around the homestead-cleaning critter crap

Phewwwww...Since I have the manthing home for a long weekend, we have beautiful weather and I am on a couple day break from school work it was an opportune time to clean the chicken coop today. Once that was done and we had a mid day snack we were on such a roll that I decided to get the goat shed done as well. After about 40 wheel barrow loads we got them both done! If I had to do that all by myself it would have taken me three to four days to finish it all. I have to say that I am pretty tired tonight and a wore out but sometimes its good to overwork a little bit just to keep up with things.
Several loads in the goat shed were nearly finished compost. Rather than mix it with the pile that needs to cook a good long while we piled it on a sheet of plastic and will finish it out there so we can then use it in the beds. Because of the way we bed in the chicken coop much of that was able to go directly to beds that will be planted this week.
This gives us a nice beginning to next years compost. Next on the agenda will be harvesting all the worm bins.

monday's mountain musings-leaves n stuff

as the dogs were eating dinner the deer were 15 foot from the door

 What a beautiful weekend we had here! Chilly nights, warm afternoons  and  the manthing was feeling spry enough to actually get out and help  for a while. I think  the one thing I miss most now that he is back to work is doing most everything all of the time on my own when for two years, he was  here to  all the time. It is not that I need him here for most things  or that we even work together when he is here, it is more a motivational factor, I think.

Since he was home and the ground had dried out enough from our rains last week, he worked on the drainage ditch, aka hillside runoff and goat poop collector. Twice a year the ditch needs to be  tilled and shoveled out. While it does provide us with some very nice easy to  extract soil, it is a tedious job.  For those thinking hillside runoff! ?! , erosion control is not something that can be remedied overnight unless you have the budget of a state highway department. It is a slow, step by step process  or a bigger mess is created in the  end.

While  manthing  played dirt remover and hauler, I worked on a few  of the beds  that needed more soil build up so that I could plant them this week. With what was removed from the ditch, we rejuvenated three beds  and made them  look pretty again.

I guess  leaf peak was here  after all last week. Many of our leaves are now falling to the ground, some trees are bare already and the colors are fading quickly. For me, it means my favorite  chore begins and raking of the forest can commence. It also means  putting beds to rest for the winter with their blankets of leaves, filling the chicken coop and goats sheds as full as I can get them  filling all the compost bins,  heaps and barrels up as well as stashing some away for winter bedding touch-ups. The goats also  love to snack on them. Our girls would rather eat a pile of dried crunchy leaves than a bale of hay any day.

Today, I will be planting garlic bulbils and doing a reseed in the green house  of the lettuce. This should keep us in enough salads for  the winter that we will be sick of them come March. Contrary to  popular belief,  lettuce and salad greens are late fall and winter food  when grown naturally. They are not summer fixings as most  lettuces do not do well in hot, dry conditions. Later this week, I will be planting some Egyptian walking onions  and begin digging holes for  the orchard trees, which we still have not gotten. Though I really wanted to go and get them  on Saturday,  I needed manthing around and able to think clearly to get his thoughts on where to plant them  and to be sure I was not getting in over my head trying to dig 20 holes on my own before it gets too cold. I think he forgets he is gone from home 60-70 hours a week and when he is home he is too tired to get out and work.  Or maybe he just forgets that I gave up my super woman  role.

the changing of the...worms

Since fall has arrived,  it is time to play in the worm bins, take the composted material out, re-home worms and get the bins ready to go through the winter. I got quite a nice harvest of both compost and critters from this summers  bins even though I am a wretched caretaker for them.

It is not that I do not love my wormies, because I do, but they are so well behaved and quiet that I  quite simply forget about them until I need their product. For squiggletown  manor that is  ok as they have a steady  food source while living under the bunnies. For the ones on the porch it is always a gamble when I open it. Am I am  going to find a pile of rotten gooey nastiness or a tote full of lovely  worms. Each time, I have been lucky that they indeed have done their jobs and I have 10 gallons of beautiful black gold waiting for me. I always wonder how people manage to kill their worms off as  I have not once managed to do that and am the world's worst worm  care taker.

 Once I got the bins sorted of worms and compost, I added fresh bedding and food to the porch worms. I then watered them in and brought them in to the  living project room for the winter months. I figured I may as well bring them in now, as otherwise I  will forget  them and the poor fellers  would be left out on the porch to freeze to death.

