May 28, 2008

Moving into the Worm Wigwam

The worms made the big move from their bins to the Wigwam yesterday. As the directions explain, the Worm Wigwam is different in that you keep feeding the worms and layering bedding, over and over and over again on top, until the whole mountain of worms and bedding and food and poo gets near the top. Then you crank the magic handle, and the poo falls out the bottom. (The hope is all the worms have migrated up with the fresh food each time and don't get cranked out.)

peat moss and newspaperFirst, with the help of my trusty husband, we mixed up a big bin of peat moss and shredded newspaper for the bedding with lots and lots of water. About a half a bale/bunch of peat moss seems to hold about two watering cans full of water.

Next, we put in four layers of newspaper pages on the grate at the bottom then about six inches of the bedding. We loaded in the worms on top, just basically pulling them out in clumps from their bins. Then a little more bedding, then a little food mush, then some more bedding. Quite a production.

So the finished bin with everything looked something like a giant mulchy mountain in a big green barrel.worm wigwam
The worms crawled right into the new bedding, no problem.

I noticed a rescue mission was needed in the old bins, as not only were a few smaller, faster, friskier, slippier worms still in there, but also tons of little worm cocoons.

Crazy how you find things just when you need them- I used a thick blue straw off a souvenir mug from America's Favorite Traditional Amusement Park, with the top cut off into a little spoons shape, to scoop out the worm cocoons- sigh- one at a time.

I've got through two bins so far, and it is a snoozer of an activity. Plenty of time to think about environmentally friendly endeavors!

Speaking of which- I got logo options from a fantastic graphic designer yesterday. It was exciting to see some visual interpretations of Lilliworm, and it jump started my brain in terms of what else I might be able to accomplish with my environmentally friendly endeavors. Hopefully in the next few posts, I'll be able to pick a logo that gives the perfect look and feel to Lilliworm!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm about to buy a Wigwam for a year round kids' camp and outdoor ed. center. Any thoughts on whether it's a good investment? We'd be using scraps from our kitchen, as well as waste paper products from sinks. Send me an email! bob@lutherhaven.com Thanks!