Worms!

Yay! We went out this morning and got my worms! Ain't cheap to buy them from a bait shop. The guy waiting on me probably thought I was goofy examining them. I pulled off the top and poked at them. They weren't too lively. They were on a shelf and not in the fridge so they should be more lively. I asked him if he'd get me another pack and another until I got some wiggly ones. Hubby gets so annoyed with me when I shop. He said "They're probably mad at you for poking at them." I know what I want and I'll get it. I'm not paying for dead worms when my whole deal is to get live ones for composting. Right? At $3.55 for a couple dozen each pack, they better dance a jig when I say so. I bought two packs.

What's even worse, is I decided to get some meal worms for my chickens. They didn't look too lively, either. So I figured "What the heck! They're going to get eaten in a little while, anyways." The young kid behind the counter said "$14.14, please." What the heck! I looked at a little sign on the register that said "Wax Worms...$5.99" I paid $6 for a treat for my chickens!!! OK. Who's loco here?!!! (pointing at self) At least Hubby didn't ask why it was so expensive. I think he figured that everything else in the shop that he was browsing through was expensive, so it wasn't a surprise to him. Whew!

I brought the babies home and wet down the shredded paper and wrung it dry. We added some of our compost that I just sifted last week to the paper. Layer by layer for a couple of layers. Then I gave it a turn and put some veggie scraps in there. I let the babies loose and they made their way into the mulched paper. I guess they liked it. Anything would be better than a small container with a bunch of your buddies wiggling around you. Well...not so much wiggling was going on at the time I bought them. I checked on them and they are still under the mulch. I'll check to see if they've started eating tomorrow. It will be a while until we get enough worms bred for composting.

My Worm Farm

What My Worm Farm with Food Looks Like to Start

 Ah! The life of a homesteader...sort of. LOL!

Take care.

Another 'Not Much' Kind of Day

After our Sunday morning HGTV and DIY shows and our morning cuppa, we made our plans for the day.
"Agenda", as Hubby calls it. He was cutting and splitting firewood from the trees he cut down yesterday.

I did 'grenade brigade' and chucked that into the clean side of the compost bin. Then I raked up around the bin and tossed those leaves and twigs into the bin. Then I raked up pinestraw and put that on our dogs' graves. Then I turned the compost heap and limed it. Then I sifted compost from our black compost barrel. That was only about a 5 gallon bucket full.

Then we picked a handful of strawberries. We got two eggs.

THEN I told Hubby to get the pellet gun and get the rat in the chicken yard. He brought my BB gun and stung its little butt a couple of times before he ran off. I went across the ditch into the neighbor's yard to see where he went. He was alive and running in the pinestraw. Then he jumped and continued running. Hmmm. Stupid thing! Why did he jump? Hmmmm. Snake! There was a rat snake in his path and he didn't want to get eaten. Smart rat, eh?! THEN I got the brush axe and tried to chop Mr. Snake. Too much pinestraw and peat moss between the trees to do any damage. Oh, well. Maybe I got him. Maybe I didn't. Mr. Snake sunk under all of the pinestraw and never came back out.

Then I went to the neighbor's house to tell her what I did and to watch out if she goes into her flower gardens. She is deathly afraid of snakes, so I don't expect her to go out tomorrow. If she does, she'll be packin' heat. I need to get a small cap gun in case of a rattler. I wonder if Hubby would agree?

I guess I did a bit more than I thought I did. However, the house is not tidy, but some laundry got done.

Take care.

Cleaning Up

I did a little cleaning up this past weekend. At first, I didn't think I did anything fun or homestead-y. Well, I did. I cleaned the chicken coop and yard. That takes about an hour or so. I have one hen that likes to take a walk outside to pick the lawn when I do this. She's my last yard chicken. By that, I mean that she knows what to do when let out into the yard. And she herds back when I say 'chickens go nite-nite'. Sometimes she gives me a fit, but usually she heads straight for the coop. I deposited all of the pinestraw from the coop and chicken manure into the compost heap. Then I turned the heap.

Then, I decided to do a bit of painting to freshen up the yard. I mentioned this in a previous post, so this isn't much of anything new. First, I needed to wash the mold off of the doors to the pump house and repaint them. Then I painted a post that holds a length of water hose. Then I painted all of the pickets around the compost heap. Then I painted the step going into the chicken coop / potting shed. All of this was painted white with exterior latex. Now all of that part of the yard looks nice and fresh.

The only major thing left to do is finish pulling weeds in my flower gardens. I must do that this weekend. My daylilies are starting to come up and I need to give them light and room. I found a mystery plant yesterday. I think it is a Jewel of Opar plant. They are so pretty and delicate looking. However, they take a beating from the sun every year and come back the next year.

I hope you had a great day today.

Take care.