Tobey and Death

Tobey walked through the craft store considering his life. It was easy for him to consider such a thing in the craft store. He was surrounded by the autumn decorations, the images of death acceptable in the south. It was a typical Mississippi fall, hot as hell during the day, cool to cold in the night, and every yahoo left and right sniveling and sneezing due to the fall allergies. The craft store was just as bad. The sent on the fake seasonal flowers was almost deafening. It didn't make sense that all people do is complain about allergies then surround themselves with fake or dead flowers doused in chemicals meant to smell like natural substance.

It's shocking it is, the images of death all around in a culture that ignores death like it does sex ed. It was strange to him being a transplant from Pennsylvania, it isn't like he grew up in a bastion of liberalism but there wasn't a shadow hanging over certain associations. He chuckled to himself as he looked at all the women lining up to by new dead flowers for their living rooms, brown balls of twig, pine cones, everything to remind us of death. Why then would we refer to retirement and age as the “autumn of our lives”. Autumn is preparation, preparation for the cold winter to befall all those whose hearts continue to beat, but they're not witches going to cast spells, or pagans planning to celebrate the local god's death and rebirth.

The empty cotton fields, the brown and yellow leaves on trees, even the decorations in the craft stores, all symbolize death, all symbolize the autumn of this year. At least the pagans of old understood how the earth lives and dies every year. Tobey looked around chuckling as he imagined himself surrounded by Grim Reapers, men and women in black cloaks, carrying scythes maybe not reapers but Dickensian peasants preparing sacrifices. They may have taken the gods out of it, but it is still worship. We may not be worshiping some deity but we rest pots full of dead flowers on our fireplaces, we bring balls of twigs and pine indoors for some reason. We surround ourselves with the natures death for some purpose.

Tobey just chuckled at the idea, at the truth of the matter, no matter how we may think we are running from death, like all creatures we invite him in annually, monthly, daily. We let him sit at our dinner tables, we feed him roast, ever waiting for him to take us to the river to pray. And then someday when we follow him, the boatman will snatch the coins from our eyes, and we will all see that death is nothing more than winter and all will know, spring is always around the corner.  

The Witching Hour, a "not a review" review

It is 3:00 AM, I just finished “The Witching Hour,” by Anne Rice. I started the book months ago and I would like to say that life got complicated and I have now just found the time to finish it. That would be a lie, and quite bold faced as is. The fact is, the book was just hard for me to read, even after skipping 100 pages in the middle, which I know I will have to go back and pick up because I refuse to acknowledge my completion of the book.

I appreciate Anne Rice's ability to write from different perspectives. As I waded through the books center I remembered why I never finished reading, “The Thousand and One Nights.” Of course Rice takes the intermingling of stories to a new level as she shifts the perspectives and authors.

I am no literary critic, I never pretend to be, I desire one thing out any book I read, the ability to empathize with one or more characters in the book. I want to feel what they feel, I suppose when I read I become like Lasher in that I feed off of the characters in the book searching ever inward to find who I truly am. Of course when it comes to the consideration of being real, I will always default to the, “Velveteen Rabbit,” Sorry Anne.

Don't get me wrong, I love the depression of the book, and the hope buried in hopelessness, it works with my current life situation. I love the idea that Michael stands in the end as the Lasher he knew as a child. He has become, “That man.” I read Michael's peace in the face of losing the most , important things, I listen to his redaction of history, and encourage his unwillingness to even begin believing his loving wife would never return to him.

I worry though because I don't know if I want Lasher to get what he deserves. Even though all the hell he unleashed something echos very thoroughly through my cells that makes me ask, “Why am I angry at his patience, and steadfastness?”

I started reading this book living on Rowan Lane in Southaven Mississippi, tonight I am awake not knowing if I will even have an address tomorrow. I lie awake in hope that I do not, so I can chase a different kind of life, even if just for a few moments. I will reassert myself into some 5-7 day grind, it is my nature. Can I though find peace in the moment that tomorrow I will wake up late and then go to the gym to work out.

