January 28, 2010
This is our worm bin (between Charlie’s bowl and toys.) Here it is 2 tier; at the moment it is 3 tier. It is made from ordinary plastic bins with lids. There are wood pieces inside to space the tiers about 8-10 inches apart.
The upper tier/s have holes drilled around the sides and in the bottom – this gives the worms air and allows excess liquid to drain into the bottom bin (which has no holes).
The worms were ordered from Uncle Jim’s worm farm (I’ve seen the Google ad on this page). They are special “red wigglers”, not earthworms. They come through the mail in a special moist package labeled “live worms.” We use strips of newspaper that are moistened as “bedding.” Kitchen scraps can be buried in the bedding…just about any kind of scraps (except meats, fats, oils and excessive citrus rinds). Coffee grinds, I hear, are a favorite of worms.
January 4, 2010
(I originally wrote this on New Year’s Day but had some technical difficulties…now here it is!)
It’s the first day of 2010…a grey, gloomy, cold day. We both woke up feeling tired and depressed (no, we didn’t party the night before unless you count watching an episode of old Star Trek), but we had pancakes for breakfast and then Mike lit the fire in the woodstove and we made coffee…life’s not so bad after all!!
Speaking of coffee, for Christmas I bought Mike (and me, I guess!) a hand coffee grinder at O’Hurley’s General Store…here’s a picture:
…You put the coffee beans in the top and turn the wheel for a minute or so and the ground coffee comes out into the drawer at the bottom.
…So, in the grand scheme of things, does this save much energy? Is it worth the manual labor? Maybe it’s silly and insignificant (after all, how much energy does an electric grinder use?) but it’s a step in the right direction…it gives a certain amount of psychological satisfaction. Some people say they enjoy the ritual of making their espresso every morning (not to mention the Japanese with their tea ceremony), so maybe this fits into that category.
This is our worm bin (between Charlie’s bowl and toys.) Here it is 2 tier; at the moment it is 3 tier. It is made from ordinary plastic bins with lids. There are wood pieces inside to space the tiers about 8-10 inches apart.