IT’S GONE!

I have been working all week on hydrating some coconut coir, and adjusting it to just the right moisture level, to create a fresh layer of bedding in the worm tower. This was the weekend to start the new layer.

Before I could do that, I needed to dump the bottom layer of the tower into the storage container that I’ve been using to collect worm castings all winter. I was able to collect lots and lots of worm castings. But …

Lo and behold, when I opened that container, it was full of nasty, brown water … and nothing else. Somehow, even though the container was covered with plastic, the rain had infiltrated the container and dissolved my entire casting supply. All that lovely fertilizer was gone! I was so disappointed – I had plans for that poop.

Well, I certainly couldn’t leave that perfect mosquito-breeding setting there, so we used the casting-infused water — “worm tea” — to water the elderberry bushes (which have begun to leaf out), as well as the fig, the boysenberry bushes, the apple trees, and the garlic (which looks great even with the cold weather we’ve had). So, it went to good use. It just wasn’t used as I had intended. Ah well, best laid plans ….

After that detour in our day, I did still get a new layer of bedding set up in the worm tower. I really think, based on the number of worms I found, that I need a second tower. Although, I really don’t need another project. Maybe I should just cull the population and give the chickens a treat.

I had a new stove delivered yesterday! I’ve been suffering with the old, malfunctioning stove for a year and finally broke down, took advantage of the President’s Day sales, and ordered a new one. That should remove the frustration of trying to make dinner only to have the heat suddenly flare up and burn what I was cooking. It was getting to the point where I just didn’t want to try cooking something and risk burning another meal.

In addition to that, we finally got around to dragging the debris we had cut out of the woods when the goats came to visit last year.

Goats shouldn’t eat azaleas and the area they were working on was lined with azaleas that were on their last legs. So, we cut them out and tossed the debris out of the way, intending to clear it out in the winter when it wasn’t so hot. But then the weekends were cold, and rainy, and I was tired, or we had something else to do — so here it is the last week of February and we’re finally getting to it.

Azaleas are resilient so the roots have already sprouted leaves. We are going to have to get the chain saw out and cut even more vegetation out of that area. Hopefully that gets done in the next week or two. We’ll see. I’ll probably find something more interesting to do with my weekends ….

The final project of the weekend was to line the new raised beds with landscaping material:

Then I managed to fill a good portion of one bed with cardboard:

Then my back could handle no more, so, the second bed will have to be done next weekend.

Winter is stepping into Spring!