Well, I am saddened to say that my foray into vermicomposting has come to a bad end. In looking into my worm bin this afternoon, I discovered that they were all dead. :( Suffice it to say that I am rather upset about this because I was doing my best. It'll be a bit before I try again (but I will). I may want to get one of those fancy ones, rather than using the one I made. Not sure what was wrong with it, exactly, but oh well.
Doing Not Thinking Challenge Update
1. Organize and declutter in the following areas: kitchen, desk area, sewing/craft area, closets. Give away or recycle the things I no longer need/no longer work. This is going rather well. My desk is now neat and organized, as are several kitchen cabinets and drawers. I've given away the things that were making my desk cluttery and am gathering the kitchen stuff to take to Good Will. Yay me!
Oh! And I reorganized my pantry and now nothing's falling off the shelves. I also donated some things I wasn't going to eat to the Mail Carriers Food drive that happened yesterday, so my organizing and decluttering benefited others, not just me.
It's amazing how much calmer I feel without so much crap junking up my drawers. It's almost all perfectly usable, but since I sold kitchen products for the past two and a half years (I've recently stopped), I am up to my eyebrows in products I earned for free. Time to get rid of the things I used before I had the 'good stuff'.
2. Learn how to can! I’ve got lots of veggies growing on my porch and I’ll need to do something with them when it comes time to harvest them. Nothing to harvest, yet, so I haven't done this, though my mother has promised to show me how. Yay!
3. Exercise at least 3x a week, bumping it up to 5 in the summer when I don’t have work. I've been less good about this - I'm at 2x a week definitely. I supervise a gym 3x a week for about an hour, but my days keep getting booked with other things, so hopefully that'll stop soon.
Growing Challenge
Things are going well! I repotted my blue lake bush beans and moved a lot of the ones that were indoors out (and repotted into bigger pots). My first cherry tomato plant has several little tomatoes, I've got a couple beans on one of my pole bean plants, and one of the cucumbers is flowering. Garlic's doing well, as are the onions, carrots and herbs. I also planted a couple more cilantro seeds, as there's always somebunny around here to eat it (two, actually!).
If I can produce enough cilantro to keep my bunnies in greens year round, I've figured I'll save $52 a year, plus tax. That's nothing to sneeze at!
Showing posts with label worms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label worms. Show all posts
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Of Worms and Seedlings
It's been a banner week in my household. Not only are all the seeds outdoors (onion, carrots, cilantro and garlic) sprouting into lovely little seedlings, but I also inherited five pole bean plants, two cucumber plants and a sunflower from work. It literally made my day when I realized that they were there for the taking! Now, I am giving two of my inherited bean plants to a friend, because I already have nine and fourteen total bean plants would produce enough beans to feed far more than me for a year (should it all go well!), but I am still thrilled. I'm not quite sure where I'm going to put all of them, but a coworker is bringing in some pots I can use/borrow/have so that will help a little bit too. I think my windowsills will be getting quite the work out from all the plants that are small enough to be kept indoors.
I am now also the proud mama of approximately 800-1200 worms. It may be less than that now, though, as I don't think they all made it, sadly enough. I do admit to shuddering a little when I spread them out. It seems I have absolutely no problem with picking up single worms, but when they're clumped together, I'm embarrassed to admit that I get a little skeeved.
This was especially apparent when on Friday morning, I got up and went to check on them.
I pulled off the top of the worm bin (I used the method outlined here to make my bin - and even bought a drill to accomplish it!) to reveal that many of my new "darlings" were attempting to escape. Predictably to anyone who knows me, I shrieked, probably waking the neighbors at 6:20 in the morning. I then used a bit of cardboard to "encourage" my new guests to get back into the darn bin. And then I discovered that several had fallen/migrated out the holes in the bottom - I was terribly grateful to have put another bin without holes underneath the original bin, rather than just using the extra lid to catch worm tea, otherwise I might have had worms everywhere. The whole thing went on the porch.
In the day since that happened, I have become a bit less freaked by multiple worms, especially when (wearing a rubber glove - I'm working on weaning myself away from it, really!) I rooted around in the damp newspaper to see if they were eating the feast of Cheerios, stale bread and stale rice that I had ready for them. Enough were happily munching away (and producing vermicompost) for me to be quite pleased. My apple core and a few small slices of cucumber also went in this morning. I'm feeding them lightly for the first week, as per instructions. I hope they'll work up to bunny droppings as well, as that'd be a great way to get rid of them other than tossing them in the garbage. Aanyone know if worms can compost Carefresh, a recycled paper litter? I'm also a tad worried about the urine being too acidic for them, so that might be out.
I am now also the proud mama of approximately 800-1200 worms. It may be less than that now, though, as I don't think they all made it, sadly enough. I do admit to shuddering a little when I spread them out. It seems I have absolutely no problem with picking up single worms, but when they're clumped together, I'm embarrassed to admit that I get a little skeeved.
This was especially apparent when on Friday morning, I got up and went to check on them.
I pulled off the top of the worm bin (I used the method outlined here to make my bin - and even bought a drill to accomplish it!) to reveal that many of my new "darlings" were attempting to escape. Predictably to anyone who knows me, I shrieked, probably waking the neighbors at 6:20 in the morning. I then used a bit of cardboard to "encourage" my new guests to get back into the darn bin. And then I discovered that several had fallen/migrated out the holes in the bottom - I was terribly grateful to have put another bin without holes underneath the original bin, rather than just using the extra lid to catch worm tea, otherwise I might have had worms everywhere. The whole thing went on the porch.
In the day since that happened, I have become a bit less freaked by multiple worms, especially when (wearing a rubber glove - I'm working on weaning myself away from it, really!) I rooted around in the damp newspaper to see if they were eating the feast of Cheerios, stale bread and stale rice that I had ready for them. Enough were happily munching away (and producing vermicompost) for me to be quite pleased. My apple core and a few small slices of cucumber also went in this morning. I'm feeding them lightly for the first week, as per instructions. I hope they'll work up to bunny droppings as well, as that'd be a great way to get rid of them other than tossing them in the garbage. Aanyone know if worms can compost Carefresh, a recycled paper litter? I'm also a tad worried about the urine being too acidic for them, so that might be out.
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