Saturday, February 6, 2021

Worms....





Worms...
Worms live underground
Worms tickle me
I laughed so hard I thought I'd die
I did die
They buried me
Worms....

Just a little poem from a friend when we were kids.
Strange how you can remember these kind of things from 35 years ago
yet  I can't remember I put the chicken in the oven!

Anyway, all this as an intro to what I've been doing the last 6 months.

Vermicomposting.

The benefits of working for a radio station is all the cool and interesting people 
you get to meet! One of these people is Anne Leblanc that works
at Wastecheck. Wastecheck is Nova Scotia's program for composting.
It's a cool thing to be involved in.  Well I think so anyway...but
I'm also excited when I get a load of compost as a birthday gift.
So really, what do I know.

Anyway, coming back to Anne. 
Since she's French speaking she has done
alot of shows on our radio station  educating the public 
about composting and  recycling.
One day I asked her about vermicomposting.
She said they actually had some at their office
and would gladly share. 

Anne with a handful of worm poop!

So one day I go pick up a bin with half a pound of worms.
With instructions in my brain, I am now the parent
to many, many worms.  Tiny things called
red wigglers.

Before we started digging in the bin.


The radio station  is in a building owned by our 
municipality.  We are on the top floor with EMO and 
the main floor has other community organizations.
It's a really nice building having just been redone
a few years ago.  The best thing about it is that
it has a large communal kitchen.  Coffee makers,
microwave, stove, full size fridge...you get the point.
So I decided we would put the worms in there.
They're like our mascots.  
So we have a little container in the fridge that is 
for worm scraps.  Because 1/2 pound of worms
don't eat very much.  So we feed them once a
week.  They're also kinda fussy.

No dairy, meat, grease and NO CITRUS! They hate
citrus.  Yup fussy little things. But they
work hard to give us their lovely poop...uh I mean castings.

Half of the worms we ended up with.


So after 6 months I brought the bin home because it was
time to divvy up the worms and get our own new bin. 
Anne and I had a date to separate our worms.

I guess we were good worm parents because we ended up
with 4 pounds of worms!!

It took awhile to separate them from their castings but it was fun. 
So Anne brought back her bin and her part of the worms and I now have 
our own proper bin with worms for the office.
I was just going to bring them home and leave them 
there.  But I guess everyone in the building considers them
their pets!  So I guess that's going to be their home.
I mean how many workers can brag that they
have their own personal composting machine in their office building.

This is our new worm bin.  Ready to start all over again.


Oh and in case you're wondering, they don't smell or bring in 
any other insects if it's done properly.  The only
smell we had was when we opened the lid.  It would
smell like dirt.  And we never had fruit flies or anything like that.

So I hope that maybe one day you can start your own little worm farm.


My Lenten Roses still blooming like crazy in February.  
It's been a crazy winter.

Have a blessed Day!
Lisa