I had a nice slatted cedar bin, but it is still in my ex-husband's back yard.
One of these days if he ever empties it out I'll get it back.
I've used an informally fenced area, with posts and chicken wire to confine the compost, and that worked in a space where I didn't want to actually build anything permanent or heavy to move around. I made it a rectangle and every so often when I was turning it moved it from one end of the enclosure to the other. I constructed it so one side of it opened completely so I could reach the pile easily.
I stopped that when I got dogs. They thought the compost was a great place to root for table scraps, and I couldn't keep them out once they got that habit. Boy, did they stink some days.
I have a large yard and for a while had a compost pile right out in the front yard. I wanted to build a berm in one spot where we have a street intersecting in front of the house, so any time I had dirt, rocks, clippings, etc., I tossed it in. Since it is actually meant to stay put I haven't done much with it, and lately as it sinks I've thrown dirt over the top and will one of these days plant it (lucky plants growing on that rich, well-drained berm!)
I'm back to composting in the back yard, and my dogs now have Invisible Fence collars. I don't throw on table scraps, and I keep the pile to one side in the way back where it won't bother the neighbors and where it is in the zone the dogs don't enter without getting zapped.
I took Howard's advice a while back and got a plastic bin with a hinged top and I put the table scraps in there. It's beside the garage outside of the dogs' area. One bin isn't big enough--by the time it was full it hadn't broken down enough to put in the pile and have it be an undifferentiated glob yet. So I'm working on my second bin. When it's full I'll haul the first one out back, dig a hole in the existing compost, and topple it in. Out of the dogs' way and not very appealing even to those scavengers.
This isn't scientific, but I don't have the time or income for the fancy measuring and management. I also throw dog droppings in my compost. Because of that, I let it sit for a long time before I use it, long after it has stopped with any heat. I usually have about three piles at any one time--one I'm currently building, one that is just sitting from the year before, and the one I'm excavating and sifting as I need compost.
I've made compost tea before, but for convenience in the last few year's I've bought the bottled variety. I pick up my dog food (Muenster's, of course!) over at Marshall Grain and they have all of the rest of the stuff, so it is one-stop shopping for all of that.
It still sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it?
Northwesterner