Chuck's Questions

As promised somewhere on this blog, I'd answer any questions that have yet to be answered. Chuck posed a couple to me today.

What are the dimensions of one of my worm bins?

Every one of my bins is a 10-gallon Sterilite bin. Each is 12" tall, and across the open top, 18" long and 13" wide.

As Chuck has been closely monitoring the humidity in a see-through bin, he was concerned that it would be hard to determine the humidity in a dark bin.

It's obvious if humidity is too much. Any condensation on the walls of a bin is what I'd consider pushing the limit on humidity. This, for example, is excessive:

Here's a good time to insert a reminder that ventilation holes are an excellent way to circumvent this problem. While there are two rows of ventilation holes (larger holes up top and smaller holes an inch below those) in the bin above, they were drilled too low overall causing the lower holes to be useless as they are masked by the catch bin. Don't make the mistake I made on this bin. Remember that your stand-offs in the catch bin will compress with the mass of the materials in the worm bin and that mass will continuously increase as you feed the worms and thus, compression will increase over time.

Long story short: drill the holes as close to the top as possible.

When this much moisture is present, feed the worms a dry-paper-only regiment until the system is at more desireable moisture levels. High moisture isn't dentrimental to the worms as long as it isn't continued an extended period of time though you might find that the natural balance isn't as worm-favorable as it is mite-favorable.

Cang and Kimberly's Poop; Chuck's Poop with Worms

The purple-lidded Glad container, I think that's 4 cups, went to Cang. The gallon Ziploc went to Kimberly. The 4-gallon container Cang and Kimberly's portions are sitting on went to Chuck. Chuck's portion was about two gallons of clean poop plus the majority of the worms in the poop-batch. I say majority because it's impossible to collect every thread.

Once The Offspring's poop was transferred into a 4-gallon container, the poop-drying container, it was allowed to air-dry with the lid off, 060811.

Another 4-gallon container was placed next to The Offspring's poop-drying container. As I had time, while talking on the phone or listening to the radio, I sifted through the poop pulling out chunks of paper, pistachio shells and seed husks, piling them on the lid of one of the containers. Pieces of plastic, stickers, twist-ties and rubber bands were placed on the lid of the second container.

As I worked through the poop, the clean poop was transferred to the second container, the one on the right, below. Worms were separated into an 8-cup Glad container for Chuck along with some poop.

This is what a full batch of cleaned poop looks like.

And usually, this is where I snap the lid on and call it ready to deliver. This time though I divied it up into Cang's Glad and Kimberly's Ziploc containers leaving the rest in the container.

This pile is the edibles left from the worm poop. I'd dumped the pile of plastics into the garbage but this edible pile wound up in one of the worm bins, Number 5, I think. I could've left this stuff in the poop, but for presentation purposes, particularly when delivering it to a first-time recipient, especially when that person will be using it in their houseplants, I prefer the poop to be as clean as possible.

As I said, the worms were separated out and placed in an 8-cup Glad container. I'd put a melon cube in with them and topped them off with paper.

Chuck's worms were pretty spindly as they are all immature. I've noticed over time that the worm poop is sort of a worm nursery. Baby worms, threads, hatch from the casings and go about their worm business growing up to be little toddler worms, all pink and cute. Chuck's worms, while young and spindly, were thriving worms.

Before delivery, as I'd assumed Chuck was going to spread the wormy-poop over a grape-plant or two, I removed the paper from the 8-cup container and dumped the worms into the white-lidded 4-gallon container.

Post poop-delivery, it sounds that Chuck is planning to raise the worms in my poop-drying container. It'll work, but Chuck will have to particularly attentive to worm light levels, water/humidity levels and paper-food-poop ratios.

I met Kimberly for lunch Tuesday to deliver her poop and she had a big (as in shopping) bag of straight-cut phone book paper for me. I wound up giving that paper to Chuck Wednesday as he was suffering over-analysis paralysis of suitable paper. I hope The Offspring's babies are doing ok.

