Wormies!!

Even giving most scraps to the chickens, we are still amassing an unseemly compost pile in the yard faster than I'd like. The pile is also not becoming finished compost as quickly as I'd like. Enter red wrigglers! We purchased the worm factory (I prefer worm apartment, if you'll excuse me) online and set it up with some in-process compost, shredded newspaper, and coconut coir. Then when the worms arrived last week, we added a small amount of food and let them at it.

If you want one of these bad boys, you can purchase it here: http://www.urbanfarmkits.com/

For the first few days in a new home, their impulse is to escape. Makes sense to me. We lost a few, but most seem happy and healthy inside. Ideally, they'll process about one tray's worth of food per month, meaning that at planting time next year, we're going to have a wonderful amount of worm poop black gold.

The only things you can't feed them are: bay leaves, oily things, meat (eww), citrus, and garlic or onion. That's basically the same list you can't feet the chickens (although meat is actually ok for them.) Garlic & onions aren't a problem, since they go into the stock bag. We rarely have meat, and when it's around, Alex eats all of it. It's just oily leftovers from our plates that go into the garbage now, and that's ok with me.

Banishment!

The wormies have been banished to the front porch. I found some fruit flies in there this morning. Amidst cries of, "oh hell no!" I rushed the whole production outside where it shall remain through the Spring and Summer. Before it gets cold again I can sift through, save the wormies, and reset the whole bin. Until then, banishment. I don't do flying bugs. The worms themselves were a stretch...

More professional worm keepers do things like catch the flies on sticky tape or purchase carnivorous plants. I'm afraid of venus fly traps (anyone see Little Shop of Horrors?) and fly tape is the ultimate yuck festival in my mind, so that's not happening until I can rally some courage.

In other news, I LOVE the smell of my compost bin. Is this strange? It's earthy and wonderful like fresh potting soil or wet concrete. I guess it is a little bizarre considering how yucky the decomposing veggies look in there. But actually, that's rather fascinating as well...like my Kindergarten science project where I watched how fast apples would brown under different conditions.

Wormy Worms

My free worms arrived about a week ago. There are A LOT more of them than I thought there'd be. Hot damn. I put them into their little worm home and then went to a friend's house to watch the office. When I came back I took the lid off and checked things out. Some were trying to escape (they do that for the first few days) but most were down in their dirty food home.

Here are some pics of the worm apartment construction:

Step 1) Hole Drilling


Step 2) Laying cardboard bedding
Step 3) Cover that with food matter (no dairy or animal products and very little onions or citrus!)
Step 4) Another Carboard Layer
Step 5) Another food layer
Step 6) Spray the top until it's moist with a water bottle


Step 7) Add the wormies


If you want to know exactly how I did it, check out this guy's wormy blog. There's a video and everything:

Spendthrifty!

Today I broke the no-purchasing streak.....AND HOW!

However, I'm pumped about everything and can justify everything (sort of.) So here goes, as per the project rules:

Item 1 = two rubbermaid plastic tubs to house my wormies : The nice man from Nederland is delivering the FREE red wrigler worms for my composting adventures later this week and they needed a home! It only cost 11 bucks for both of them, and that's considerably cheaper than those fancy-pants worm apartments you can buy online. I know plastic is bad news, but I can't get over the perceived impermeability of plastic. If I'm to have worms in my home, the container is going to be escape-proof!

Item 2 = Rechargable batteries. I bought the kind that allegedly last forever. I have no need of batteries except for the digital camera, and it eats through the regular kind. Hopefully this cuts down on my toxic waste considerably. Also: the 4 batteries and the charger weren't any more expensive than regular Duracells! Why is this? Why doesn't everyone use them? Why are normal batteries even legal?

Item 3 = Two cool vintage books from the salvation army. They cost less than two bucks each, and they're AWESOME. One's a chemistry textbook from the 1950s. The pictures are neat. I don't feel bad about this. It already existed! The other is one volume from a set of Woman's Encyclopedia. Entries include things like "Prostitution" and "Body Types." I haven't a clue what year it's from because the front 10 pages are missing, but it's a goldmine of pre-feminism bigotry and backwardness. (here's an excerpt: "some medical men are even beginning to say that morning sickness does not appear when the woman loves her husband and desires her baby.") As a rhetorician, the chance to engage this piece of the not-so-far-past proved too tempting.


Item 4 = Many many seed packets for this Spring's veggie extravaganza. They include but are not limited to: Edamame, Swiss Chard, Purple Carrots, Heirloom Tomatoes, Mesclun Salad Mix, Sugar Snap Peas, and Cantalope. 20 bucks worth will let me feast all Summer! Not apologizing for this one either.


Item 5 is a secret. It's so brilliant that it requires a picture, but it's also large, and I had to leave it at the store until a friend can help me transport the sucker home. I was so excited I did a leaping/wriggling/infinitely toolish dance at the Salvation Army when I saw it and decided to purchase. I landed in a rack of men's shirts and tried to play it off like nothing happened. [SIDEBAR: who knew there was a 25% off discount for students on Wednesdays at Salvation Army? Massive.]

Anyway: I spent less than 100 bucks and bought cool, useful, or ridiculously weird (the final purchase) things either second hand, or utilized for an environmentally friendly purpose. My conscious is clear... ish.

I'll publish the other pics of stuff a bit later. My computer is being a complete git.