October 2020
The World’s Smallest Worm Bin?
I recently alluded to the fact that when you are a true “worm-head” you see the world through a different lens. Countless containers, and other miscellaneous items suddenly seem like they would be “good for vermicomposting”.
So, this morning as I was brushing my teeth and staring idly at one of my wife’s itty bitty containers of skin cream (that she likely didn’t pay itty bitty $$ for), inspiration struck me like a lightning bolt! And a voice inside my head said:
“You must make the world’s smallest worm bin…today!”
(Or something along those lines)
As I wandered around the house looking for teeny tiny, but empty, skin cream containers – with zero success – I came upon a sight so incredible, I was at a loss for words (I wrote “worms” the first time). (more…)
**For Even More Worm Fun, Sign Up for the RWC E-mail List!**Worm Inn Journal – 10-30-20
The last time I wrote about Worm Inns it was “Day 425” of my “Mega Reboot” project, more than two years ago (yep, the only thing consistent around here is how all-over-the-place I tend to be! Haha).
Since that time, I’ve discontinued most of my indoor vermicomposting activity here at home (where I am quite limited for space) and have shifted the focus over to my dad’s place. He has a large basement, and an empty first floor available – and has always been very supportive of my vermi-shenanigans.
Now that I am consistently getting over there at least once or twice a week for extended chunks of time, things are starting to gain a bit of momentum on the indoor vermicomposting front.
(more…)
Worm Castings Quality 101
I was originally just going to call this post “John Kohler” visits Texas Worm Ranch” (super compelling, I know! lol), but as I continued to watch the video (shared below) it became more and more apparent that it was the ultimate lesson in worm castings “quality”.
I won’t claim I’ve always been a huge fan of John Kohler’s (I promise we’ll circle back to this further along), but I must say he really knocked it out of the park with this one. He provided a great tour of Heather Rinaldi’s facility (and process), shared lots of excellent information, and wasn’t shy about admitting (more…)
Return of the VermiBag
Last week I started the process of getting one of my VermiBags up and running again.
I know.
It must seem like there is a bit of a Red Worm Composting worm bag renaissance going on around here! (And in fact, I even have plans to get at least one of my old Worm Inns up and running as well. lol)
This flurry of new vermicomposting activity, which includes my worm bag mania, relates to my spending a lot more time over at my dad’s place (where I keep most of my indoor vermicomposting systems/supplies) in recent weeks.
Hopefully the trend continues, since it is starting to feel like “the good ol’ days” of RWC (and then some)!
😉
Last week I simply wanted to get the system ‘brewing’ a bit, so I just added some (more…)
Doubling Down with UWB Euros
I recently found the missing piece from my other Urban Worm Bag stand, and figured what the hay – might be fun to get another one set up!
As the subject line suggests, I’ve decided to use Euros in this one as well (check out “Big Fat Euros in an Urban Worm Bag?” if you happened to miss my other recent Euro-UWB update). But this time around I have a slightly different idea.
People often wonder how well Red Worms and Euros work together in the same system. The answer is that they are perfectly fine together, BUT – in my experience – the Red Worms will always manage to take over the system eventually.
So, what I thought I would try with this system is to first establish (more…)
Willie’s Wonderful Wooden Worm Bin
Yesterday, a worm customer named Willie Lapin got in touch to tell me about a wooden worm bin he had built for his new ‘herd’.
When I saw the images, it was love at first sight – and I immediately asked him if it was ok for me to share his creation with others (you can guess how he responded).
In a lot of ways the bin is very similar to a VermBin24, but looks like it would be even easier to build, and might take up less room.
Willie tells me the frame was made with Redwood, to help slow decomposition, but the rest was made with (more…)
Big Fat Euros in an Urban Worm Bag?
Back at the beginning of August I wrote about a new Urban Worm Bag project I had recently started up at my dad’s place (where most of my indoor systems are currently kept).
As can sometimes be the case, it was a pretty slow – and somewhat unconventional – beginning…and not without some early hassles.
On the first day of set-up I was short on time and available food supply, so I simply added a bunch of weeds and dry poultry feed pellets (after my usual UWB “false bottom” installation, of course). The idea was that I could at least get the decomposition process started – and then I would add the worms (Euros in this case) at some later time. To help the process along I moistened everything and laid a plastic bag in over top of my heap o’ weeds.
About a week later, I decided the system had “aged” enough to add worms, so I (more…)