Maybe I should build Chuck a worm bin and deliver that, asking him to dump the worms and poop in there. My intention was never that the juveniles would be raised in primarily mama and papa poop. Besides, I need my poop-drying container back.

While Number 5's poop has been on deck for cleaning, I've got another batch drying out in it's first story (Number 4's I think) and it should be transferred soon to a smaller container for sorting or the babies in there will die a slow drying death.

That's it, new worm parents should be required to fill out a form so I am completely clear in how the worms should be delivered.

Oh my, what have I done to my those babies?

Wait, Chuck's an engineer, paying particular attention to humidity levels etc. He's been asking me many questions about worm-keeping.

WTF? Doesn't Chuck have a link to this freakin' blog?

Chuck Gets Poop

Late March I was invited to Chuck's house for a wine-bottling event scheduled for early April. Not sure if I'd be able to attend, I was all wishy-washy about it. The thing I had to do wound up being postponed so I was suddenly free. While I don't drink wine, it'd be neat to check out a home-bottling.

What do ya bring a guy who has everything including a vineyard and what turned out to be a pretty freakin' sweet kitchen (nevermind the picturesque wife, child and dog)? Am I little jealous? Maybe. It would be awesome to have a sweet kitchen. A wife would be really handy too, especially if as cool as Chuck's Jen. Just sayin'. 

A batch of poop, of course!

I had this batch from The Offspring laying around, destined for Bill. Eh, Bill wouldn't need a whole batch anyway. As a matter of fact, as I'd suspected he would, Bill gave his batch to Tone. And certainly, Tone made it a point to mention that, per Clare's suggestion, he shouldn't lose his place in the queue. I figured that was coming and of course, will comply. I'm not an ogre.

This batch is on the low side as it's fairly dry due to drying out for over a month. Stuff had been sprouting, growing, and dying in this container that whole time, dying because I wasn't watering the poop, intentionally killing limiting growth.

As I cleaned out about 1/4-1/3 of the batch of seedlings, seeds and plastics, I wondered what nifty container I could pick up to gift the poop in. A counter-top compost bin maybe?

Push came to shove and I skipped the cutey-cuteness factor. The poop was pretty clean and the worms I found were put back into The Offspring. I wasn't sure how Jen would feel about a batch of poop, nevermind a batch of poop complete with worms. I rolled with the usual poop delivery container.

And see how pretty Chuck's little batch of pooh looks!

Yeah, so what if you click on the photo and see a bunch of seeds in there. I did my best with the time I had available.

Since then, Chuck let me know that weeds were growing out of the poop.

Weeds my ass! They are tomatoes or melons or squash...or something. Far from weeds! Chuck suggested I microwave my poop to prevent this from happening in the future. I told Chuck in a very kind, roundabout, way that maybe he should just piss up a rope relax.

Surprise, surprise, Chuck recently let me know he wanted some poop and worms for his latest endeavor, the strawberries he'd planted. That'll be my next achievement, worm delivery. I have a batch of pooh nearly ready to begin processing; I'll get the worms from that batch.

I'm sure Chuck will have something to complain about when he gets the worms. I'll keep you posted.

FYI the wine-bottling experience was kick-ass! I loved it! Chuck and Jen had a good layout happening from the onset with breads, cheeses and dips available for incoming guests to congregate and meet-and-greet over.

While Chuck prepped for the bottling, he and Jen coordinated a dinner before the actual event including grilled tri-tip and sides, some of which were "old family" Costco recipes of Chuck's, including scalloped potatoes and macaroni and cheese; others brought by guests that were really homemade included a Persian dish by Ali and a spinach-and-strawberry salad among others. 

The bottling event itself was enough to accomodate 15-20 or more people and there was just enough action happening to keep most everyone busy in some aspect. Best was that Chuck and Jen made it a point to allow everyone opportunity to work each "station" in the process. As Chuck does, he talked the entire time; this time I actually learned something relevant to what was going on rather than random information suitable for a segment of Jeopardy!.