Most people tell me that all things happen for a reason, I don't know if I believe that in a cosmic sense, only a general one. I have yet to see evidence for it. I remember a woman asking me once about the reasoning behind her daughters death. I knew the reason, the doctors knew the reason, anyone with the capacity for logic knows the reason: Why did your daughter die? She ran across a busy intersection and no one can stop that fast.

This book performed the function I wished it to and I thank Mrs. Rice for taking the time to write such an in depth and thoughtful tome. The end evoked feeling. Sometimes I work hard not to feel, I am in one of those times. I left this book the same way I left, “The Gift of Asher Lev,” by Chaim Potok. I wanted to through the book though a wall. I sit on a friends couch at this ungodly hour and the second of the Mayfair Witches, “Lasher,” sits next to me. Who needs sleep, why not just start this next novel. It's only 625 pages, the first book was 1038.

Well, if it occurs to me I will check in with you again, and by you I mean the people I imagine read my blog. I don't know where I will be sleeping then, of course, it's okay I'm not sleeping now.

A bird in the hand

I decide in Seminary that I had to learn to take care of some other living thing. I had grown up with dogs and birds and, sure I played with them but at the end of the day they were really my mother's. At the end of the night my mother covered the birdcage and the dog followed her to bed. I had seen friends go through the same thing and get pets, I actually noticed that in taking care of their pets they became better people. I didn't have the space for a dog in my apartment and it wouldn't be fair because there was no yard so I got two birds from a friend who had a roomful of more than two dozen birds.

They were parrotlets, I named them Abraham and Sarah after a famous couple. They were truly a couple, I noticed that the female over pruned the male. In fact Abraham was (as I expect the Biblical Abraham) bald. He looked a bit like a vulture, and it was the first thing most people commented on. And though it might have seemed odd it was her way of saying “I love you, you are mine, everyone else better stay away.”

Every morning they chirped at the sunrise, and during the day I would watch them hop around the cage back and forth on the perches. Abraham and Sarah followed me from an an apartment on campus at seminary, to my fifteenth floor apartment in midtown Memphis, they stayed with me through a very cold winter in Jackson Mississippi, and rode with me back to north Mississippi. Most recently they came with me to Grenada Mississippi. I was preparing to move them again, back to Jackson Mississippi.

I had spent all Saturday out with my special friend, and when we arrived at home I checked on my two birds. I saw Sarah in the corner where she usually sat and Abraham was lying at the bottom of the cage. I wasn't sure what to do but clean the cage. I left Sarah in the hands of my girlfriend, I didn't want her to see me cleaning her mate from the bottom of the cage. I finished cleaning the cage and put Sarah back. I rent so it isn't like I had somewhere to bury the dead.

The question was posed, “Do you think she wonders where he is or if she knows he's dead?” I have also been warned that she may not make it long because her mate is dead. I am used to looking into the cage to see my two birds huddled together, now I look and see one. I think about her and can't help but cry. I have been a life long pet owner, I have sat through the death of other birds, and have been through two dogs put to sleep. I know I wonder where they are, animals that are taken into home and they become like people. I always thought that there was a place in heaven for dogs, I suppose it isn't a jump to say there is a place for birds.

I feel sorry for Sarah left alone in the cage. I had actually planned on buying a new cage, I have had these two birds for 6 years and the cage was looking bad, but now I don't know if I can take it away from her, then I think maybe I should. I don't know. I don't know how long Sarah will make it without her mate, all I know is there is a lonely bird in a cage by my window.  

Floppy Poem

Floppy drive, oh floppy drive where have you gone
I went to use you and saw you were weren't there

I thought it would be fun to store my files at 1.4 in little bits
So i found a little 3.5, preformatted for my pleasure, but don't ask where.

Okay ask but don't expect an answer for randomparts664 will never speak of our little encounter, our next day shipping.
So that my poetry will never feel loss it will stay behind a bright pink sentry, from last century.

But when i went to use you you were gone, you had left without goodbye.
Floppy drive oh floppy drive oppose culture and come home.

Update for the beginning of June

I walked out to my patio this afternoon, looked around, took a wiff and though, it looks like a rain forest out here. I caught a rather pungent oder near the hottest point of the day, which in Mississippi is the latter part of the day when the sun is in the west. Of course the days will come when the morning yields high humidity and temperatures over 100. It is also that time of year when the ducks are taking their little ones to school, teaching them to crap in my breeze way... wait, I have a pic.