 In the big bins under the bunnies, I do nothing but clean out the side they were living in as I have been  building up the bedding for them on the other side for a couple months now. I have not  measured how much compost is in that bin but I reckon it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 gallons.

This falls compost will go for my new  garlic bulbils that I will be planting this week as well as my Egyptian walking onions that should be here today. I am hoping to create a permacultured bed for both  the garlic ans the  onions and wanted to give them a good start for overwintering.

around the homestead-shed/coop cleaning

 Yesterday was spent cleaning the chicken coop  and today was the day for goat shed cleaning and maintenance.  I would normally break the two jobs up by at least a few days but since we are in a dry spell as well  as a break in planting chores we just decided to getter done and be through with  it until fall. My ol arms are a bit rubbery and oh my back is aching but we finished covering all the beds and got the compost  pile restarted with a fair amount of partially decomposed bedding.

 When we clean pens out we also check  for any repairs that may need  doing. The chicken coop yesterday was pretty much fine  since it was all  rebuilt in January  but the goat shed had  what could have been a very major issue. The front 4x4 beam holding the roof up had broke and was dipping way down and nothing was supporting the front portion of the roof.  The roof had also slid back several inches and had to be moved back into place after jacking up and bracing the broken beam in the front.  How this happened we have no clue, the only thing I could possible think of was the  minor earth quake  from a few months ago. I know that sounds far fetched but keep in mind this is just a loafing shed not a big old barn  type structure.  We also have a tree near the fence line that needs to come down as it is coming out of the ground by its roots and leaning. Before we let the goats out to pasture regularly for the summer months it will need to be taken care of.

around the homestead-compost bin

After the fun of trying to get compost to the front garden beds a couple weeks back we decided  that we needed to  have us a compost bin  closer to those beds. It would also give us a bin closer to the house  for  the non critter household scraps. After pondering a bit on where to put it  we decided that it would go  down front between the wall of flowers and the largest bed. There were only three viable options  and the other two choices were a further walk  and would have taken some rearranging of the earth to make it a some what level  space and usable.

This compost area is much smaller than the one down by the critters and is very simply put together using some fencing and old tent posts. You would be amazed at just how useful the sections of old tents can be on a homestead. Stakes and fence posts are just a couple examples.This bin measures about 4 foot across is circular and is about 3 foot deep.

This compost area took about 5 minutes to set up, cost absolutely nothing to make and will  save us many sore muscles in the future.

around the homestead-amending the soil

Today was  spent both amending the  soil and planting. I worked on getting the potatoes in the ground  while the manthing loaded up the truck with a load of compost to take to some of the beds. His original intent was to load  the truck, move it up by the shack  and then wheel barrow the entire load down in to the front bed.

As is  usual with  well laid  plans, things did not go accordingly.  I needed more space for potatoes than I thought I was going to  and the only other bed that  could hold all the remaining  taters I needed to plant had not had any amendments put on it as yet so  he instead needed to take the first load of compost to the beds down in the bowl area rather than the front hill.

  In the end I think this  worked out better overall as the whole taking the wheel barrow loaded with compost down wooden ramps was much more work than he had anticipated. There was also a bit of a danger factor to the whole scheme as once the WB  skidded off the ramp going   down gravity took over. Have you ever tried holding a 300 pound wheeled object back on a  20 degree incline with wheel barrow handles? Any how, after his third trip down  to the front bed we decided that once we he got the truck  unloaded we were going to find another way to finish amending the soil in the front hill beds.

After the last several days of beautiful weather and putting in a lot of time doing loads of pretty manual labor we are ready for a day of laziness and rest.

"squiggletown Manor"-large worm bin

We have pondered the thought of making a larger size worm bin than the small totes like we had been using. Yesterday while raking and doing some general clean up around some of the beds I had the thought again. This time instead of pushing it to the"someday side" of the  "to do" list  it was pushed to the now side. So come chore thirty last evening I dragged the manthing over to the outside bunny hutch and told him what I wanted. We needed to have a horizontal flow  worm bin to fit directly under the bunny hutches to catch all dropping from their cage and the ends needed to be removable so that we could harvest both worms and castings.

