Critters

It is pouring outside as I write this. Everyone else in the house is asleep, so I am savoring the sound of the rain, even though I know there are places not too far away who are weary of all the rain (and flooding) they've been getting recently.

I've been taking care of some non-human critters these past few months, and so far, have kept them alive. Want to see what I mean?

First up are the red wrigglers. For years we talked about getting some worms to compost our produce scraps. Finally, late last winter (I think?), we bought 1000 of them and got started. They eat any bits of produce that we don't eat. Think peels, skins, etc. They don't compost meat or dairy, unless we want it to stink. But they happily consume, and turn into compost, our produce scraps. Can you see them? The little pinkish bits in there?

I think we are now on our 3rd batch of compost (maybe 4th?). The worms are still alive and working hard, so I feel pretty proud of myself for maintaining this. Growing up, we just threw all our food compost into the garden that was far from the house. But living in a city - where rats are not too far away - exposed compost is not a good idea. So this is what we do instead. Why throw this into the trash where it will do no good, when we can have it enrich our soil instead? Such things make me feel like I am doing something right in the world.

When researching composting bins I read and watched videos about how to make your own, but in the end decided to go with a bin made for composting. It's been worth it. We had planned to keep the bin in the basement, but it looks nice enough that we've kept it in the kitchen - which is much more practical anyway. It is designed so we can add numerous levels, we can easily drain "worm pee" if it builds up and the pieces are easy to empty and clean when it is time to use the compost and start a new composting area.

I add shredded paper as dry matter to compost and absorb liquid.

Some nice looking compost. This is compost from coconut coir (it came with the bin), shredded paper and produce scraps. It was really wet so I added more paper while the worms were finishing their composting work. I no longer added fresh produce scraps to this one, but started a new section and gradually the worms migrate to the new food source once they have composted the food here.

Bottom drainage area. I clean it out every so often and put worms back in the food composting area.

Handy dandy paper shredder. Not only do we shred documents with information that we don't feel comfortable putting in our recycling, now they become part of the compost.

The drain at the bottom can be closed or open. Here I have it open and this small bowl is collecting the worm pee.

The composter's  place in our kitchen. More than one person has thought it's a stool and been surprised when we lift the lid and they see a wriggling mass of worms.