I saw them on the way in from taking my recycling to the drop off centers, got my camera and took a picture. The adults were rather angry I came back out, but then they are Muskovies, they have tiny brains and lets face it, they are the ugliest ducks in the world. 

Ok, so my Marigolds are looking a little raggid. It would do well for me to dead head them and let the plants start over, because the plants themselves are very strong. The reason I don't dead head them is because I don't have a pruner for it, and let me tell you, the smell of a marigold sticks around on hands forever.

My peppers take the heat in a much different way. The Jalapeños take the heat and sun well, but the bells tend to shrivel under direct sun and once the light is no longer direct they pop right back out. The soil is nice and moist the container is watering itself appropriately, the top has maybe a centimeter of dry soil and under that is a dark cool soil. 

They are still too small to support fruit but look like they are doing well so far, even though they only get 3 hours of sun at best. 

These are my potatoes, I tried to keep them up and straight, but now they are tangled up and growing all together into a knot, that is fine, they help each other. 

I found this interesting. Fungus. I have looked into whether or not I should remove the tiny toadstools. Most forums seem to go with leaving them, since all they really do is represent a good ecosystem. The one thing I will do is lessen my watering to every other day, since the containers themselves are not in direct sun. The stalk is very thick and healthy if it begins to look bad I will alter my plan. 

My impatiens are really sort of funny. When they get full sun they look like me after getting out of my car with no AC, wilted and sad. Thirty minutes later, just like me, they are happy again. Impatiens are pretty tough, they were a good idea. 

Had this visitor today, that is a potato leaf he is visiting.

If you look closely you can see a white tube in this jar. I am steeping some compost tea with my vermicompost. I wrapped some of the compost in paper towels, look like a very large and special cigarette. I wonder if the smell is coming from there in the heat of the day? Well it had gone away later, at worst I imagine something crawled under one of my containers and died. I get a few critters using my patio as a walk way. Saw a mouse one day and a lizard another. If it continues to get bad, I will do better look but right now, it is fine. 

I love that I can see my patio flowers from Airways Blvd driving north past the hospital. Keep growing folks. 

Vermicomposting: Harvest time!!!

It has been just over two months for my worm bin. A week ago I noticed there wasn't much material left other than castings, so I stopped feeding it for a week and decided I would take this day to harvest. I wanted to see the yield of castings, but more importantly I wanted to see if I had facilitated a healthy ecosystem, so critters and worms seemed more important to me.

My bin was in the same place it had always been. Before showing pics of the harvest I have a few things to report. I kept the bin behind my couch the entire time, and it never had an odor. If I took the top off, I smelled earth, and sometimes if I dug around there was a putrid smell. In my bin, bad smells often followed the addition of too much rice, and it isn't hard to add too much, a handful is easily too much.

I also had critters. The critters stayed in the bin, there was nothing for them on the outside, until I left it unfed for a week, they started to get a little more aggressive to leave when I opened the top. It still wasn't more than one or two. I also began getting fruit flies, though they weren't bad. They weren't bad enough for me to feel like I needed to do anything with them. As I looked at the little crawlers, I saw mainly millipedes and spring tails, both never leaving the bin (well one millipede tried after I stopped feeding).

 The steel tub was my sorting area, the orange bucket was for organic waste that needed more time, and the white cat litter bucket was for separated castings. I lined the tub with a white garbage bag and a piece of news paper. As I got closer to the end the news paper was less and less useful. The little white bowl is the basket for my scale.

This was what I found in my bin. As soon as I dumped the bin I could tell I had facilitated a wonderful ecosystem, I could move casting without finding tiny little worms and eggs. Of course then I realized why the method I was using was always described as a slow process. I had to separate less than a handful at a time. It started moving quicker as I corralled the worms to the center. I found I could scrape around the edges with my fingers and separate casting, organic material, and worm much easier.

This is what a lot of my casting looked like if I dug even a quarter inch under the surface. The bloggers were right though, as I disturbed soil the worms began to move down and later to the center to come together.

