Worm Bin for the House

It is November 17 and it is finally Autumn.

Thanksgiving is next week. In Columbus.

Yesterday I started working on this commission for a lovely couple in Baltimore. They drove up a few weeks ago so I could take the reference photos, and they turned out wonderfully. The painting is going super super well (don't jinx it, Jen!) and today was day 2 working on it.

I came home for dinner and was feeling so productive that I tore the worm bin apart. In a good way. I promised the building a worm bin and issue after issue have come up to prevent it. Finally I said that I would have my own worm bin, so that I could monitor what goes into it, how often, how much, where in the bin... how warm, how cold, how wet, how dry... And now, three months later, I can officially call myself a Vermiculturist. I can now identify all the good guys from this article, and none of the bad (don't jinx it, Jen!). For the past few weeks I have been keeping all the food to one side of the bin, so that the worms leave the other side of the bin, and I an empty it of castings. Too much castings is bad for them! So then I realized, well, this is a great time to start the other bin (because let's face it, I'm too protective of my worms to give them up to the fates of strange food matter). So I ran across the street to Circle Thrift, and kindly asked the beautiful blonde boy if they had any plastic bins with lids I could buy. After 5 minutes he came back with a perfect blue one. What a wonderful store.


So, how do you separate out worms from dirt, you ask? Well, you use their hatred of light against them! pile the dirt into a mountain, and shine a light. The worms will burrow, and just scrape off the top layers. It takes a few rounds of remolding the mountain and scraping off dirt, letting the light encourage them deeper and deeper into the mound. So, I now have a wonderful bag of dirt. I will give it to Gert for her flower bed!



I apologize if this is too much for you guys. But think of how much you've learned! I will try to keep my worm excitement to a minimum from now on.


Hans sneakily trying to play with his tiny wriggly brothers.

And last night I made french onion soup in my new soup pot!

I had a little of it last night, but it is MUCH better today, sitting in its own delicious juices overnight. With bread from whole foods, and 4cheese blend from trader joe's, what more could you want?

A head of lettuce that is now a pet and not food, perhaps? Well, I've got that too.