gardens. By the time the compost is ready to sift and store most of the nitrogen has been used up in the break-down process. Have found if we store the processed compost in totes , A little over a cubic yard, over the winter we dont have a bad weed seed problem the second year.
I am not clear on where the fanatic organic gardeners stand on urea. It is a processed material. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea
Also good to fill a bucket with comfrey leaves and top it up with water. After a week the leaves have started to rot. You can use this liquid as plant food and also in the compost heap. Pee in the compost is the right thing to do though to get it started but also if you have a load of stuff that you have added to it. Ree thinks it is SO cool. He doesn't have to come indoors to pee!!
Don't forget to add some of the clean non protein(red meat) type kitchen waste to your pile, that helps to speed things up to. I know my Granny always added her egg shells, vegetable clippings and fruit skins, old bread to her pile. I don't have as much of that sort of stuff as she did, but feel free to add it to the pile, it helps with the decomp, but make sure you cover it over it can start to smell.
Today I took the temps on my compost. Air temp was 52*, compost was at 88*. Going salmon fishing in the morning, compost will get all the leftovers. Should jumpstart the process in a hurry. Have both bends about half full at this time, should get a good load this summer.
Went fishing and the leftovers went in the compost, five days later the temp was up to 133*F. Raining today so wont have to water the gardens, will spend so time on the compost. Has been a wet spring and begining summer. So far haven't seen any slugs, so maybe we'll get a good load of strawberries and not have to share them with the slugs.
God I wish we'd get some rain around here. Was a dry winter, and now we are heating up for the summer, no relief in sight until October. I won't have to worry about slugs around here, it's just way too hot for them. Besides the wild turkeys have been visiting. I am looking at 99 to 106 outside air temp until then.
Gardener: wish we could trade a little weather. Here, now it's 59* downtown Seward and at our place it's 62* 3 1/2 miles out of town and the ocean. Here 62* is a Tee-shirt kind of day. Thier calling for light showers this evening. But still have the sprinkler on just in case thier wrong..
Me too Alaskan, at least a little rain. We didn't even get the snowfall in the mountains to feed runoff. I really appreciated the mild winter because I did have to turn on the heat, but the landscape is really suffering for it now.