With each change of wine to be bottled came a wine-tasting. I'd expound, but I don't drink wine. I showed up to be, specifically, a thorn in Chuck's side.

At evening end, participants were allowed to select a recently-bottled bottle of wine or two to take home. I left my bottle for someone who'd actually drink their efforts.

I highly recommend attending Chuck's wine-bottling if you are offered an invite. There is much to learn that I haven't disclosed, plus there is good company and food to enjoy. 

Screw it. If you hear Chuck might be hosting another event like this, just show up. Bring him a box of worm poop and tell him I sent ya. I'll be there to back you.

Last of Chuck's Grape Bits Get Fed to Number 5, 090910

I first started feeding the worms, specifically Adam, Eve, and The Offspring, Chuck's grapes August 24th. That's what this post was all about, though you wouldn't have been able to guess the date. Unless you'd clicked on a photo from that post and decifered the url.

When I talked about what happened to those grape bits I'd fed to Adam, Eve and The Offspring, I didn't tell you that I'd fed some of the grape bits that day (090510) to Number 4.

Anyway, I had a little bit of Chuck's grape bits left and fed them to Number 5, 090910.


Number 5's left side was fed.

Number 5's right side was fed.

And that's it, Chuck's grape bits, all 10 pounds or so, were fed to each of the five worm bins over a two-and-a-half-week period.

This is exactly what was left.

I did keep, and continue to use, the Bristol Farms bag. It holds my toilet paper and paper towel cardboard tubes until I'm ready to chop 'em up.

What's Left of Chuck's Grapes, 090510

I didn't make it very clear in my last post about Chuck's grapes, but I fed the grape bits for the first time to three of my bins (Adam, Eve and The Offspring) August 24th. I said I'd follow up with what how the worms handled the grapes and now's the time to do that.

When I checked on the worms September 5th, the following is a sampling of what I found.

I was quite surprised to find a little baby grape all bright and shiny green on an old stem.

Digging around further in Adam, this gnarly thing spring up:

There isn't much to see as far as grape skins go expect for that flaccid brown one up there at top-left. The branchy woody stemmy part had a lot going on though! Worms of all ages and sizes were intertwined with the stemmy bits and there were a multitude of young mites (those tiny white nodules) all over it too!

When I checked on The Offspring, I saw a big pile of brownish grape skins with worms intermingled.

The Offspring were going a little slower at the chow but I'm not sure why. They did seem to be enjoying their meal.

You can click on each of the images above for a closer look if'n ya wanna.

My Crew Gets Fed Grape Bits

So I had about 10 pounds of grape husks and stems to feed the worms. The bag sat in my fridge until the weekend, which is feeding time for the crew. I could be feeding them twice a week, but I don't. I'm working up to it. But then again, it's getting on to winter, so they'll be eating more slowly unless I figure out a way to keep them warmer. It'd probably help if I turned on the heater, but I don't know how to work it and thus, haven't used it once in the three years I've lived here. That's a boring story for the future if I'm desperate for blogging material. Not likely.

Check out my crew! The first string are the bins on the floor: Adam, Eve, and The Offspring. Guess which came first!

Note that each worm bin has breathing holes on the sides and the lids; and that each one is sitting in a catch bin. I'm not CraYZzeEE! Leakage-onto-the-floor-prevention is always a good idea.

Everyone, meet Adam.


You can tell Adam from the others because he's got 12, 3, 6 and 9 written on him in Sharpie. That's from back in the beginning when I was a newbie and tried feeding one location one day and another location another day per the recommendation from a website written by someone who doesn't have much to do but keep track of what clock area was last fed. You can also tell it's Adam because he's the Big Cheese. His cardboard paper-covering even says so.

This is what Adam looks like under his moisture-retention-Big-Cheese-cardboard layer.

