This morning I added some organic matter to the bottom bin, there was not a lot of activity, so I looked in the top bin.

Call me crazy, but I totally love the dirt.  It was about half full at the beginning of the month, now it’s about a quarter full, but like I said, the dirt is amazing! I tried to take a picture, it doesn’t do it justice.  It looks like potting soil though.

I don’t know when the mass migration will happen, my hippy heart is happy with the results.

And if you want your own MIO-Composter, Target.com has them on clearance.  They were only a limited production for Earth Day.  $69 may seem like a lot, but if you are a complete crunchy dork like myself, it’s a good deal, if you want a pretty one.

I was looking at reviews online.  I feel compelled to remind you that this is not a composter, this is a worm composter.  Regular composters rely on heat to break down the material.  Worm composters don’t like the heat.  Don’t add worms to your regular heat generating composter.

Also, the reviews at Target mention that this composter doesn’t come with instructions.  Since you are currently on the internet, just use the Google.  You probably have one in your tool bar.  Problem solved.

I’m going to go dig in my dirt.

I know, who the hell do I think I am?

I love coming home and finding out who has been checking up on me while I’m out.

Hello http://organisingtips.blogspot.com – were you using me as the anti-example?  Whatever the reason, I’m glad you stopped by.

What was I doing out with real people?

It was a church thing where we went to some body’s house and ate lots of good food and hung out and locked the kids in the backyard with a pool (that was being monitored by a lifeguard at all times) and not a trampoline.

I may have a lead on a Spanish Rice recipe.  I’ll keep you posted.

And we talked about God.  And marriage.

I love my marriage.  I love my husband.  I love my God.

And I met someone who was very interested in my worms, and has a housekeeper.  We’re destined to be besties.  Although that may be relationship step jumping.  Assuming we’ll be besties.  But did I mention, she has a pool (that is constantly monitored by a lifeguard) and not a trampoline?   And she likes my worms.   And lives next door to my other bestie?

On the way home the Princess played the “if you really loved me card”.   I sense trouble on the horizon with that young one.  She wanted a glow bracelet when we got home.  I told her she was going to bed.  She said “I thought you loved me”.   Well, I did.

If she only knew the havoc that has been wreaked by our love for her.

And I’ve been up 18 hours.  Hubby snuck out of the house this morning before 6:00 a.m. to go to Bible study.  The boys heard.  They woke up their sister.  They were trying to figure out the tv.  Then they started yelling at each other to “shut up or you’ll wake up mom”.

Isn’t it ironic?  Doncha think?

I know, I’m still here.  Have to finish my Coke.  Yes, I drink Coke at midnight.

Now, I’m done.  Good night, or good morning or good afternoon.

The worms are moving.  As you may recall I have a three bin system.  The middle bin holds the worms, the top up until now has been housing extra material for composting.  The bottom is where the liquid by product goes.  Well, this morning, when I went to add more material.  I decided to move the worms.  The material is getting so fine that it is falling to the bottom bin and clogging up the spigot.  So, I moved the middle, worm bin, to the top. Shredded the former top bin, placed it in the middle and added the new material there.  I then dumped the worms that were hanging in the very bottom bin, the the new bin, with the new material, which I had soaked with worm tea.   So, the worms that are in the top bin, should migrate to the middle bin and in a couple of weeks we’ll have fully composted compost.  Woot!

Now, for pictures.  And good news for you non-Kindle readers.  This one is just for you.  The pictures look horrible on the Kindle.

Compost Before

8 Weeks Later

One of many worm parties

But look at that dirt.  Doesn’t it look great?  No, it doesn’t stink, and I’m going to be leaving it in the bin til it dries out a bit, hopefully avoiding the early earthiness in the new bin.

So, the worms that are in the top bin, will be able to migrate to the middle bin in search of food.  When they are all gone, I will pick out the bigger pieces of material that they didn’t go through.  Egg shells don’t disappear, but there were lots of reproduction going on in the shells, so we’ll add those in to the mix still.  For some reason, potatoes did not fare well, Neither cooked nor raw.  If I mixed the potatoes with other vegetable scraps and let them decompose to the point of liquid then added it it was fine, but I don’t know if I want a vegetable soup brewing all the time.  Anyway, fun times, and I cannot wait until I get to use the dirt.

So, that’s what we got going on.  It’s been six weeks.  I would say to get that thing completely full we’ll need another six weeks. At which point I will fill the top bin with shredded paper, shredded cardboard and fresh vegetable matter.  I will move the top bin to the center position and stop feeding the worms in the top bin.  The worms will migrate down, and it should take a week or three for all of them to migrate.  At which point the top bin should be dry and ready to fertilize my garden.

I am thinking that I will pull some of the castings off to start corn seeds inside and then some more when I transplant them outside.  I also need to get some strawberry plants, lots of tea to give them.

