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By Mom Unplugged, August 28, 2009 2:09 pm

About 8 weeks after we began our first attempt at vermicomposting (worm composting) it’s already time for our first harvest!

• How did I know? The contents of the bin were rich black castings and the newspaper bedding was almost completely decomposed. Also, the worms were starting to climb the sides of the bin, clearly no longer satisfied with their accommodations.

• Preparation: Always feeling that I can improve on any instructions (a major character flaw I am afraid), I did not follow my original harvest plan. Instead I pushed all the bin contents over to one side, and set up a new area on the other side with damp brown paper shreds and food. I left the bin this way for about a week hoping that the worms would mostly migrate to the fresh, new side.

• Harvest Day: This is what the bin looked like when I opened it this morning. See the two sections? Old on the left - ready to go in the garden - and new on the right:

You’ll need newspaper, tub of water, and a bucket for the castings:

(Note: Cats are not a required item, although they felt they were.)

First I tore newspaper into 1 inch strips and tossed them in my tub of water to soak.

Next I began digging out some of the castings from the left side and I noticed that most of the worms had indeed migrated to the fresh section. It was mostly worm free until I got close to the border, then I had some sorting to do.

NOTE: I don’t mind worms, so I used my hands (the castings smell and feel rich and damp and clean, like the ground after a cool rain!). However, if you’d rather not handle the worms, you can try this method.

I spread each handful of castings on some newspaper and picked out the worms and any chunks of not quite composted newspaper or food. It was truly a glamorous job, but at least I felt fairly sure that most of my worms would end up back in the bin to keep up the good work. No garden vacations for my guys!

I returned the undigested material and any stray worms to the new side of the bin.

By the time I had finished, I had collected at least a gallon of gorgeous black worm compost:

and my bin looked like this:

• Redecorating: Finally, I spread out what remained in the bin, squeezed out my newspaper strips (really well so as not to drown the worms) and tossed them on top. I added a bit of fresh sand for their gizzards and some food for their tummies, assuming worms have tummies. I placed a fresh piece of damp cardboard on top to help keep things moist (the voracious little devils had completely eaten through their last one!) and put on the lid.

• The Garden: The hardest part of all this was deciding where to put my precious compost. I chose a climbing rose that I have had for about 4 years. It was the very first thing I planted when I moved into this house.

Much to my surprise, there was still plenty left over. I headed to my dismal back flower bed which grows ugly little stunted flowers due to poor soil, and gave it the rest. Will it all be 6 feet tall by tomorrow???

LINKS: How we made our worm bin (quite easy and inexpensive), and the arrival of the worms.

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By Mom Unplugged, August 24, 2009 10:55 pm

Today was the first day back to school for my oldest two (9 and 7), and they were VERY excited. OK, OK, so was I (choirs of angels and all that).

The two of them were up early and dressed before I even managed to open an eye. By the time I had dragged myself reluctantly out of the shower (I am NOT a morning person) they had already made their own breakfasts and packed their own lunches.

What?? My heart sank when I heard they had packed their lunches. This was new, and entirely their idea.

Of course I immediately inspected their lunch boxes expecting to see cookies, chips and goldfish crackers, plus perhaps even some candy that had been squirreled away somewhere. What would you have packed in your lunch at that age?

However I was shocked to find that they had actually done a good job! There was leftover pasta (kept warm in thermoses), sugar snap peas, apples, yogurt, and…one Oreo each. I could live with that.

I plan to continue this self-packing of the lunch, and hope it does not fall by the wayside as school becomes less easy to wake up early for.

One less job for me is good. I am a lazy mom.

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By Mom Unplugged, August 22, 2009 10:09 pm

As promised, Unplug Your Kids just got a perm!

I have had straight hair my whole life. Of course there is nothing wrong with straight hair and those blessed with curly hair must wish it was straight sometimes. But we straight-haired people get bored too and long for a few unruly ringlets from time to time. UPYK just went curly.

This new look isn’t the most radical change in the world. Although tempted, I didn’t do skulls, or graffiti, or black and brooding, but at least this is something different for all of us to look at.

The new look is a work in progress, but it should be fairly functional now. I hope you like it!

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By Mom Unplugged, August 19, 2009 11:32 am

Several months ago I saw these cute little polished heart-shaped stones in a local store when I was getting a watch battery replaced, and had an inspiration.

They felt smooth and silky, and soothingly weighty in the palm of the hand. I chose a particularly luminescent one whose soft blue color reminded me of the Arizona sky.

When I pulled out my wallet to pay, the store owner surprisingly gave it to me for free! A very auspicious start for a symbol that I hoped would cure all manner of ills.

Soon after acquiring The Magic Heart, my three year-old had a meltdown and was quite sad about something that I (and she) no longer recall. I gave her the heart and explained to her, and the other children, that The Magic Heart goes to whoever needs it most to remind them that they are loved.

That person must keep the heart in a safe place (I decided that nightstand drawers were where it should go since my children could lose an elephant within minutes). The recipient keeps the heart until another family member is overcome with sadness or anger, then that person passes it along to the new person in need.

As any parent of a toddler would imagine, The Magic Heart ends up most often with my three and a half year-old. I wasn’t sure she really grasped the concept of what it meant until the other night.

I was moderately grumpy after a bad day when I discovered that my children were bathing without soap or shampoo, and most likely had been for some time! I got very annoyed and washed their hair and bodies myself, all the while grumbling about how at their age they should know how to do these things themselves, blah, blah, blah.

My three year-old came to me after her bath and said: “I have something for you” … she handed me The Magic Heart from her nightstand drawer … “because you were grumpy in the bathroom.”

How to melt a Mama’s heart!!!

After overcoming the guilty feeling that even my three year-old had noticed my Mommy Tantrum, I realized that maybe The Magic Heart really was magic.

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By Mom Unplugged, August 17, 2009 8:36 am

This week’s Unplugged Project theme is pocket. We have a project to post but since I am babysitting 7 today, it’ll obviously have to wait until later today or tonight!

Please stop by later to see what we did, and I hope you’ll join us by sharing your own pocket project. You can read more about how to take part in the weekly Unplugged Project here, it’s pretty easy and fun.

See you later and enjoy your day!

PS. The linky will be up later too.