approachable radicalism is all well and good, but let me get back to what this blog is really about for a moment: SQUASH! and WORMS! the other night i begrudgingly cooked a spaghetti squash from my winter stash. i haven't craved a squash since last october and the numbers in my stash haven't exactly decreased by themselves, so i'm challenging myself to eat all of them before i'm inundated with another round in a few months. i scooped the seeds and guts out, thinking, "mmm, yummy worm food," and into the worm box it went.
five days later.....
ALL the seeds germinated! i opened the lid to find dozens of six-inch-tall, pale yellow squash sprouts taking over my worm box. it was a squash forest! i didn't realize that things could thrive in sunless, wormy conditions like that. i plucked a couple out and put them in a window planter, so it now appears that my best laid plans to NOT grow winter squash in the garden have been thwarted by volunteer worm plants.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
approachable radicalism
this is my new platform.
here's a scene from the composters' potluck tonight:
composter 1: "you know, especially after taking this class, i feel like i'm even more anti-consumerism than i was before." (said with a look of concern on face.)
composter 2: aka, shley: "ya, sometimes i think i'm turning into a radical." (similar look of concern. can it really be? no, shopping is fun!.....)
composter 3: "'turning into'? i thought you were already 14 feet further out there than everyone else here."
so apparently i'm already a radical, by a measurement of 14 feet further than those who spend their evenings talking about dirt. i instantly feared that the common consensus about my personality was that i was some foaming at the mouth organic freak whose radical antics were tiring to the other composters. because, i mean, that's what we mean by radical, right? zealotry? unwavering viewpoints? constant chattering about beliefs on the fringe of society?
well, the good news is that i never did foam at the mouth about anything in composting class, so i'm not THAT kind of radical. rather, i am an approachable radical- one who is educated, partially articulate, experienced, compassionate, and, best of all, approachable.
here's a scene from the composters' potluck tonight:
composter 1: "you know, especially after taking this class, i feel like i'm even more anti-consumerism than i was before." (said with a look of concern on face.)
composter 2: aka, shley: "ya, sometimes i think i'm turning into a radical." (similar look of concern. can it really be? no, shopping is fun!.....)
composter 3: "'turning into'? i thought you were already 14 feet further out there than everyone else here."
so apparently i'm already a radical, by a measurement of 14 feet further than those who spend their evenings talking about dirt. i instantly feared that the common consensus about my personality was that i was some foaming at the mouth organic freak whose radical antics were tiring to the other composters. because, i mean, that's what we mean by radical, right? zealotry? unwavering viewpoints? constant chattering about beliefs on the fringe of society?
well, the good news is that i never did foam at the mouth about anything in composting class, so i'm not THAT kind of radical. rather, i am an approachable radical- one who is educated, partially articulate, experienced, compassionate, and, best of all, approachable.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
R.I.P.
pepino died. i guess the shell was too broken and his little snail body couldn't take it.
sniff sniff.
sniff sniff.
Friday, May 11, 2007
the master composter has spoken
auntie k reports that she is dumping her kitchen scraps in a pile in her backyard and wonders whether worms will crawl in to have a feast and make compost. the answer? um, no, not really. i mean, they might wiggle up into the pile and eat some food, but more likely the pile, if not covered with a layer of dirt or leaves or something, will become home to maggots and other creepy crawly things you don't want in your backyard. that is, IF the pile is ONLY food scraps and no leaves or grass, etc. if it does have those materials then the compost pile should be getting too hot inside to host worms.
but what is shley doing with worms in her kitchen, and why isn't she growing flies?
let's have a compsot lesson to find the answer.
there are two different compost systems that are going on in shleydom: one, the compost pile compost, and two: vermicompost. in the first you rely on microbes and nematodes and roly polys and such to break down the material. in this case, you will ideally have a pile the size of a cubic yard, and it will be comprised mostly of BROWNs and GREENs. browns are carbon-rich materials, think OLDER material, like autumn leaves, perennial prunings, thatch from your yard (the dried-up grass from winter or drought), and such. greens are younger and 'greener'- grass clippings that have dried for a day or two, weeds that have also dried out and are without mature seed heads, alfalfa, straw, and food scraps. when you designate a site for your pile you scratch around in the ground below to make it easy for the dirt creatures to crawl up into the stuff you're going to put there, then you put stuff there. in a 3:1 ratio of browns to greens, pile about 8 inches of material, water it with your hose and stir it up with a pitchfork. the reenactor has one of those, doesn't he? it should be the consistency of a wrung out sponge. so at this point you've got a layer of damp leaves, grass and whatever. now do the same thing on top of that layer- put browns and greens in a 3:1 ratio, water it, stir it up, feel it for sponge-like dampness, and repeat! after a lot of sweating you'll have a cubic yard of damp yard waste. it has the proper ratio of carbon and nitrogen, the proper volume and proper aeration/moisture level to be an inviting place for microbes to get in there and do their work. cover the pile with a tarp or old blanket or something and let it sit there for a week. after a week, uncover it and WHOA the thing should be steaming and hot hot hot inside. it should be about 120-140 degrees. this is great! the pile is heating up like a haystack about to spontaneously combust (but don't worry, it won't catch fire). things are breaking down inside because of the microbial activity and heat, so what you'll want to do is TURN THE PILE. get the pitchfork back out or get a mattock or whatever tool you feel like using and get all the stuff that was on the inside on the outside. mix it up!
