Hey, I've Got Worms!!!

No really, I do and I’m even proud of it!  No.... my dear doxies have not given me some critter that makes me want to scoot my butt across the carpet, I am starting a new adventure in composting – vermicomposting.  I have been trying to compost the old fashioned way, with a bin behind the shed, but I am impatient, and forgetful, so that little project so far has been a bust.  I started reading an article on Pinterest about composting with worms and the idea appealed to me.  The little buggars are quick and efficient, don’t smell, they can take up as little or as much room as you want them to, there is very little labor required (on my part anyway, they do all the hard work).  And really, they are kinda cute little guys too

Before diving right in (which I have a terrible tendency to do) I did my homework.  One of the best resources I have found so far is from a great page called Red Worm Composting.  The owner, Bentley Christie, does a great job of taking his readers by the hand and walking them through every faction of composting with worms, and he has a great sense of humor too!  Ok, homework done, I was ready to start my new adventure.  Thankfully Kim was on board too, although I’m sure in the back of her mind she thought this was just another way for me to add another ‘unique’ critter to our collection! 

Sunday morning over a cup of coffee I jumped onto my mostest favorite online ordering source and took the plunge.  Ordering everything was a breeze.  In the battle between my laziness and frugality, laziness won out this time and I purchased a 3 tray Worm Factory.  You can expand it with more trays but for our household I’m not sure that will be necessary.  Now for the worms…  seriously, is there anything you CAN’T order on Amazon???  There were a few suppliers out there but I decided on 1000 red wigglers from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm.   

Now the worst part…waiting.  Remember, I am impatient.   Being able to track packages online is a pretty cool thing, and it is perfectly understandable that I would go out and check the tracking a few times a day starting Monday morning – after all, it is summertime and I needed to know when my new little wormy friends were going to arrive…..  Wouldn’t want the poor things to suffer any heat exhaustion.  Right??  Yeah. 

Now, today is Wednesday and guess what… they are here.  Woo hoo!  The worms arrived by priority mail and I was a bit worried.  You would think that if a package says “Live Product – Perishable” they would take a little better care of it. 

After taking some good natured teasing from my mail carrier about ordering worms thru the mail when I could just dig them up in the yard, I brought my little bundle inside, and held my breath while I opened the battered box.  Thankfully, the good folks at Uncle Jim’s know what they are doing and all the little guys seemed to be doing just fine.  I put them and their peat mix in a big bowl and covered them with some wet paper to rest and re-hydrate while I got to work on their new Casa de Wormville.  

Bowl o'worms

Putting together the Worm Factory was a breeze, even with the help of Tig Tig (so tempting to lure her into the box and ship her off to Abu Dhabi…LOL)  I set up their bedding which was a mixture of wet coir and a shredded paper/cardboard combination all provided with the Worm Factory.  I added a bundle of yummies that I had collected over the previous couple of days (coffee grounds, corn husks, half of a tired cuke, some pellets generously donated by Widget the wonder rabbit, a handful of stale crackers, and whatever else I could scrounge). 

Appetizing, huh

Then I tucked in the squirmy little fellas and set them off to the side of the kitchen where they can work in peace.  The instructions say to leave them be for a few days, but I can’t guarantee I won’t take just a little peek (yeah, yeah, you know, I’m impatient). 

As I sit here in the living room writing this, I can hear something coming from the kitchen.  Could it be….an ever so quiet refrain of “Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go”?????