We didn't have much in the way of scrap materials to work with. We have materials  but we try and save the better materials for bigger, better projects. A lowly worm  bin  was not deemed  worthy of these materials. That pretty much narrowed our option down to  old tin  roofing. Oddly enough the tin worked out perfectly as though it was  made just for that purpose. Two whole pieces for the back and front and two half pieces for the ends. The middle  screen divider is a scavenged  incubator rack that we have had  laying around. We already had smaller worm bins so there was no cost in the worms. The only cost of the whole project was maybe 2 bux in nails. Start to finish  the project took about 2 hours for the two of us to complete and to migrate the worms.



The "squiggletown manor" measure  just over 5 foot long and is 28 inches wide. Height is about  30 inches.  The divider is at the half way point of  the bin/ hutch. There is one rabbit above each section of the bin. Most of the poops get caught in a tray under the bunnies, the urine however will go into the bin.  Only one side of the bin will be used at a time. 3-4 times a year we will migrate the worms, clean out the castings and send the worms to various beds to live and work.







For the  bedding  we used a bit of dirt  that we had removed from around where  the bin was going and leaves. We made several layers of each and watered it all in with 5 gallons of water.Next we added the
worms and a bit of their casts from our other worm bin.







  I transferred   several thousand worms to the new bin. I was amazed at how many were in the bin I had going. Once we had them transferred into their new home I covered them up with a thing layer of dirt and leaves as they don't like light.  I kept some of the worms  in the small bin as well. I like to keep  some up near the house rather than having to transport everything long  distances. It is much more convenient that way. About a month before harvest we will fill the new side up with bedding materials and food for them. Everything I have read says they will migrate through to the other side on their own. We will see how it works out. If not, we will manually harvest, its not that big of a deal (rollseyes). I know it ain't the prettiest thing in the world but it should be functional and that is all that matters.



I cant wait to see how this works out, if it does well we may  have to make more large bins for more worms. I am hoping that  we can  lure some big old local night crawlers  in to live at squiggletown manor as well. A night crawler and trout bait  business in the local area may not be a bad business to get into and certainly cant be worse than  being unemployed.  I have also  seen the prices on  packaged worm castings and that is another idea. I do sometimes wish that our driveway was a bit more able to handle traffic  and that it was a bit more accessible. We could have us a very  eclectic little business, unfortunately to go and rent a place it wouldn't be feasible economically. In the mean time we will keep on working toward our own sustainability, we may be broke but we are going to eat.

worm composting or vermicomposting

worms naturally
regenerate the soil’s lost nutrients
Stimulate microbial activity
Mix and aggregate soil
Increase infiltration of water into the soil
Improve water-holding capacity
Provide root growth channels
Shred and bury plant residue
Aerate the soil and
tempt fish to bite hooks!

Worm composting is using worms to recycle food scraps and other organic material into a valuable soil amendment called vermicompost, or worm castings. Worms eat food scraps, which become compost as they pass through the worm's body. Compost exits the worm through its' tail end. This compost can then be used to grow plants. (worm castings and tea are known to be a natural insecticide, fungicide and liquid fertilizer) To understand why vermicompost is good for plants, remember that the worms are eating nutrient-rich fruit and vegetable scraps, and turning them into nutrient-rich compost. Vermiculture, requires very little work, produces no offensive odors, and helps plants thrive. Only a few things are needed to make good worm compost: a bin, bedding, worms, and worm food.

types of worm bins

Your bin needs to be only 8″-16″ deep, since compost worms are surface feeders. You can build your own bin, use a washtub, a dish pan, a used shipping crate, or a commercially available worm bin. Just be sure your bin has a lid to keep out flies and rodents, and holes in the bottom a quarter inch or smaller, for ventilation and drainage. The rule of thumb for bin size is two square feet of surface area per person, or one square foot of surface area per pound of food waste per week. Because worms like moderate temperatures, place your bin in a shady location where it will not freeze or overheat. Here are some good choices: kitchen corner, garage, basement, patio, outside back door, laundry room.

There are different methods of making worm bins.Research a bit and find out what is the right option for you.

http://www.whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm
http://www.whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/wormbins.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jii4eB04-NI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxhEQEA0GN8

Here I basically use the top version of the bins. However on the bottom bin i put a little spigot instead of the lower tray to collect the vermi liquid so that I can open the valve and get the liquid off the bin in order to make a tea .

