Experiments

Last week I got home from work and noticed a box on our front steps.  Neither of us had ordered anything recently so I was slightly puzzled.  On the package I saw a label saying Caution: Live Contents.  Random packages with caution labels should have caused some red flags to go off in my brain.  Instead I looked at the return address: Uncle Jim's Worm Farm.  This brought great excitement.  Arthur and I have joked and discussed having a worm farm (like an ant farm) for about the past year.  One of my friends finally got tired of us talking but not doing anything and ordered a pound of earthworms for us.  That evening there was a flurry of excitement trying to prepare a home for our new family member(s).  Arthur didn't even change out of his dress clothes before he was drilling holes in a plastic container for ventilation and drainage.  We dumped the bag of worms into the box and waited for something exciting to happen.  Worms really don't do anything exciting.  Ever.  We go down and check on them periodically and most of the time we won't even see any worms but just dirt and shredded newspapers.  Supposedly, over time the worms will eat scraps from the kitchen as well as paper and make wonderful compost for our still non-existent garden.  This process is suppose to take several months.  Right now there is no sign of anything happening.  We'll keep you posted on any excitement from the worm farm-- but don't hold your breath.  Arthur did name the worms (collectively) Dennis.  They are named after Dennis Rodman, the somewhat eccentric NBA player, whose nickname was "The Worm".  Dennis is the prefect pet for us right now.  He needs fed on occasion and he can be left in the basemen for weeks completely happy being ignored.  This whole experience is kind of an experiment to see how composting with worms works.  

So right now we don't have a garden to use any of the compost Dennis produces.  However I went to a class on container gardening this past week which caused my spring fever to jump up another notch.  At our current abode there isn't any garden space so I have been trying to figure out how to meet my need for chlorophyll and dirt under fingers.  I have a few tomato plant seedlings started under the kitchen window but that's not enough for me.  But after this class I learn how you can grow almost a complete garden, at least enough for 2 people, in a few containers- Bingo, gardening problem solved.  I think it will also give us an opportunity to experiment with growing a few types of vegetables I never had before.  This also means probably some experiments in the kitchen using vegetables in cooking as well.  More on this too-- this news may be more exciting than worm updates.

Our other big news is that we got a new mattress!  Our original mattress was one Arthur used in college that he had gotten as a hand-me-down from some relatives.  It was adequate for the first several months and we were thankful to have it but it began to resemble a sink hole in the middle.  You really have no idea what you are missing until you get a good night's sleep on a new mattress.  We woke up refreshed and ready for the day without an alarm at 6:15am on a Saturday.  It is wonderful and now I don't get bounced around anytime Arthur rolls over. 

While it has been an exciting week for us we are headed on our belated honeymoon this upcoming week.  We are going to do some hiking and hopefully kayaking and celebrate our 10 month anniversary-- time flies when you are having a good time.  Omnia Vincit Amor.