Worms, Witches and Wreckage

We missed the Harvest Moon, but his weekend was worm harvest time. (It was actually well overdue, but who’s counting.) That means Zoey and I sorted the worms from the worm poo, then mixed up some new bedding to tuck those red wigglers in for the winter. We also expanded, adding another worm house, which makes it three total now. It’s really hard to separate the teeny tiny babies from the good stuff, so I’m letting it sit in a tub for several weeks, hoping those tiny worms get bigger and I’ll be able to pull them out of there.

Here’s the new bedding recipe, since I know you were dying to get your hands on it:

• 1/3 peat moss
• 1/3 soil (with some organic matter in it)
• 1/3 shredded brown leaves
• enough water to make it most and a bit sticky

I replaced shredded newspaper (an Uncle Carl trick) with the leaves, thanks to a tip from a worm-lover I met in St. Paul in April. It keeps the bedding more airy, and breaks down to give ‘em some extra snacking. I bought myself a little toy last week–a leaf vac and mulcher. Jon and Nicole got some help bagging their 10 million leaves this weekend…

In case you missed it, Halloween was Saturday. Trick or treating started for us at about 5pm, and wrapped up around 8:30. That’s crazy long, but when you go trick or treating in the country, stuff takes a while. We had a witch, a fairy princess, and a box of popcorn heading out of our house this year. All costumes made from stuff we already had, except a bit of face paint. (Not pictured: me after Zoey painted my face last night.)

And finally, we’re in the midst of a construction project. With baby on the way, it’s time to finish up the basement and add a couple bedrooms. Thanks to help from Brooks and Dad, I have it ready for sheetrock on Wednesday. One step this weekend was tearing out the temporary wall at the bottom of the stairs (we reused everything but the sheetrock). After I smacked a little hole in the wall just to startle Colleen, the girls’ eyes all got huge and a chorus of “Can we try that!?” cam soon after. So, take a look at this video to see the demolition crew in action.