Bedding

Once you decide on what sort of bin you will use(the most work of it all), then you will need to give them lil wigglers some bedding.

Black and white newspaper is the most readily available and easy-to-use bedding material.Old leaves is also a good starter in the bin. Tear it into strips about one inch wide and moisten so it is as damp as a wrung-out sponge. A handful or two of soil, ground limestone, or well-crushed eggshells every few months are good for providing grit and calcium. Fill your bin with moistened bedding, toss in a few handfuls of soil, and you are ready to add the worms and food. Over time, the bedding and food are eaten by the worms and turned into dark worm compost.

worms

The best kind of worms for composting are “red worms,” or “red wigglers.” They are often found in old compost piles, but are different from the earthworms you would normally find in the ground. These worms have a big appetite, reproduce quickly, and thrive in confinement. They can eat more than their own weight in food every day! When purchasing red worms, one pound is all you need to get started.

You do not need to special order your worms. If you dont have an outdoor compost pile to scavenge them from, head to your local bait shop or even chinamart in the fishing and hunting section.

Feeding the worms

Worms like to eat many of the same things we eat, only they aren’t so picky. Stale bread, apple cores, orange peels, lettuce trimmings, coffee grounds, and non-greasy leftovers are just some of the food worms love that we usually discard.

Do compost: vegetable scraps, fruit peelings, bread and grains, tea bags, non-greasy leftovers, coffee grounds and filters, well-crushed eggshells.

Do not compost: meat, bones, fats, dairy products, rubber bands, twigs and branches, dog and cat feces, greasy foods.

Begin feeding your worms only a little at a time. As they multiply, you can add larger quantities of food wastes. Bury the waste into the bedding regularly, rotating around the bin as you go. When you return to the first spot, most of the food you buried there should have been eaten. If not, don’t worry. Just feed the worms less for a while.

trouble shooting

Worms Dying. If your worms are dying there could be several causes. It may be that they are not getting enough food, which means you should bury food into the bedding. They may be too dry, in which case you should moisten the box until it is slightly damp. They may be too wet, in which case you should add bedding. The worms may be too hot, in which case you should put the bin in the shade. Or, it could be the case that the bedding is eaten, and it is time to add fresh bedding.

Bin Smells. If your bin smells rotten and/or attracts flies, there may be three causes. First, it may be that there is not enough air circulation. In this case, add dry bedding under and over the worms, and do not feed them for two weeks. Second, there may be non-compostables present such as meat, pet feces, or greasy food. These should be removed. Third, there may be exposed food in the bin. In this case, secure the lid, cover food scraps with bedding, and cover worms and bedding with a sheet of plastic.


Harvesting Your Worm Compost

After you have been feeding your worms for three to six months, you may notice the bedding has been eaten, and you can begin harvesting the brown, crumbly worm compost. Harvesting the compost and adding fresh bedding at least twice a year is necessary to keep your worms health

Methods for harvesting your compost

Move the contents of your worm bin to one side, place fresh bedding in the empty space and bury your food wastes there for a month or so. Harvest the other side after the worms have migrated to the new food and bedding.

Spread a sheet of plastic out under a bright light or in the sun. Dump the contents of the worm box into a number of piles on the sheet. The worms will crawl away from the light into the center of each pile and you can brush away the worm compost on the outside by hand. Soon you will have wriggling piles of worms surrounded by donut-shaped piles of worm compost.

using your compost

To mulch with worm compost, apply a one-inch layer to the soil around plants. Be sure the worm compost is not piled against plant stems. To amend soil, worm compost can be spread one-half to two inches thick over garden soil and mixed in before planting, or mixed into the bottom of seeding trenches or transplanting holes.

Houseplants: Sprinkle worm compost around the base of plants to fertilize. Each time you water, plant nutrients will seep into the soil.

Potting Mixes: For healthy seedlings, mix one part worm compost with three parts potting mix or three parts sand and soil combined. Peat moss, perlite, and worm castings are also good ingredients to add.