If you want to read more about the beni’s of worm compost, go here.

p.s. How do you like my kitchen floor?  I love it.  Hubby and I did that ourselves.  Aren’t we awesome?

They continue to be very prolific.  At least three new pockets of baby worm hatchlings this week.  I added fresh shredded paper last week and a bucket full of pre digested vegetable matter.  Nothing gross, just had been sitting in a pre-compost bucket for awhile, because until the worms reach full capacity, they have trouble with the fresh rubbish. The new paper is all funky doodle and where I fed the worms last week is mostly dirt.

It’s been a little over a month and I would say we are at least 1/3 compost. That’s including the fresh stuff from last week.  The worm tea is at full production and I could probably fill up a 20 ounce soda bottle each week.  And for those playing at home, that would be 60 ounces when diluted properly.  If I had a major worm tea selling operation going on, I could get $7/bottle, not bad.  I would just need about a million more worms.

Of course what would a worm farm be without fruit flies?  Researching what to do about it, they said that the little buggers could be fruit flies, or they could be gnats.  Flies? Good.  Gnats? Bad.  And apparently the only way to tell the difference is that one of them has red eyes.  Really, I’m supposed to check out their eyes?  No, they are fruit flies, and they pretty much hang near to food source, and it reminds me to keep the kitchen super clean.  Hahaha.

Six more weeks and we’ll start the mass migration to the other bin, and the drying out process.  Excited?  Yes, very.  Our fruit trees will be ready for a nutrient boost about then.

In other crunchy news.  I’m also recycling Capri Sun pouches, haven’t decided who to bless with the money for that, but the formerly mentioned  worm poop sellers also make all sorts of things out of juice pouches and other trash.  I’m off to find my trash/poop niche, I got enough around here to make me a billionaire.

Last week hubby quit his job, many of you expressed concern, there was no need for concern. He was leaving Job A to work at Job B. It was a good thing. This week Job A filed all sorts of injunctions and legal things to prevent him from working at Job B. I assume that Job A was looking to keep him. That didn’t happen. He still quits. Don’t be alarmed. Job A was not working for him. Job B will wait for him and in the meantime? Neither are our Provider. We have a buffer, we have skills, and your attorney cannot stop my Provider.

I scheduled my LASIK procedure for mid June.  I look forward to being free from glasses and contacts until I need reading glasses probably next year or something incredibly lame like that.  Realized that during my LASIK recuperation I will neither be able to blog nor shower.  My apologies to all.    Although the Tweets from that day will probably be hilarious.  I get drunk off of Benadryl – the happy pills should put me over the top!

Somebody emailed me about the seriousness of the swine flu in reference to my post on the gov’ment imposed quarantine from school we underwent a couple of weeks ago.  We’ll obviously forgive him, because he is obviously new here.  Yes, I know it can kill, but so can driving my car, when will the gov’ment step in to prevent us from driving because of the likelihood that someone might die?  They can’t even put drunk drivers in jail until they’ve killed about 20 people….

Mastered the art of Rice Krispie Treats.  On a side note, I got major coupons at the grocery store when omom tried to get me to buy generic, and Crazy Aunt Susie said “It has to be real” and the cereal rep just happened to be there and gave us “keeping it real” coupons.  Lucky? I think so.  Anyway, you have to add the RK about 10 seconds before all of the marshmallows melt.  You will then have pockets of marshmallow yumminess interspersed within the treats. (ps. this happened last week, I just forgot to tell you)

Now that I have you craving the RKTreats…I’ll update you on the worms.  Still cool, but “worm tea” blargh!  I fed plants with it, I’ll let you know.  The pile of rubbish has decreased significantly, I added more shredded paper and some veggie matter that had been sitting around for a couple of weeks to top it off. But those little buggers are working it.

Felpsy graduated from PRESCHOOL.  Yes, that’s right after three long years of craft making and building social skills he has earned that right.  Next year it’s Kindergarten.  And then about three more until we get to the High School graduation.  Is it just me, or does graduating FIVE times before you actually graduate kind of water down the significance?  Have I mentioned that I hate school?  But trust me when I say that I’m not called to homeschool.

Felpsy informed me that his friend went to Disney World and reported that Mickey Mouse is real, but Darth Vader isn’t.  I for one didn’t know that Darth Vader lived at Disney World, but it wasn’t my story, soooo…..Felpsy thought that it was a good thing because Darth Vader, if he were real, might light saber Mickey and then he’d die.

Mickey died anyway, or at least the guy who voiced him.

I called our attorney on Wednesday.  I was informed they were waiting for a response.  Funny, because I’ve been doing that for weeks now.

