Todays happenings

A few days ago i noticed some critters taking up residency in my worm house. The worms were staying mostly on the bottom tier and black fly maggots and ants were taking up the middle and top tiers. I did some research and though the wormies didn't seem to be bothered by the ants or maggots I decided to evict them anyway. I took off the top 2 tiers and dumped the stuff in a bucket. Then spent the better part of an hour rescuing the worms from the compost. Fun stuff.

My girls "helped" by overseeing the project, naming the worms as they came out of the garbage and having me put worms in their gloved hands as they came out, pretending to be worm doctors. They did help me pick out the stray maggot that got mixed in with the worms so that was good. That being done we cleaned out the trays and put in new bedding and foods for them.

I ordered a few additional trays and coconut coir which should be here soon. I have a kitchen composter on my wish list for next payday so I won't have to run out everytime I have scraps. I think that was the issue i had with the maggots and ants; too much food scraps and not enough browns and greens. This way I can schedule time to properly add scraps to the bins when my inside bucket is full.

I also have a little family of really scary looking bugs eating my tomatos. The daddy at least flies which is kinda scary as he's almost 2" long and has a huge needle on his face which he sticks into the tomatos and makes yucky yellow spots on them. I'm not really interested to see if he'd use it on me. They just hatched a bunch of little red babies ugh. As much as I love babies I really don't care for bugs much, especially the harmful kind. I'm trying so hard with these plants this year (my first year) but I keep learning what NOT to do or what will go wrong.

After we came in we made lunch, I brewed my coffee for the week and am now making homemade ice cream in my kitchenaid ice cream maker. Coffee toffee caramel crunch (my own concoction; a decaf coffee cream base with Heath bars, raw pecan pieces and caramel swirl. Ok, so not totally healthy, but I'm not sure anyone has attributed health with ice cream. I do point out the fact that there are fewer chemicals in my mix and I do use light cream and fat free milk. This quart will last me a few weeks also. Ok, so enough justifying. I highly recommend Ben and Jerry's ice cream book. Not only does it tell you the how but the why of ice cream and sorbet making.

Today is also supposed to be bread baking day though I'm not sure if it'll get done as laundry day is screaming at me for attentions. Oh and bathroom cleaning day is also vying for my time.