Will I Be A Good Worm Mother?

They arrived in a square box, a few days early. I had their house ready: Two plastic bins with lots of holes drilled and space in between created by an object. I had read up on what they like to eat and written a list of their favorite foods. But I couldn’t find the list, today, and a slight panic overcame me. Sometimes I can’t understand instructions without reading them several times, so I asked Doug to read me the worm transfer instructions, which he did.

Anxious, I put the soil in before the cardboard and then I was “spinning” which means being unsure of how to do things in the right order. The instructions said they would be “lethargic” for 1-2 days but would come to life after that, to make sure the soil was wet-sponge-level moist and to give them foods (listed.)

I was quasi-frantically asking Doug to tear up The Epoch Times but not the sections I would want to read, which turned out to be all of them (it’s a good newspaper) so we located some local newspapers that I definitely did not need to hoard.

They were packed in peet moss, and when the bin was ready, and I’d put in some food scraps, cabbage, apple, etc, I released them and sprayed them as directed, and they did come to life as promised. I placed cardboard pieces around the box so it would be dark.

I insisted Doug listen to YouTube videos about their favorite foods, and he immediately found the best one on the internet. As soon as I heard they love watermelon and cantelope, I drove to the grocery store and got some.

Carmel Wakefield called—one of my close friends who I laugh with a lot but somehow I failed to tell her I was shopping for fruit for my worms.

There are 100 of them, by the way.

Before I went to the store, I bought a grinder on Amazon to grind garbanzo beans for them. (And I already have a 30 lb bag of garbanzo beans, but this is also for us, if the Green Famine starts anytime soon; I know, not funny at all.)

I also ordered a 5 lb bag of oyster shell powder, and got some organic wheat flour at the store.

I came home and gave them the watermelon and sprinkled some of the flour on top. I immediately worried I had asphyxiated them. I peeked inside the bin. “Doug, they’re not moving,” I said. Then I saw one move. Phew.

Doug’s idea was that we did a hole in the ground for them when it gets warm. And I thought: “Why exactly do we buy worms on Amazon when they are already in the ground?” I’m sure they have better lives in the ground. Then I wondered if I knew what I was doing. I’m trying to become somebody who can create compost but I may not be cut out for it, we’ll see.

I’ve also grown sprouts, like Mike Adams said we should, to deal with Dioxin poisoning. The sprouts worked out well. I keep saying we should learn how to make things and do things ourselves.

But now I have a book coming out, and I’m worrying about 100 worms.

I’m already very attached to them.

I’ve always been fond of worms, and what they do.