what a load of work, huh. you can add food scraps to the pile at any point, but it's a good idea to dig a little hole at the top to place them in and then cover them up so they won't stink or attrack racoons or other varmits. keep turning every week and in a couple of months the material will have decreased in volume by at least half and will be ready to use as compost amendment. yay!
now, vermicomposting. this is ideal for apartment dwellers or people that like worms. i have a storage box in my pantry that i drilled holes in the bottom and sides of. inside i put "bedding", which is shredded newspaper and a handful of leaves i got from outside moistened to be like a wrung-out sponge. i plopped the pound of worms in there and they wriggled to underneath the bedding and made themselves at home, then i fed them my kitchen scraps. i buried the scraps below the surface for the same reason as above: to deter fruti flies and real flies and such. the box stays covered in the pantry and smells like dirt. it doesn't get hot inside like the compost pile because it's not big enough and there isn't enough nitrogenous material to activate the little microbes.
so there's a basic run-down of compost methods. hope i explained it well enough.
but what is shley doing with worms in her kitchen, and why isn't she growing flies?
let's have a compsot lesson to find the answer.
there are two different compost systems that are going on in shleydom: one, the compost pile compost, and two: vermicompost. in the first you rely on microbes and nematodes and roly polys and such to break down the material. in this case, you will ideally have a pile the size of a cubic yard, and it will be comprised mostly of BROWNs and GREENs. browns are carbon-rich materials, think OLDER material, like autumn leaves, perennial prunings, thatch from your yard (the dried-up grass from winter or drought), and such. greens are younger and 'greener'- grass clippings that have dried for a day or two, weeds that have also dried out and are without mature seed heads, alfalfa, straw, and food scraps. when you designate a site for your pile you scratch around in the ground below to make it easy for the dirt creatures to crawl up into the stuff you're going to put there, then you put stuff there. in a 3:1 ratio of browns to greens, pile about 8 inches of material, water it with your hose and stir it up with a pitchfork. the reenactor has one of those, doesn't he? it should be the consistency of a wrung out sponge. so at this point you've got a layer of damp leaves, grass and whatever. now do the same thing on top of that layer- put browns and greens in a 3:1 ratio, water it, stir it up, feel it for sponge-like dampness, and repeat! after a lot of sweating you'll have a cubic yard of damp yard waste. it has the proper ratio of carbon and nitrogen, the proper volume and proper aeration/moisture level to be an inviting place for microbes to get in there and do their work. cover the pile with a tarp or old blanket or something and let it sit there for a week. after a week, uncover it and WHOA the thing should be steaming and hot hot hot inside. it should be about 120-140 degrees. this is great! the pile is heating up like a haystack about to spontaneously combust (but don't worry, it won't catch fire). things are breaking down inside because of the microbial activity and heat, so what you'll want to do is TURN THE PILE. get the pitchfork back out or get a mattock or whatever tool you feel like using and get all the stuff that was on the inside on the outside. mix it up!
what a load of work, huh. you can add food scraps to the pile at any point, but it's a good idea to dig a little hole at the top to place them in and then cover them up so they won't stink or attrack racoons or other varmits. keep turning every week and in a couple of months the material will have decreased in volume by at least half and will be ready to use as compost amendment. yay!
now, vermicomposting. this is ideal for apartment dwellers or people that like worms. i have a storage box in my pantry that i drilled holes in the bottom and sides of. inside i put "bedding", which is shredded newspaper and a handful of leaves i got from outside moistened to be like a wrung-out sponge. i plopped the pound of worms in there and they wriggled to underneath the bedding and made themselves at home, then i fed them my kitchen scraps. i buried the scraps below the surface for the same reason as above: to deter fruti flies and real flies and such. the box stays covered in the pantry and smells like dirt. it doesn't get hot inside like the compost pile because it's not big enough and there isn't enough nitrogenous material to activate the little microbes.
so there's a basic run-down of compost methods. hope i explained it well enough.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
1001 new pets
i now have 1001 new pets, and there names are: walter, evelyn, rex, tyrone, yvette, unger, irene, ophelia, patrick, abner, slick, danver, franklin, george, hank, jackson, kyle, leon, zach, xavier, charlotte, vick, bob, ned, and micky. i would've started with 'Q' but skipped it out of my dislike for the name quentin. go ahead, try to think of a name for every letter in the alphabet, see if you like starting with 'quentin'.
actually, only one of my new pets has a name, and it's pepino, a garden snail i found in the cucumber box at work. he/she (all snails are hermaphrodites) had a smashed shell, presumably from the journey from california to colorado, so i decided to take it home to shley's gastropod sanctuary for some calcium rich resting. snails can repair their shells if necessary, so i'm going to see if it happens. so far pepino is just curled up in a weird little throbbing snail ball with ruffled edges, but part of the shell is on the other side of the strawberry box that he lives in, so presumably something is happening.
