by Wonder Worman | Jun 4, 2010 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
I have been tweeting and facebooking about my newest worm adventure. Lavabelles has joined the “Wormability” movement!
Lavabelles is a really neat business. They have renovated 8 homes built in the 1940’s, I believe. I need to get the exact information from Cara, the head honcho. Each home is fully furnished with modern and turn of the century pieces. They can be rented for a night or as long as a month!
I was very excited when Cara wanted to expand her recycling efforts to include vermicomposting! Since this was my first gig with providing a worm service, I wanted to take my time researching to make sure this would be successful. With my camera in hand, I took photos of the property to find the best place for the worm bin and outside food scrap container. By the way, Carlos, my really talented, creative, designer husband, came along! He has an eye for this type of thing! Anyway, we found the spots, and then I was off to the stores to find the best containers. After a few hours, I found one for the kitchen and one for the outside.
This is what I found! This super cool stuff is on the kitchen counter in the “Flo” house. The container is for the preconsumed kitchen waste. Carlos created the “How to do the Red Wiggler” info poster which explains what the worms love and and hate to eat. There is also a condensed version on the counter, too.
Kudos to Carlos! Once again, he bangs things out and they look SWEEEEEET! Check out the stickers on the container.
After filling up the indoor container with food for the worms, it will be brought outside.
This is the outdoor food collection bin. I will be there every Monday to empty and sort the food for the worms. The renter does not have to worry about feeding the worms.
The last step of the composting process and my favorite, The Worm Bin. Not sure if you can see the combo lock there to the left of my logo. I assembled that nifty piece all by myself! It took me a few days and trips back to the house to ask Carlos how to work the drill, change the battery pack, and attach and detach all of the bits. Eventually, I was able to drill that sucker on!
I will be here once a week checking on my babies and making sure this operation runs smoothly! I am so excited to be doing what I love!!! There truly is nothing like it!
More to come.
Happy Worming.
The sun is finally making an appearance! I missed you!
by Wonder Worman | Nov 18, 2009 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
This is it! The final delivery of the season! It was a cool one for sure, and one that I will remember for a while (well at least when I have the pictures as prompts…I need all the help I can get. The mind ain’t what it used to be) On Monday, I took a pound of worms, a bin, peat moss, shredded newspaper, and my hubby to a Llama and Alpaca Farm. Marty, the human leader of the animals, greeted us with a huge smile and a hand shake. She lead us to the future home of the red wigglers, a renovated chicken coop that was invaded by racoons…Yikes. The chicken coop was already set up with a heat lamp and hay…perfect for a red wiggler set up in November. Totally cool! These guys love their llamas and alpacas and will soon love their red wigglers. Just look at that set up!
Here’s a picture of hay which is above sheets of newspaper. This will keep the worms warm especially during the chilly Bend nights.
Doesn’t this look yummmmmmy!!! Marty was all set with food scraps for the red wigglers. I put the rotting lettuce, celery, cucumbers and squash on top of the bedding and covered the scraps with the sheets of newspaper (another good use for USA today). I use the newspaper to keep the red wigglers contained to the food area so they won’t travel up through the hay. In the summer this helps reduce fruit flies.
Marty’s goal is to reduce her food waste and to also compost her llama and alpaca waste. I don’t have experience with animal waste so she is my test case. We will be chatting a bunch to see how the red wigglers are doing. I am excited to see what happens!!
by Wonder Worman | Oct 30, 2009 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
Calling all Halloween Jack-O-Lantern and rotting pumpkin owners!
When you are tempted to toss your icky pumpkins into the trash can, don’t! STOP and think about other options.
1. toss them into the corner of your backyard.
2. toss them into your compost pile.
3. toss them into your worm bin!!!
and if these options don’t work for you, GIVE THEM TO THE WONDER WORMAN!!! (if you are local)
Pumpkins are 100% biodegradable. When added to your compost pile, you will have rich fertilizer for the spring! A huge bonus, if you have a worm bin, the worms will have a Halloween treat too! They love, love, love pumpkins! I can’t stress that enough!
REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF USABLE WASTE THAT CLOGS OUR LANDFILLS!!!!
by Wonder Worman | Sep 27, 2009 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
I decided to check on bin #1 a little bit earlier today because I wanted to add a “meat” thermometer to see what the temperature was in the bedding. When I lifted to newspaper, I noticed not much has changed. There were a few red wigglers on the top of the coffee filters, but by the time I turned my camera on and took the picture they were gone. They are quick when they are exposed to light! I believe another type of bug is eating through the cabbage leaf. There are big bites taken out of it. It is not uncommon to have other decomposers in the bin too. The worms are well mannered and don’t mind sharing!
Here is the “meat” thermometer. It reads about 62 degrees (not sure how to make the symbol on the computer).
The worms are quite active when I pulled the watermelon away so I know they don’t mind this temperature. Tomorrow, I will take a picture of the worms underneath the melon. I will have to keep an eye on this and will begin to insulate the bins when it drops to about 40 degrees.
After I finished taking pictures, I covered the red wigglers with their favorite “blankie”. They surely like their large sheets of newspaper. It keeps their home nice and dark and helps to keep out the fruit flies.
Until tomorrow…..
Happy Worming!
by Wonder Worman | Sep 26, 2009 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
Probably not, I am sure of that, but to my red wigglers this is heaven on a stick. The nastier the better. They will devour this mess of mush in about 2 weeks, and I will keep track of this for the week. I am home for a week from my “other” job due to a surgery so I need a Wonder Worman project to keep me busy. I have decided to document the progress of bin #1.
Not sure if you can tell what all of this is???
– 3/4 of a watermelon
-3 coffee filters
-carrots…not sure how many
-cabbage leaves…from my garden (which the deer have eaten…another blog for that one)
-apple core and some egg shells
I shall see how long this takes. I just threw the waste on top of the bedding and have covered the food with large sheets of newspaper. I will be back tomorrow to show another picture. Happy worming!!!
I have been tweeting and facebooking about my newest worm adventure. Lavabelles has joined the “Wormability” movement!
This is what I found! This super cool stuff is on the kitchen counter in the “Flo” house. The container is for the preconsumed kitchen waste. Carlos created the “How to do the Red Wiggler” info poster which explains what the worms love and and hate to eat. There is also a condensed version on the counter, too.
This is the outdoor food collection bin. I will be there every Monday to empty and sort the food for the worms. The renter does not have to worry about feeding the worms.
The last step of the composting process and my favorite, The Worm Bin. Not sure if you can see the combo lock there to the left of my logo. I assembled that nifty piece all by myself! It took me a few days and trips back to the house to ask Carlos how to work the drill, change the battery pack, and attach and detach all of the bits. Eventually, I was able to drill that sucker on!