Making tea from the vermiliquid

For home use, teas can be applied to flowers, perennials, turf, roses, shrubs, trees and vegetables from a hand sprayer at a dilution ratio of one part fresh, undiluted tea to five parts water, applied once per week. The tea can be applied more or less frequently or at a lower dilution ratio as needed based on performance.

why worm cast tea is great for plants

Living microbes and beneficial plant-growth compounds go right to work when worm casting tea is applied to soil or plant leaves.Worm castings are one of the best organic fertilizers with a neutral pH and a high nutrient content of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.Because it increases the complexity and diversity of organisms in the root zone, it helps fight diseases and pests and boosts the plant's natural immune system. It will not burn the most delicate plants.
Because it is watersoluble it begins feeding the plant immediately.

composting (bins, piles, cans and heaps)

Compost is one of nature's best mulches and soil amendments, and you can use it instead of commercial fertilizers. Best of all, compost is cheap. You can make it without spending a cent. Using compost improves soil structure, texture, and aeration and increases the soil's water-holding capacity. Compost loosens clay soils and helps sandy soils retain water. Adding compost improves soil fertility and stimulates healthy root development in plants. The organic matter provided in compost provides food for microorganisms, which keeps the soil in a healthy, balanced condition. Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus will be produced naturally by the feeding of microorganisms, so few if any soil amendments will need to be added.

Most gardeners have long understood the value of this rich, dark, earthy material in improving the soil and creating a healthful environment for plants. Understanding how to make and use compost is in the public interest, as the problem of waste disposal climbs toward a crisis level. Landfills are brimming, and new sites are not likely to be easily found. For this reason there is an interest in conserving existing landfill space and in developing alternative methods of dealing with waste. Don't throw away materials when you can use them to improve your lawn and garden! Start composting instead.

Compost is the end product of a complex feeding pattern involving hundreds of different organisms, including bacteria, fungi, worms, and insects. What remains after these organisms break down organic materials is the rich, earthy substance your garden will love. Composting replicates nature's natural system of breaking down materials

Humus is our goal when we start composting. By providing the right environment for the organisms in the compost pile, it is possible to produce excellent compost. We usually want to organize and hasten Mother Nature's process. By knowing the optimum conditions of heat, moisture, air, and materials, we can speed up the composting process. Besides producing more good soil faster, making the compost faster creates heat which will destroy plant diseases and weed seeds in the pile or bin.

making a bin, pile or garbage can composter

There are many different commercially available composters on the market. My motto is why pay for something that I can make myself either from materials on the homestead laying around or by purchasing a few cheap items to build my own. Therefore, I am not going any further with commercially available compost bins and will focus more on home made bins in this post.

Some gardeners lash together four pallets, leaving one corner loosely attached to act as a door. Others install posts in four corners, nail the pallets to the posts to form three sides of the bin, and wire the last pallet with some slack to allow access.

Make a simple, three-sided bin by stacking concrete or cinder blocks. Leave the fourth side open for turning the pile or for access to the finished compost.

Wire mesh bins can also be made. Simply make a circle shape out of the wire and place compost materials inside the circle you have made. Ones I have tried in this way always fall over and are quite a pain in the butt.

http://www.rrfb.com/pages/compost/wire_mesh.html

For those in urban environments here are a couple plans
http://www.rivcowm.org/composting/bin_all_wood.html
http://www.rivcowm.org/composting/bi...on_ground.html

Need something portable , try this
http://www.rivcowm.org/composting/bi...able_wood.html

A simple pile in an out of the way spot works well if you have large amounts of materials to add to your pile. This is a slower method but if you have tons of compost then waiting for it to compost is not a big issue. We actually use two piles here. One for already cooked compost and one pile we are currently adding to. This gives us a constant supply of compost in large amounts and is pretty maintenance free.

For those that would like to compost in small amounts and are looking for something cheap and easy to make, i personally suggest the garbage barrel composter. following is a very simple plan , kids like them too because they can help in the process and not get disgustingly gross n nasty yet still learn the processes and it is hands on learning.
http://www.ehow.com/how_16876_make-compost-bin.html

Types of composting

Passive composting is the route to go when you have plenty of time to allow things to decompose or have plenty of barnyard critters to help you in the process . Passive composting involves the least amount of time and energy on your part. This is done by collecting organic materials in a freestanding pile. It might take a long time (a year or two), but eventually organic materials in any type of a pile will break down into finished compost. Add grass clippings, leaves, and kitchen scraps (always cover these with 8" of other material). The pile will shrink quickly as the materials compress and decompose. Wait a year or two before checking the bottom of the bin for finished compost. When it's ready, shovel the bottom section into a wheelbarrow and add it to your garden beds. Continue to add greens and browns to have a good supply of finished compost at the ready. After the first few years, most simple piles produce a few cubic feet of finished compost yearly.

