Winter Update, long Overdue!

Hello my fellow vermicomposters and gardeners! It has been quite a while since I've posted any updates and I sincerely apologize for my absence. Ive been overwhelmed with planning for my twin girls who are due to be born in a few months, as well as a bit ill from this valley fever lung disease, but beyond that, I'm alright and looking forward to spring and more updates!

So lets get to it!

 What you are looking at above is a coffee can that was donated to me for the purpose of holding rabbit manure. Every few days Ill remove the rabbit manure from my rabbit cage and use a putty knife to scrape the manure into this can. Then I place an airtight lid on the can and leave it to mold. Yes that's right, I said mold. You see, this white hairy fungus begins to grow on the manure that is one of the most beneficial molds in soil breakdown.

This mold is known as mycelia or in its vegetative form (white hair like growth) its called mycelium. Over the years in various gardens both indoors and out, Ive seen people freak out over this beneficial mold, but I explain its benefit and soon they hope to get the growth on their top soil, as this particular fungus helps break down decaying matter into food for microorganisms.

This morning I found a banana peel on the table and tossed it into the manure. I carried this can into the worm bathroom, aka, worm room and filled it up with tap water, which is ironic, since the chlorine in the water probably killed a lot of the beneficial goodies living in/on/around the manure. But wetting the manure is a necessary step to ensure any urine in the feces gets diluted so as not to burn the worms.

CAUTION: When using hot manures like horse, steer, cow, etc. make sure to allow these hot manures to sit outside and breakdown for a few months before applying any to your worms. The reason for this is because those hot manures will kill your worms

I havent so much as added anything unique to the worm inn in months. The inn is so heavy, (at least 160lbs) that I fear adding another ten pounds would literally break the pvc frame. I checked on it a month ago and noticed it was in fact, slightly broken. Because I didnt use any glue to hold it together, the tubes had just slipped apart, so i readjusted and then quickly left, as the room is very musty, and with my lung disease, its difficult for me to breathe around these molds nowadays.

I decided to try to get a worm picture and after barely moving the top layer, it was clear that these worms have done VERY well the last few months. There were a lot of baby worms (which is a great sign, it means they've adapted to their environment and are thriving) but Im always happy to see these giant worms that almost look like baby snakes.

 To give a reference to this particular worm's size, I put the handrake thingy in there. See how long he is? He's moving fast!

I also wanted to discuss bugs a little. At first, I tried to freeze all of my vegetables so that they'd break down faster. The more you vermicompost, the more tricks you learn and like most hobbies, comfort breeds laziness. As time went on, I stopped freezing veges and just let them sit out back in a 5 gallon bucket and all our food scraps, dryer lint, cardboard, toilet paper rolls, you name it, if the dogs cant eat it, its added to the bucket so that it can breakdown over time.

This doesnt mean that I wont freeze them in the summer, when flies are prevalent, but in the winter, it's not as big a deal. If you can see the picture above, it is literally covered with thousands of different hopping, jumping and flying bugs that all somehow escaped from the worm inn.

To prevent bugs, I usually just cover the top of the inn with some cardboard or paper, which slows their ability to escape/breed/want to coexist in the environment I created. These fly traps can be had for a dollar at the dollar store and you typically get a few of them in the package. I recommend them, but theyre not appealing to the eye.

 From an above angle, its difficult to tell, but the worm in is about 1/3rd empty. Those worms are really eating away! I tore up some cardboard, paper bags, paper, toilet paper tubes, etc. and just tossed them on top.

 Then I poured the coffee can of manure (or poopachino hehe :) ) onto the top of the torn paper and let it soak in a bit.

Then I tore up some more paper and added some more water to the top of the paper/manure combo to help it soak up some more. The worms wont touch dried manure, so make sure to wet it well.

Just to show you whats going on with the outside bin, I opened it up, tossed some more cardboard in there with some rabbit manure and snapped a few shots from different angles.

As you can see, we've gotten a bit lazy in our tearing things up. Instead, we just toss stuff in there whole, add some water every few days and the mold and moisture breaks it down, albeit slowly, but surely!

The worms are also thriving in the outside bin, with about a good 6-8 inches of vermicompost on the bottom of the bin. We should have a nice vermicompost harvest in the next few months!

Another thing I'd like to point out in the above picture is the weeds Im allowing to accumulate in my yard. See that big one on the left? That's stinging nettle and according to my medicinal herb book, that itchy plant can be used to.......treat itchyness! If any of you are interested in a good herbal medicine book that teaches you how to make medicine out of the weeds in your yard, I highly recommend the "encyclopedia of herbal medicine" by andrew chevallier. Its less than thirty dollars on amazon and.... It may save your life one day!

Stay tuned for more updates and as always, if you need any help, guidance, direction, or if you just have a question or comment, feel free to post and Ill get back to you as soon as I can!