snails, slugs, caterpillers, ladybugs, and other little creatures are regularly found in the produce at grocery stores- so get over the 'ew' factor. they live in the fields and sometimes get picked up with the cucumber or argula- sometimes they're even packaged in the earthbound farms salads. most of the time we take whatever we find outside, but occassionally the species is way too cool to abandon- ferdinand, for example. he was a tarantula found in the banana box (before my time) and was taken to the butterfly pavillion. and, of course, pepino. pepinito!
the other 1000 new pets are red wiggler worms that live in my pantry. now, before you get all antsy pants about me having worms in my pantry, let me assure you that they are self-contained, odorless, and perfectly safe for kitty consumption. marley knows because she's had a few and happily hacked them up with little fuss. i guess nobody hacks happily... the point is, she learned to not eat the worms and didn't suffer. too much.
anyway.
the worms escaped, see.... but they won't escape again. it was a fluke! i set aside about 500 worms to give to a friend, leaving them in the little travel bag with dirt that came through the mail. yes, i mail-ordered worms. i thought, hey, they came from arkansas in this bag, what's one more evening? i awoke the next morning to the sweet sounds of my cat puking in the next room, then found a bunch of two-inch lines radiating out from under the sink where i'd placed the bag.* escapees! i guess they were looking for food. i 'captured' the ones that hadn't dried up or been eaten by the puking cat and put them with their friends in the worm box. the box stays in the pantry, but, despite previous breakouts and friends sending me videos of mutant worms attacking humans on far-off desert planets, i have no fear of them wriggling out of their new home. i give them lots of yummy, partially decomposed food i find in my fridge and the whole little wormosphere is a pretty happy place. they wriggle, eat, wriggle, poop, and wriggle some more. one day i'll have a box full of worm castings to use as fertilizer on my plants- and just so you know, this stuff sells for a dollar a bag- and i mean TINY bag. meanwhile, i'm not throwing away any food in my trash can, so...yay. recycling!
i would love to take pictures of my new friends but my camera sucks donkey balls. (pardon the language- but how many E18 errors can i have without wanting to throw the damn thing in the loo?) so for now you'll have to imagine
*the compost bucket under the sink has been abandoned. not a big enough space for composting. no heat=stink.
actually, only one of my new pets has a name, and it's pepino, a garden snail i found in the cucumber box at work. he/she (all snails are hermaphrodites) had a smashed shell, presumably from the journey from california to colorado, so i decided to take it home to shley's gastropod sanctuary for some calcium rich resting. snails can repair their shells if necessary, so i'm going to see if it happens. so far pepino is just curled up in a weird little throbbing snail ball with ruffled edges, but part of the shell is on the other side of the strawberry box that he lives in, so presumably something is happening.
snails, slugs, caterpillers, ladybugs, and other little creatures are regularly found in the produce at grocery stores- so get over the 'ew' factor. they live in the fields and sometimes get picked up with the cucumber or argula- sometimes they're even packaged in the earthbound farms salads. most of the time we take whatever we find outside, but occassionally the species is way too cool to abandon- ferdinand, for example. he was a tarantula found in the banana box (before my time) and was taken to the butterfly pavillion. and, of course, pepino. pepinito!
the other 1000 new pets are red wiggler worms that live in my pantry. now, before you get all antsy pants about me having worms in my pantry, let me assure you that they are self-contained, odorless, and perfectly safe for kitty consumption. marley knows because she's had a few and happily hacked them up with little fuss. i guess nobody hacks happily... the point is, she learned to not eat the worms and didn't suffer. too much.
anyway.
the worms escaped, see.... but they won't escape again. it was a fluke! i set aside about 500 worms to give to a friend, leaving them in the little travel bag with dirt that came through the mail. yes, i mail-ordered worms. i thought, hey, they came from arkansas in this bag, what's one more evening? i awoke the next morning to the sweet sounds of my cat puking in the next room, then found a bunch of two-inch lines radiating out from under the sink where i'd placed the bag.* escapees! i guess they were looking for food. i 'captured' the ones that hadn't dried up or been eaten by the puking cat and put them with their friends in the worm box. the box stays in the pantry, but, despite previous breakouts and friends sending me videos of mutant worms attacking humans on far-off desert planets, i have no fear of them wriggling out of their new home. i give them lots of yummy, partially decomposed food i find in my fridge and the whole little wormosphere is a pretty happy place. they wriggle, eat, wriggle, poop, and wriggle some more. one day i'll have a box full of worm castings to use as fertilizer on my plants- and just so you know, this stuff sells for a dollar a bag- and i mean TINY bag. meanwhile, i'm not throwing away any food in my trash can, so...yay. recycling!
i would love to take pictures of my new friends but my camera sucks donkey balls. (pardon the language- but how many E18 errors can i have without wanting to throw the damn thing in the loo?) so for now you'll have to imagine
*the compost bucket under the sink has been abandoned. not a big enough space for composting. no heat=stink.
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