Composting woes

It shouldn't be so hard, and yet this whole composting thing is such a major headache.

Anyone that I ever knew that composted just had a big pile in their backyard and they threw everything on that, and not that I ever saw it, but I assumed they moved it around at some point. It seemed ever so easy.

But for some reason, for me, it is NOT easy. The first thing I did was purchase this compost bin that is NOT what I was looking for. But it was expensive and so I have been trying to make it work. But it is big, and I am not sure that it would really work for ANYONE. You are supposed to layer it, first with six inches of brown (like leaves) and then with six inches of green (grass clippings and food scraps.) Okay, I put in the first six inches of brown, and looked at my paltry pail of green and realized there was no way that was going to make six inches. Sure, I have grass clippings, but they were already in the brown category. So I left this bin, which is supposed to be turned daily, standing up while I worked to get it layered and filled properly.

On the days that I cook, I can probably create maybe a 1/4 of an inch of green! All the pulp from juicing does not really inches create! So I started cheating, and covering the small amount of green with more brown. Brown I got. Then one day I opened it up to throw in more green and almost passed out from the smell. I realized I had to get it turning, so I managed to overturn it and get it on its turny thing, and OHMYGAWD the smell that filled the air as the water inside started leaking out. It was hideous. I had to hold my hand in front of my nose and mouth. It was truly beyond words how awful this stuff smelled.

So. It is now laying down and I turn it, but I can't add to it, and believe me, it's not full. So I am also at odds as to what to do with the green stuff I am collecting in the kitchen. I have a small compost pail on my counter, but you can't leave it in there for long, or you start to think you have to move. I had a huge bag of stuff the other day that I forgot about on the counter, and again, the smell. I could hardly get it out to the garage and to the garbage bin, there was NO WAY IN HELL I was opening that bag and pouring it into something else. Right now, as we speak, I have a bag of scraps from dinner. What the hell do I do with it?

I of course went to the trusty internet and it told me to put it in a five-gallon bucket. Well, that's not going to buy me much time. I am afraid to just put it in a pile somewhere outdoors because we have the dogs, and I am not interested in attracting other varmint. The large and creepy hedgehog that visited the dog food bowls on the porch does not need a nice, smelly invitation, no thanks! And we have bears, I see them in the lower field. And the creep down the road who runs the restaurant does just that: throws his garbage in the field, and my dogs love to visit "the banquet" as do the vultures circling and all the other animals that trek down there for a good gnosh.

Does anyone have any helpful composting tips? I truly did not expect that this keeping of rotting food would be such a hassle! I guess I just have the wrong container ... but do the others really make it easier? And what are the others?

HELP!