The Silence of the Worms

It puts the worms into the bucket or else it gets the hose...

Haven't really been up to the task of updating this blog, although in my crazy tiredness have gotten rather obsessed with home vermicomposting these days (more on my specific 'worm bin' later, when I actually get two synapses to fire properly in sequence). A good, fun, clean way to hooked/learn more about the wacky-sounding concept is to watch this video:



I also like this guy, mostly for his name, "Sustainable Dave" and the vaguely creepy "Silence of the Worms" basement thing he's got going on:



Did you notice the sign? "Support Global Worming." WORM POWER, bitches!

Now, lest you think I am alone in my craziness, I have to tell you--I just met another nurse who's into vermicomposting as well, and bought her worms from Seattle Tilth, just like I did. (And, she confessed to having run into other nurses who claimed to worm compost as well. It feels as if we're going to be headed to a very special kind of 12 step help program soon: "Hi, my name is Jamie, and I'm a vermicomposter.")

Any way, both of us found the Tilthers quite militant about vermicomposting. My "Tilther" (the one who sold me the worms) made me feel guilty about buying a commercial worm bin ("Why buy more plastic in order to recycle?" she said, disdainfully, quelling my desire to inquire about the posh worm bin they had for sale). I felt so guilty, I actually went out of my way, to another store, to buy the same worm bin for more money just to avoid the embarrassment and displeasure of the uber-eco conscious Tilther.

Likewise, my friend was telling me how the Seattle Tilth person that sold her *her* worms quizzed her about her worm bin set-up before she would sell her the worms, and very displeased at the idea that my friend was going to use peat moss ("a non renewable resource!" admonished the Tilither). Cowed, my friend had to defer and tell the woman, apologetically, that she had bought it for another gardening project, too, before the Tilther would sell her the worms!!

I have even taken the bokashi plunge, and actually went slumming around Belltown like the Crazy Homeless person I'll no doubt be in a couple of months, trawling for free plastic 5 gallon buckets. Then, I borrowed a drill from a friend to drill holes in the top bucket for my own version of the fancy-ass, expensive commercial bokashi bucket.

(I scored the drill; my friend now thinks I'm nuts).

For those of you who want to ponder the depths of my increasingly-deeper downward spiral into Seattle Eco-Madness, I give you the instructional version of How To Make Your Own Cheap-Ass Fermenting Compost Bucket, Like a COMPLETELY CRAZY PERSON:



Are you still with me? No? Good. Here's another bokashi video from an equally enthusiastic nutcase who has self styled himself The Compost Guy and has multiple websites (which of course, I have bookmarked, because I am going insane):




I've also been proving to myself I have other talents in addition to mewling pointlessly about my sleep-deprivation and developing bizarre hobbies involving annelids and garbage, and to that end, I managed to read a 300+ page book (online--which means I'm likely to suddenly experience complete and total blindness due to eye fatigue any time now) last night in under three hours. Try Neil Gaiman's spooky modern day gothic Neverwhere for free, online (limited time offer expires Oct 3, 2008, I believe.) If sewer-dwelling angels, assassins who enjoy staging a good old-fashioned underground crucifixtion for their victims, and/or simply not being able to access your own monetary funds via ATM sounds like the stuff of novella nightmares most notorious, then this book's for you!

(By the way, if I start going on about composting toilets, it's time for an intervention.