The bin level is a couple inches below the lower breathing holes, though it's hard to determine that from this view. You just gotta trust.

When I feed my worms, I essentially dig up the left (12:00) side right down to the bottom, piling whatever paper and castings on the right (6:00) side, making a big poopy paper mountain. And yes, it sometimes spills over if I'm hasty. That's why I don't keep or feed the worms in my carpeted living area.

Once the left side is essentially aerated and a "hole" dug, I scoop worm food into it. In this case, I grabbed the food with tongs and tossed it in, tongful by tongful. Grape stems are difficult to scoop.


Once the food is in, a good pound or so, I spread the mountain of bedding over it, then proceed to dig up the right side, making sure to dig up the center of the bin too. It has a tendency to get compacted. Then I dump food in the right side too, another generous pound or so.

At this point, I started picking out the grape stems and throwing them in the garbage. There were a lot and while the worms will eat them eventually, it takes a while. The stems wind up being more of a nuisance for me as they get stuck in my little three-pronged gardening trowel.

Once both sides of Adam were fed, I simply spread the bedding over the entire bin. If the level is still low relative to the smaller, lower, breathing holes, I'll top the bin off with more shredded paper and depending on the weather/season will mist it from my handy-dandy water bottle.

This time, I didn't bother topping off with paper. The level is nice and high, just below the lower set of small breathing holes. Additional water wasn't really necessary as everything was still damp like a sponge and there was still quite a bit of juice in the grape husks.


And that's it, Adam's fed, good to go for a few days or a month. After returning the Big Cheese cardboard and snapping the blue lid back on, I simply shoved Adam back into his corner. He doesn't care if I get pushy.

A majority of the grape bits were fed to Adam, Eve, and The Offspring. That left me with about 1/5-2/5th's of the grape bits I'd started with.

Chuck, the worms thank you for the chow.

Next up: what's left of the grape bits at next feeding.
................................................................................................................

In real-time news:

1. I've continued on with my "I'll kick Korean language class ass" and didn't drop last week, though honestly I was seriously considering it.
2. Ken jovially accused me of being a "cruncher", or what I'd call "a dirty hippy", because I'm saving fruit cast-offs in a baggie in one of the kitchen freezers. I must say now that I still bathe regularly and do not, and have never, owned a pair of Birkenstocks. If I wasn't so against toe-exposure by all, I might consider those 'stocks.
3. As for Bill, he's been slacking when it comes to putting his banana peels into the baggie. Loser.
4. Two of my friends at work have been on a Master Cleanse "lemonade/maple syrup diet". While they might be sick in the head for doing the diet, I did receive a plastic grocery bag FULL of lemon-half cast-offs today. There was still enough juice in the previously-squoze halves that while double-grocery-bagged, the halves leaked juice onto the floor of my cubicle. The worms are gonna love it! And they'll be lemony-fresh too. I always like a lemon-scented worm bin.
5. I ran into Kimberly and she asked me what "her" worms need. I told her I'd like some of her shredded paper (shredded being key, I like her shredded paper as it's not cross-cut and doesn't tend to mat). I'm behind on shredded paper anyway, but am much more so what with the sudden influx of lemon halves.

There's a Guy Called Chuck

And he gave me worm food.

And he's rich. Ok, maybe not RICH. Let's just say Chuck shops at Bristol Farms and has a vineyard. Pshaw, you say. No pshawing here on my part. It's for real, Chuck's rich has a vineyard!

Here's a grocery bag from Bristol Farms full of wine-making grape leftovers Chuck gave me a month or two ago.

Bristol Farms is probably the only grocer in the universe that pays to have large print on a paper bag stating that the bag is REUSABLE and RECYCLABLE. I only hope they use soy ink rather than metallic ink, which would defeat the purpose of the large "green" print.

See? I told you! Dude's loaded has a vineyard!

By this time, I've fed the worms the grape husks and stems (Chuck'll have to check me on the correct terminology), but plan to update you on how the worms handled them.