2000

We were expecting 2000 new pets today!

Before they arrived, the kids helped me shred and cut paper to make them a nice bed.

 This guy supervised.

 

 Next we piled our shredded paper into a bucket and filled it with water.

We squished and squashed the paper, making sure it was nice and wet all the way through.

 

Then we wrung out hand fulls of this paper pulp.

We thought it ended up looking rather pretty!

It also ended up being a great tactile activity.  Right up Kian's alley.

 

 Once wrung out, our paper balls were carefully separated back into strips(ish) and placed in our pets' box.

 

And finally, after arriving in the mail, our new pets were lovingly placed in their new home, on their nice, wet bed of paper mulch.

They were also loved on a bit too.

And may I add, I love that my kids love on worms.

 

We are excited to be vermicomposting once again!

 

My New Worm Box

Zac surprised me one day recently with this new GORGEOUS worm box!

I'ts made of redwood.

The top has a screen lid for easy access and ventilation.

It is actually a double decker worm box.  He modeled it after a friend's worm box.  Here you can see the upper story slides up so that the two sections can separate.  His friend has a screen between these two sections.  In the lower box, he does vermicomposting and in the upper box he does just straight compost.  After much discussion, I think we will use it as a double decker vermicomposting box.  We are thinking that once the bottom box is nice and full, we can slide a screen insert between the two layers and then start adding kitchen waste to the upper layer.  Once the worms are done eating away at everything in the bottom box, they will naturally move upwards towards the kitchen waste in the upper box.  And once they are all out of the bottom box, we can easily harvest their compost gold.  But, we shall see how it all plays out.  Right now, they're happy in the lower level and after some trouble shooting, we have decided that we definitely need more worms for the amount of kitchen waste our family creates.

This is the genius part of the box, and my favorite part!  Under the box hang two disposable turkey roasting pans.  Zac installed them with those pieces of wood you see there that are notched out.  I have no idea what those are called and Zac is snoring next to me at this moment so I can't ask for clarification, but I think you get it.  Those notched out pieces of wood let the roasting pans slide in and out so that we can......

....EASILY HARVEST WORM TEA!

I'm very excited about this, if you can't tell.  Our old system did not let us harvest the tea.  I'm excited to give our seedlings a nice drink of worm tea tomorrow.

Do you vermicompost?