It's Farmer Time!

If you just ate, are about to eat, or have eaten in the last 5 days, then you may not want to read this post.

But, if you like to fish and don't mind putting a worm on a hook, then read on!

My Mr. Happy is the kind that likes to dangle squirmy wormys in the water and watch as they drown.  (Or is that me?)  Either way, I noticed a recent need for an abundance for worms around the homestead.

Then I got a brilliant idea.  Worm farm!!

A quick few minutes spent googling resulting in me feeling like this was a piece of cake.  It sounds so easy.  All you need is a container, worms, and worm food.  Easy peasy, right?

Here are some of the links I found:

Bucket of Worms - talks specifically about composting with worms which is another cool benefit to this project of mine.

Home Worm Production - this sounds so professional and official doesn't it?  It's a pretty good step by step of all things worm farm to include how they reproduce.  Did you know that worms possess both male and female reproductive parts.  I am learning so much here!

So, to start my worm farmer journey I picked out a plastic tub that we already had which was on it's last leg, but was the perfect host for a farm!

I drilled about 30 holes in the bottom of the bucket and set off making it home sweet home for my happy little worms which I had spent the better part of half a day digging out of the garden.

The next step was to line the bottom of the tub with newpaper (no color ink as it can poison the wormies).  Then I added a layer of shredded paper.  It looks something like this:

And this.  Looks like I have found an awesome way to reuse that Penny Saver that we get in the mail each week.

Then I added a layer of leaves and then a layer of dirt followed by a second layer of leaves.  Worms like decomposing leaves.

Then I gave my little worms a pep-talk that went something like this.

"Ya'll about to enter a strange new place at the end of the worm galaxy.  Live long, multiple and eat like crazy, and prosper!"  I wonder if worms can make the Star Trek Volcan sign? 

And into the new big estate they went.  Off to find their own piece of happiness.  Off to fill their bellies.  Off to make very rich gardening dirt.  Off to make sure I'm not crazy and didn't make their farm wrong.

And they were off.  My little babies flying the nest!

The last part was to water the farm.  I did wet the newspaper before I put the dirt and leaves in, but I wanted to make sure that the farm was moist enough to keep my little worms happy.  I didn't put a ton of extra water in, but in the case that I did, the excess will go out through those holes I drilled in the bottom.

And that's it.  I am now Farmer Christie, keeper of fishing/composting worms to the stars!  Well, at least to my star... Mr. Happy.

The instructions say to feed the farm and somewhat leave it alone for a month for them to do their thing.  I can't wait to see what happens.

You can bet I will be giving Worm Farm updates in the very near future!

Note: I am not an expert at this.  In fact, this is my first attempt.  If you have any advice, I warmly welcome it!  And on the other hand, if you are interested in creating a farm of your own, I say read up and go for it!  Seems like this would also make for a fun project with kids (maybe on a smaller level).