Let's See...

I need to get me a short hairdo, some fine cat-eye frames, and a sweater-with-pleated-plaid skirt outfit!

Photo Source: Whorange

Worm Bin Expansion Idea

If I decide to increase operations, maybe out in the garage one day, I'll set up a system like this. I might just go vertical right there next to my fridge.

What the Hell is THAT?

Feeding the five crews Sunday, I was proceeding as usual and when I came to it I fed Number 5.

Note: the crew is laid out pretty randomly and Number 5 was probably the third to be fed, not the last. I need better names for these crews. I have an idea on how to name them, but that's for later discussion, or not.

Anyway, I popped the lid off Number 5 and saw the Papa John's box lid was looking normal. Pulling that off, I saw that things below were normal. No excess moisture, not too dry, no fruit flies, no weird unknown bugs, no mite bloom. Perfectly normal. I do have to say that I wish I hadn't been in what must have been a rush when prepping this bin for Number 5 as the paper is so clumpy. It really should've been a little drier and thus not so clumped before being placed on the first story. It doesn't really matter since the worms are eating it, it's just annoying when I'm digging around in there, turning chunky wads of paper.

So I dug up the left side, put in some of Nate's straight-cut paper to use as napkins before topping with soggy banana peels and strawberry tops.

After I covered the left side, I dug up the right side, added in some of Nate's paper, including the note he'd left on the Target bag designating the bag's contents Worm Food, and put in soggy bananas and pistachio shells as well as some weird thing I couldn't identify. What is that thing?

Rolling on, I covered the right side and topped Number 5 off with additional slightly damp newspaper. I had this paper left from when I prepped second stories for other bins. As much as I'd like to, it's impossible to document every single thing that happens with the bins. Ok, scratch that. It'd be possible, but insanely time consuming, to document every single thing that happens with each of the bins.

Now let's step back a minute. Back to when I fed Number 5's right side. I mentioned a weird thing I'd fed them.

For real.

What the hell is that? What is that thing?

If that thing is gone when I feed Number 5 next, I'll be confident if was an uneaten peeled banana.

If that thing is still in the bin when I feed Number 5 next, I am going to be completely horrified.

Things Are Alright

Spooky's display illustrates our relaxed state.

Kimberly's Phone Books Made a Second Story for The Offspring

Back in September, I talked about the food offerings Kimberly made and mentioned that Kimberly's phone book offerings would require another post. Now's the time to button down what seems to be the hardest button to button as it's taken me so long to get to it.

Of course, I was reminded of this by the fact that sometime a couple weeks ago Kimberly gave me a bag of shredded paper from her straight-cut paper shredder. Thanks Kimberly!

I love Kimberly's paper as it's so, so fluffy, and not at all compacting when wet. When I tell her so, Kimberly reminds me that the shredded paper I love comes from a shredder from WalMart, which causes my sphincter to constrict just slightly*.

Here's the stack of two phone books, right there with Kimberly's Post-It declaring them worm food. Thanks again, Kimberly!


I peeled the front and back covers as well as glossy middles from the meaty paper sections of the phone books so I could take those glossies to OCC for recyling.


And so you'd be absolutely clear, here's some of the phone book meat, complete with Kimberly's Post-It attached.


When I got down to the last bit of meaty phone book middle, I chopped the Post-It up with it, yielding a 10-gallon bin full of shredded newspaper. Now you know it takes two large phone books and a 3x3" Post-It to yield a 10-gallon bin of shredded paper.


Then Spooky climbed inside the bin to pack the paper down because we work as a team. Spook's like a mama cat, lookin' out for a nice nest, but with him it's all about...well, him, and his personal comfort. Spooky likes paper.


Over the next couple days, Kimberly's phone book shreds were marinated in tap water, drained, and made into a second story for The Offspring September 12th, 2010. It's like a born-on date but better than Budweiser. That might be because I don't drink beer.


Just so you know, I had supplied The Offspring's second story with leftovers from an Ethiopian recipe (primarily cabbage and potatoes) I had tried as well as melon rinds and old pineapple bits, about 5 cups. I didn't bother looking for dirt.  There's enough in the unwashed vegetable peels I feed the worms anyway.


Since I began harvesting The Offspring's first story December 12th, those worms are now operating primarily on Kimberly's phone books, with additions from other sources as necessary, including part of the new batch of Kimberly's paper!

I now wonder if I should get a kitchen balance to measure the mass of food I actually feed a worm bin. So far, I've been doing it by volume, even though it's said worms eat their mass in X amount of time. That'd be one way of deducing my worm poundage per bin too. Hmm...

*I'll save you the grief of reading the deluge of reasons why I don't shop at WalMart. I'll just say,

• When Kimberly's shredder dies, I will personally go out and buy her a new straight-cut shredder from another vendor.  Note To Self: Get some ads up on this blog for funding.
• WalMart: The High Cost of Low Prices

.......................................................................................................
In other news:

• I fed the worms all of Bill's doobs over the weekend;
• The original Bill's Banana Peel's bag and bag of Tony's rice are long gone now;
• I'm enrolled in Korean 2 and it still sucks being the slow kid. The other kids laugh when I answer in English, but I don't do it to make a joke. I figure an answer in English is better than none at all. It's a weird thing, but I have serious difficulty when it comes to speaking in Korean, like I'm doing something wrong and Mrs. Sorenson won't give me a smiley-face hand stamp if I speak Hanguk
• Compels me to provide a grant to my elementary school with a specific clause that the money can only go toward minority or half-breed kids and those with a primary language other than English cannot be brainwashed into speaking English-only with Chutes and Ladders and smiley-face stamps in SPEECH THERAPY. Yes, I realize I need to hone that a bit.
• Ali's liquid diet lemon halves are way long gone by now, but I'll give you a visual on that
• Tony's squash plants grown impromtu from poop have suffered a drowning death with all the rain in December. Please, let's take a moment and bow our heads.
• Tony has sprinkled some of his latest poop in various areas of his giant outdoor domain; I'll be bugging him and Clare for photos
• And yes, I WILL get Clare's previous photos up one of these days

Recycling

Mom was ready to go to home, back to MI, Monday afternoon. After spending the morning chilling out and buttoning up her last day in CA, I took her to the airport and saw her off. Thankfully she didn't have TSA up her ass during the security portion. I'd heard about it otherwise as if it was under my control.