I would find these dense pockets of worms and by excavating around them, continue to drive the worms to the center. It was along process, but very calming once I resolved to the fact I was going to be there for a while. It was quite Zen.

Now, what you can't tell from the picture is that you can feel the worms in this pile if you place your hand on top, and as soon as you reach a finger in it is very soft and slimy. I continued to excavate all I could until the worms could no longer stay under the pile. I then weighed the pile, 2 1/4 lbs. This is not counting the babies lost in the separation of castings, the eggs I couldn't dig through without finding a half dozen per handful, and worms that I moved because they were attached in some way to organic waste that I was moving. Oh and the smell of the castings... earth. 

Look at them... Now I will let them sit for a little while, a week or so the little fellers left will continue to eat until they die and the crawlers will move off when there is nothing left to eat. There isn't a whole lot, the cat littler bucket is half full. but that is okay, I will convert a lot of it to worm tea anyway and give most of that away. 

Is is a nice handful of casting. Look how pretty!!!

But this is not the end, every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end. 

I thought I would use a lot more corrugated card board this time. They seem to love it. The bedding beneath is news paper though. I might have to add a little water later, I will look in on it again tonight. I didn't add any excess soil this time, I figured I already had a microbial picnic in the castings that came with the worm I already have inside. 

or

I will be posting again soon about why my bin worked. I read up on a lot of indoor vermicomposting horror stories, so I am proud that my bin worked so well. More on that later. Keep growing!!!

Self-watering Peppers

Came home from a rough day at work, felt the need to accomplish something, so I figured it was time to plant my peppers. I started these things from seed about the same time I started planting everything else. They are no where near the size I would like them to be and I question their strength, however I didn't want to put it off any more. So before I say too much about my peppers, I thought I would talk about the container itself.

It looks simple enough doesn't it, and it really is. The entire point was to build the container inexpensively, and though I didn't get it at 5 dollars it wasn't more than 7. There is a reservoir in the bottom, I made the top of the reservoir with the lid of the container. I used a set of 6 plastic cups, for supports, the wicking basket and a cap for the water tube. The water tube by the way is a 1 quart plastic milk container. I didn't measure the size of the reservoir itself but,  it took 18 liters of water before the reservoir was filled.

 This is the top of the reservoir, you'd have no idea how long it took to cut the lid to fit the way I wanted to, I used my trusty box cutter, and only cut myself 3 times. I used my drill to provide the air holes. I didn't get a good picture of the wicking chamber (a cup with holes drilled in it) but it is there. The wicking chamber is drilled so water flows through it, and it is filled with soil. I use anti-weed cloth to keep the dirt from falling in. Oh, the holes in the reservoir are there to aerate the soil.

The container is filled with soil.

Then I added the pepper plants. The plants closest to me are Jalapeños, there are 4. The far pepper plants are mixed bells, there are 5. The cup is covering the water tube. Oh that is cup six. Cups 1-4 are used for the corners, cup 5 is the wicking basket, and cup six... well there is cup six.

Happy growing.

Patio Garden Update

Well I thought it was time for another installment of "Justin's Patio." I am leading with this picture because I think it is really neat. I love the way my impatiens are thriving, and beginning to spill over the sides of my planters.

The impatiens started going really well early on when I moved them to a place to avoid the morning sun, but I was still having issues with sections of the planters until I added the water globes. They work, and they are really helping my plants, I would like a few more, I will see if I can find them at the Goodwill again. 

Okay, so my strawberries are small, actually they are bigger than they used to be however they do taste like strawberries so I say, "WIN!" They are Ever-bearing Ozark Strawberries, they are beginning to come in stronger and faster as it gets warmer. According to the "direction" June should be my strongest month. Right now my goal is to pick the ripe berries and keep the leads thinned. I need the plant to focus on producing fruit, not vines. It is the trimming of the vines that will help them to grow strongly even this, the first year. 

I have Marigolds that are growing much better than these, however I am spotlighting them because I got them on the 89 cent rack at Lowes and most of the plants didn't have flowers, now given time this bucket should look like an explosion of orange and yellow, it has been a few weeks but they are finally looking comfortable in their own bucket... even willing to grow a little. 