On the schedule for next week:

• Monday – Sit by my TV to hear what Jon and Kate have been up to, I’m guessing she’ll complain about the intrusion they brought into their own life.  I’m guessing he won’t be allowed to say anything.
• Tuesday – looks free, who’s up for a mani-pedi without the mani?
• Wednesday – CPS visit
• Thursday – Thou Shalt Laugh
• Friday – Therapy for the kids, maybe I should schedule a few appointments for myself.  I really don’t have time to actually go crazy.  Luckily it’s free.  Did I  mention how blessed we are?

Cited for being a sucky foster parent.

Body baby turned 10.

Pediatrician declared that I had ‘worked a miracle with this boy’ at Felpsy’s physical.  Apparently, no one has told him I suck.

Overheard child A, telling child B, that had child B hit child C with a “real light saber” she’d be dead.

Hubby quit his job.

Dagan and other Dagan came to visit.

Someone from the country of Tuvalu visited my blog.

Someone else found my blog by Googling “eating disorder tattoo”  I was unaware that there was a tattoo to commemorate eating disorders.

Found out that Danny Gans died.

Started following Hookers on Twitter.

Changing the portable juice I give my kids.  I was drinking Juicy Juice, because that’s who sponsors what Kate drinks. But now, I’m going with Capri Sun 100% juice because you can do this with them.

Enjoyed seven full days of “Happy Mother’s Day” gifts from Boog.  Each morning there was a new present by my bed.  I have a muddy dump truck, lots of envelopes with small things sealed inside, a card that reads “Congratulations on your new baby”, lots and lots of strings and streamers.

The worms are thriving.  Getting used to “earthy” as a kitchen smell.  Still many many worm babies being born.  About 1/3 of my garbage is now “dirt” I know it’s really worm poop, but it looks and smells like dirt, so for my own peace of mind, it’s “dirt”.

Looking forward to next week, on the calendar is

• Monday – Consult for LASIK
• Tuesday – Time Out School
• Wednesday – Meet with insurance and retirement account people to do the big Rollover
• Thursday – Nap
• Friday – Therapy and then a nap

I’m leaving the weekend open.

Had a great week, hope you did too!

If you are here to figure out how to do this, you are in the wrong place.  I don’t know.  This is not a how to, rather a journal of what is happening.  In fact, you may be more confused after reading it.  Like anything else on the internet, and in life really, everyone who has done something has their own way to do it, and everyone’s way is the right, (read only) way to do it.

It starts with what to put into your composting bin.  Newspapers?  Yes and no. Shredded papers? Yes and no.  Onions?  Yes and no.  You get the picture.  Everyone who has done it successfully believes that their way is the proper way.  It took me about 10 seconds to figure that I’m going to do it my way, and we’ll see how that works.

I filled my bin with shredded paper, bank statements, credit card offers, retirement statements.  Anything that I had in my shred pile, carefully removing the plastic.  I put down a layer of paper, misted it with a water bottle, put some vegetable scraps, eggs shells and coffee grounds with filter on top of that.  Over the organic matter I put in cardboard drink carriers that I had broken up and soaked with water.  Covered all of that mess with more shredded paper, misted it with a spray bottle and covered the whole kit and kaboodle with a couple of layers of newspaper that I had wet down and wrung out.

I let that whole process ferment for about 10 days while I waited for the worms to arrive from far away places.  I trusted the advice that you need special worms.  When the worms arrived they came in a bag of dirt, I just dumped the whole bag on top of the shredded paper that I misted right before adding the worms.  It didn’t take long for them all to disappear into the mess.

When they arrived they were measley little things.  Not many were thicker than a strand of yarn.  That changed practically overnight, most of them are now fat and happy.  Another thing that has changed since they rehydrated They are fast.

I have found the following things to be helpful this first week.

A turnkey bin.  I’m not modifying or building anything.  When it comes to projects I’m totally microwave.  I want it NOW. I was even a little annoyed that I had to “rinse” it.  Fast and compost don’t really mix now that I think about it.

Garbage and worms.

Four and five year old boys are both an asset and a liability.  They are more than eager to track down any wayward crawlers, but they also are a little too tempted to put them into their sister’s hair.   I will say that I have thousands of worms in the house and have not had to touch any.

So far, it’s been pretty fun for us, once or twice a day we open up the bin and dig for worms, make sure the bin is moist but not wet, make sure they are active, and not trying to escape.  Other than that, we’re just going to wait.  I can see some evidence that it’s working.  Apparently worms eat 1/2 their body weight every day, I did note last night that the bin appeared less full.  I will probably add more newspaper and cardboard later tonight.

You will read on most every vermicomposting site that the bins, if properly managed will not smell.  I think smell is subjective term.  It does not smell like a garbage can that has been sitting around for two weeks, it does smell a little “earthy” which is out of place in a modern home.  It does not smell “clean”.  I know that earthy is probably preferable to clean, but I’m not quite on board yet.  I’m still a lemon fresh scent kind of girl.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

***Update*** We have worm babies, lots and lots of worm babies.