annieology

This is the infamous worm bin.  Shorter than a kitchen trash can or dishwasher.   There are three separate bins.  The bottom is where all of the water drains to so that the worms don’t drown.  It is the only part of the operation that smells.  The bottom bin has a spigot to drain off the worm tea.  The worms are in the middle.  The top bin is where I keep cardboard, and dry matter.  I also have an icecream bucket where I keep vegetable matter to pre-digest.
These are the bins separated.  The top bin and the middle bin are interchangeable.  Six weeks ago, the middle bin more closely resembled a receptacle for shredded paper.  As you can see it is mostly dark and dirty right now.  I had just stirred it up.  Burying some of the shredded paper and this weeks vegetable matter.  The bottom bin has some worms and some castings and you can see where the tea is collecting.  I would say that represents about 10 ounces.
This is a close up.  I apologize, there is only so much you can do with a phone camera.  But what you are seeing there is some cardboard  with worms crawling all over it, and a lot of castings.  I believe that this is where I fed the worms two weeks ago.  Where I fed last week, still has some vegetable matter.  This here is free of shredded paper and vegetable matter, leaving only the bits of cardboard.  Which is good because the bigger bits of cardboard are there to aerate so that the wet matter doesn’t get too compact.

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?

Glad you asked.

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.

As Angie said, last week was an “Annie kind of week” are you ready for this one?

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?