I know they can be hard to pick out among all the other colors but check out my Waxy Begonias. They were also from the 89 cent rack at Lowes, I might transplant them again if I can find another steel bucket for cheap. I am excited about the way they turned out, some of the plants didn't even have one flower, now they are thriving. I love Begonias and I don't care who knows it, if I had some ground they would surely be my cover. 

These are my potatoes, okay so they may be a little hard to see, so take a look at the up close shot. I am begging God to bring some flowers to my red potatoes, I mean it is about time they are HUGE tall like freakin Yao Ming... are potatoes even supposed to be that tall? we will see, I didn't take pics of the back, but one plant has been snapped off under wind, I have since started tying them up.

 

These are my peppers, I started them from seeds, and it seems like they have taken forever, I am probably going to plant them on Friday or Saturday, and I will have an entire post about it, since I built a self watering container for them.  

The whole shebang... hope you enjoyed!!!

look at those plants!!!!

look at those plants!!!!

These are my potato plants, wow... look at em, if I had a GIJOE guy I would pretend he was in a jungle... I have to backfill my bins one more time and then I guess I just wait until the flowers die... it would be nice to get some flowers soon...

My strawberries have been a little, "Eh..." I have eaten a few strawberries, they aren't full size but they are delicious. Being an everbearing they are supposed to be best in June and it is only May. Some of my plants are doing well and some don't seem to be, I guess all I can do is continue to water.

Look at these Impatiens though. They are awesome!!! I am so proud of these flowers I love Impatiens.

 My Marigolds are doing well too, They are getting fuller and fuller I am very excited about them.

This is my current view, the pots are still Waxy Begonias, the steel bucket has Marigolds, and they were from the 89 cent rack, they were pretty shabby but they are starting to come back. You might also notice as I post pics that I am using aqua globes. They are working well to revitalize plants that weren't doing well, especially some of my Impatiens that get too much sun, and the strawberry plant in the hanger. I fill them often because I am using them outdoors but they are worth it.

This is my newest addition... I like it, you should see it spin.

Why I am an environmentalist

Our current political system lives in extremes. We are divided in halves by television news and opinion shows and current political trends. It seems like every day we are forced into the ideals of one camp or the other, when in truth if we weren't all forced to answer questions worded with absolutist and pejorative language, we might even find that the middle isn't such a bad place, if only we were allowed to live in the middle conversation would aid growth, the temperament of conservatism with the action oriented nature of liberalism.

I remember as a child and through college hearing the phrase, “All things in moderation.” Growing up with a conservative Christian heritage this phrase was often saved for drinking alcohol or eating chocolate. Ever mindfully we didn't want to slip away into a side that was too restrictive or too permissive. Even conservatives Christians will find themselves rolling their eyes when it comes to the statements of extremists.

It was important to start with that simple introduction to move into my next topic. I fear often we have halted helpful dialogue in the fear of being alienated from our most extreme brothers and sisters. Growth is stunted by both sides when only one opinion matters. In the rest of this post I am going to offer my views of environmentalism and current trends while offering the “Whys” involved in making my ecologically based decisions.

I feel I must warn readers though, I recycle even though there is no local governmental mandate for it in my small Mississippi town. I choose to save my recyclables and drop them off at a local collection center in my daily travels. I also recycle my organic waste in an indoor vermicomposting bin. If you have read my blog you know that is a composting system using a tropical red worm. I use reusable shopping bags, and am careful about the things I bring into my apartment that will have to go out to a landfill. Now that I recycle my aluminum and tin, plastic, paper, and organic material, I have cut my weekly trash output to almost 50 percent. I no longer get bag when buying a soda and candybar at a gas station and I shop at local thrift stores. And having said all that I would still not make a good eco activist, the extremists would raise their noses at me and walk on. It is also important to say that many anti-climate change folk would come in and tell me I am wasting my time and not being beneficial to anyone.