After returning home, I carried out my plans to bring recycling to the recycling center, clean out the fridge, feed the worms, literally clean the fridge (the bag of Tony's rice/apples/bananas? leaked), grocery shop and prepare to make something good to eat for the first time in a couple weeks (and then my sink plumbing sprung a helly leak so I wound up making a sandwich).

I brought all of my recycling to Orange Coast College Recycling Center.  I really like that recycling center because it reminds me of those back home in MI as they take DAMN NEAR EVERY FREAKIN' THING you'd generate in a regular household. I'd go into that, but you can just click the link above.

More than that, OCC recycling is open 7 days a week, Sundays being donations only. I usually go Sundays to unload my recycling quickly without having to wait for the people who are interested in collecting their cash.  I have nothing against those people, but I don't have the patience to wait. As there are only 6 spaces for autos to park, it can be a freaking mess with traffic in that tiny lot, particularly if a couple people have month-loads of stuff to collect on.

So what did I bring to recycle?

• Cardboard from pizza and other cardboard boxes like those that I bring Costco goods home in (otherwise they'd roll around in the bed of the truck) as well as excess TP and PT cardboard tubes (1 large cardboard box full because I was too lazy and really didn't have time to chop 'em up)
• paper including junk mail, magazines and other glossies I don't feed worms (two 10-gallon containers!); milk cartons; packing material from doing all of my shopping online (hence the uniform of black T-shirt, blue Levi's and black socks -- for example, black is default for T-shirts and typing "10" for quantity is less time-consuming than selecting specific colors) 
• plastic, can, and glass food containers, including the shitload I take with me when I empty the recycling bins at work, the plastic my Costco TP and PT comes in, plastic grocery bags (fourteen 13-gallon bags total of plastics, cans and glass!)
• metal food containers generated from myself and Spook (1 plastic grocery bag)
• batteries from work and home (2 smallish boxes)

Turns out, if I don't visit the recycling center in 2-3 months, the recycling becomes the equivalent of a near-heaping truck bed-load of stuff that would otherwise go into the dumpster. Now my garage, apartment and truck are completely free of recycling materials. Ahh! *sigh of relief* That crap has been driving me insane.

Recycling is the big reason why I started keeping worms in the first place. Keeping worms has made me much more aware of the materials coming into my apartment and the materials going out. I am shocked by the quantity of waste a single person generates.

I try to do what I can to minimize what goes into a landfill first-hand by feeding worms phone books, paper bags, non-glossy paper/mail, egg cartons and the occasional TP tubes, as well as the garbage from my fridge, but I recognize it's possible for me to make better choices regarding what I purchase. I'd made that realization once a couple years ago, went on autopilot, and am now conscious of it again since I started up this blog.

Thanks for being interested in poop, it'll help me keep my little corner of the world even nicer.

Geez Oh Pete

Before I continue with this post, I admit I had to Google how to spell Geez Oh Pete. I wasn't even sure if it was one word or three words. I found it, as well as other Michiganisms, here. Don't give me shit about the Michiganisms unless you want me to fullfist you in the throat straightaway. And those words you'll understand immediately should you choose to test me.

Ahem!

Here it is a new year. And I missed the majority of the first full week of the new year being sick. I blame Ali and Tony, respectively.

Thursday the 30th, I took home with me the majority of worm food from the work freezer, including banana peels and apple cores, as well as the rice Tony had prepared for the potluck, which really should've been eaten instead of being cast off as worm fodder. And there was that baggy of something extra special from Bill I remembered to retrieve from my cube.

As my Mom has been in town since the 22nd and I've been sick since the 2nd, I haven't fed any of my critters except my cat. And that's only because Spooky makes it a point to comb my hair with his nails when I'm late for breakfast feeding, beginning at 7:01 a.m. sharp. If it's not enough that Spook combs my hair with his fine cat nails, Spook combs my hair straight into his mouth for him to chew on. It'd be one thing if he simply chewed my hair, but he attempts to swallow it. Yes, he is willing to swallow the hair that is still attached to my noggin. As you can imagine, the idea of being attached by ones head hair to a cats bowels is not a pleasant thing.

Yeah, so that's incentive to get up and slog my way into the kitchen even when sick, trust me. Turns out, Spook does the same behavior when he's ready for his nightly feeding between 7-8 p.m. And again when his toilet needs to be cleaned out, which is more incentive to me to get him legitimately potty-trained.

Um, what I was going to write about originally? I forget now. I'm suddenly extremely tired and need to go back to bed. I have been awake at least three continuous hours. Thanks for listening.

Worms Poop in My Kitchen

What the hell does that mean?  Well, I'm a vermiculturist and I keep worms in my kitchen.  You might think that's crazy, but feeding worms my garbage to yield compost makes complete sense.

How does that make any sense? Well, let's think about this a second:

1. Does it make sense to throw organics into a plastic bag to dump into a landfill?
2. Does it make sense to grind up materials in a garbage disposal so it can be treated later?

I don't think so.  I can handle a lot of that stuff right there in my kitchen.  And I do.  Successfully.

Stick around and I'll give you some details.