So one important question both camps would first want an answer to before I was allowed in is, “Do you believe in Climate change/ Global Warming?” Neither side would like my answer which is: I don't know, maybe, maybe not. The fact is I am not a scientist. I like science, I think it is fun and beneficial to all mankind for moving forward into a better age but beyond that I don't have the education to critique it one way or the other. However, every time I drive into Memphis and the digital sign over interstate says, “Smog warning, don't roll down your windows,” I am taken aback. I also have to admit it is strange to say we are not effecting our environment when I can't eat fish out of either the Mississippi River or the Ohio River because of industrial pollutants. Obviously humans effect the environment, just ask the fish swimming around what is lovingly called “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” you know the island of plastic debris bigger than Texas in the Pacific Ocean. Personally I have to admit that, pictures of this patch encouraged me to take a more active role in dealing with my own trash. So what do I say to all this as a Theologian and a Dollar store Philosopher? I don't know if Al Gore is right, I don't know if the anti-Gore's are right, and though the information seems compelling

I will answer a different question and ignore climate change all together.

What's God's intended role for me on this Earth? Genesis starts with a strong and wonderful story that we often waylay because we'd rather talk about Evolution and Creation. The writer speaks so wonderfully about this world and God's intention for it. The story culminates in God's greatest creation, within whose hands he leaves creation.



“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” - Genesis 1:28 KJV

But then the Fall came and we were relieved of that.

"And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” -Genesis 9:1-3

A little different than the first but the basic stuff is still there. The Earth was placed under the charge of humanity. The Psalmist says that, “The heaven's declare the glory of God.”

When I signed the lease of my apartment I paid a deposit. If the apartment is in good shape when I leave the deposit and a reference is given to me. If the apartment is in bad shape, I get neither the money or a reference. All my life I have been told that humanity became stewards of creation. Admittedly this most often came up in relation to taking up a collection on Sunday but the world would be mentioned too. I was asked too many times to count whether or not I was being a good steward if the gifts God has given to me. We like to focus on money, but in the end that is something we created, even if it is necessary, it is OUR creation. This world, is God's and I should treat it as such. I believe this world was spun into existence by the hands of a loving God. I believe the heavens still declare his glory, but smog does not. This world was created by a divine hand and should be treated as such.

I have to admit eco-nuts drive me crazy, and so do anti-eco nuts. I don't understand how anyone can look at the devastation of this planet to make our lives easier a good thing. And yes there is devastation. I have already mentioned the island of plastic waste in the pacific, over fishing that is causing entire species' of animals to die out. God left all this in our hands, we rule over them, so why do we ignore our accountability to God for them? The burning of Fossil Fuels cause smog, solar and wind does not. Does that mean we can't use Fossil Fuels. I believe like the rest of the world they are a gift. But we need to be responsible with our gifts. So lets use them, because right now we have to, but to ignore other fuel sources that are cleaner, that is just stupid. I believe we can come up with a way to burn coal and oil cleanly, we went to the moon, I mean we are pretty smart people. We can also use solar, wind, and hydro to offset them so we should.

My decision does not rest on whether or not we are causing climate change, it rests on my belief that I am to be a good steward of God's creation. And I also believe one day a year isn't too much to ask to celebrate that idea.

Vermicomposting: 1 month update

It has been a month since I started vermicomposting. Just a review, vermicomposting involves the use of earthworms to compost material. I will also remind you all I keep the bin INSIDE my apartment behind my couch, and I show it to everyone who walks in. I open the bin and ask my visitors if the smell is bad, then I ask them if they smell anything with the lid closed. To both questions the answer is always a resounding "No."

See there it is, right behind my couch. I fed it today, I fed it an old banana (my first banana), coffee grounds, and crushed and almost powdered egg shells. I feed a lot of coffee grounds, I know too many are bad though, each feeding still has grounds, I just try to make sure I have eaten a few eggs so I can balance the grounds out with shells. I use a lot of kitchen scraps, and when my girlfriend visits I have a lot more scraps, however I know the worms don't mind because they tend to eat the scraps we make. Actually, she brings some of her own too. 

Saturday I added cantaloupe rind, some strawberry tops and coffee grounds. I have also added over the month, drier lint, zucchini, canned peach, and rice (there is a lot more that is just slipping my mind). Of all these things it seems like the rice takes the most time. In most cases I process everything, even the rice. I found that, especially with rice, if I don't process the scraps they get nasty quickly. If I process them, they are often gone in ten days. I am very particular about what I will feed them. I have added onions and garlic ONCE and wish I hadn't done that then. It took forever for them to process it. I add absolutely NO meat scraps or vegetables cooked in meat (sorry bacon fat, I have to ground you for a few weeks). I try to avoid anything in cooking oils but a little is generally okay. Oh and I switched to unbleached coffee filters.  

So lets start with the fun!!!

 

Notice the lid behind the bin. It is sweating like crazy. I would worry if it wasn't for a few things. 

• No stink
• Lot's of casting
• More worms every day

I also read that worms can enjoy between 80-90 percent humidity, and I wouldn't be surprised if there is often light rain with the lid on. 

You will also notice that the paper looks as it did when I first made the bin, there is one reason for that and I think one of the biggest reasons for current success, I add new bedding every time I feed the worms. Not necessarily a lot, but enough to soak up some water, allow for reproduction, keep the fruit flies out, and balance out living space with castings. Worms prefer not to live in their own castings, so I don't want to make them. 

I also have to note that, there are other critters in the bin, right now I just see mites but I would be surprised if I saw some earwigs or pill bugs. This isn't a bad thing, they will stay in the bin and help the worms out. I have yet to get centipedes or anything that will hurt my worms. I am also currently avoiding fruit flies, gnats, and flies. That isn't to say I won't get them later but we are good for now. 

This is the side of my bin. When the lid is on and the lights are out my worms party all over the bin. I have even caught them in the handle groove on more than one occasion. What you see here are castings stuck to the walls, left by worms who like to poop and slide. This might mean that my worms are a little unhappy. If they are I would blame the wetness of the bin. So far it hasn't been a problem though my worms are reproducing and eating fine, as you will see later, but if it becomes an issue I will drill more holes in the bottom. They wouldn't hurt anyway, I am currently getting little to no drainage. 

You see some corrugated card board, they love that stuff, they eat it up, literally. It is perfect because it is unbleached and heavy enough to take some moisture. You may also notice colored news print, the colored is generally fine, as long as it is news print, NOT GLOSSY. 

There's a fun one of worms in casting, but it is a little blurry let's see if we can find something better. 

Those are castings, and a little bamboo from a lucky bamboo plant. They have not eaten it very well and it has been there for a long time, but, it really isn't hurting anything, and it is breaking down. 

This might be a little hard to see. I am holding castings, and there are about a dozen eggs in the castings. See how pretty the castings are. Lets see if we can even get a better look. 

That my friends, is a handful of delicious casting, basically a handful of fertilizer. There is even a little worm in there. Though my bin is not ready to harvest nine feedings and one month later, it is doing well. 

Just in case you are curious, my feeding schedule is twice a week, Wednesday and Saturday. Finding them food is generally not difficult even though my diet is heavily cardboard based. I collect back up feedings for light weeks. For example, they were throwing away some bananas at work, and I grabbed one. Another friend was getting rid of some green beans that had been in the can since 2004 (homegrown and canned). I will keep that jar for a feeding time in which I haven't much waste to add. I gather my waste through the week in an old plastic container, let is get soft, then add it to the bin. 

I feed the bin in a pattern. Imagine if you will nine sections in the bin. Three rows of Three. I feed section 1 on week 1 Wednesday and section 2 on week 1 Saturday. My worms are eating everything I put in. My first run with white rice took a while and even became a little gross. I think I checked on it for two weeks every day or so, it was turning to mush when later feedings had already composted. I decided I was going to remove it for fear of maggots and flies (or vice versa). I put a spoon into it and found in the center a large ball of worm casting and worms. I became excited because it was the first real compost I had seen, that i was SURE it was compost. I had put some good black soil in when I started the bin and was never sure if that was what I was seeing. So instead of removing it, I added some bedding and spread it out a little, and covered it, always covering it. It had grown a littler anaerobic, so I just added some air and it broke down fine. Funny what the worms will eat, all the peas were gone. Since then I have added more rice but I chopped it up, and I still notice the worms take issue with my rice, this time I learned from my past and spread it thinner but, the rice is still taking forever. 

Anyway, I hope you had fun reading, now go start a bin and tell me how yours is doing.