Managed composting

Managed composting involves active participation, ranging from turning the pile occasionally to a major commitment of time and energy. If you use all the techniques of managing the pile, you can get finished compost in 3-4 weeks. Choose the techniques that reflect how much you want to intervene in the decomposition process and that will be a function of how fast you want to produce compost.

The speed with which you produce finished compost will be determined by how you collect materials, whether you chop them up, how you mix them together, and so on. Achieving a good balance of carbon and nitrogen is easier if you build the pile all at once. Layering is traditional, but mixing the materials works as well. Shredded organic materials heat up rapidly, decompose quickly, and produce a uniform compost. The decomposition rate increases with the size of the composting materials. If you want the pile to decay faster, chop up large fibrous materials.

You can add new materials on an ongoing basis to an already established pile. Most single-bin gardeners build an initial pile and add more ingredients on top as they become available.

The temperature of the managed pile is important, it indicates the activity of the decomposition process. The easiest way to track the temperature inside the pile is by feeling it. If it is warm or hot, everything is fine. If it is the same temperature as the outside air, the microbial activity has slowed down and you need to add more nitrogen (green) materials such as grass clippings, kitchen waste, or manure.Turning or aerating your pile is a must in managed composting.

Highly managed composting

The following is for the highly managed pile and the optimum finished compost in the shortest amount of time. Decomposition occurs most efficiently when the temperature inside the pile is between 104 degrees F and 131 degrees F. Compost thermometers are available at garden shops and nurseries. It is best not to turn the pile while it is between these temperatures, but rather when the temperature is below 104 degrees F or above 131 degrees F. This keeps the pile operating at its peak. Most disease pathogens die when exposed to 131 degrees for 10-15 minutes, though some weed seeds are killed only when they're heated to between 140 degrees and 150 degrees. If weed seeds are a problem, let the pile reach 150 degrees during the first heating period, then drop back down to the original temperature range. Maintaining temperatures above 131 degrees can kill the decomposing microbes.

What to compost

Ashes, wood (in small amounts)
Bark
Cardboard, shredded
Corn stalks
Fruit waste
Leaves
Newspaper, shredded
Peanut shells
Peat moss
Pine needles
Sawdust
Stems and twigs, shredded
Straw
Vegetable stalks Alfalfa
Algae
Clover
Coffee grounds
Food waste(no meat, bones, dairy)
Garden waste
Grass clippings
Hay
Hedge clippings
Hops, used
Manures
Seaweed
Vegetable scraps
Weeds*
*Avoid weeds that have gone to seed, as seeds may survive all but the hottest compost piles.
few if any soil amendments will need to be added.

what not to compost

Coal Ash - Most ashes are safe to mix into your compost pile, but coal ashes are not. They contain sulfur and iron in amounts high enough to damage plants.

Colored Paper

Diseased Plants - It takes an efficient composting system and ideal conditions (extreme heat) to destroy many plant diseases. If the disease organisms are not destroyed they can be spread later when the compost is applied. Avoid questionable plant materials

Inorganic Materials - This stuff won't break down and includes aluminum foil, glass, plastics and metals. Pressure-treated lumber should also be avoided because it's treated with chemicals that could be toxic in compost (see Safety Concerns Cut Down Treated Lumber).

Meat, Bones, Fats, Dairy - These products can "overheat" your compost pile (not to mention make it stinky and attract animals). They are best avoided.

Pet Droppings - Dog or cat droppings contain several disease organisms and can make compost toxic to handle. For those with pets and wanting to compost http://www.plantea.com/dog-waste-compost.htm

Synthetic Chemicals - Certain lawn and garden chemicals (herbicides - pesticides) can withstand the composting process and remain intact in the finished compost. Poisons have no place in the natural micro-community of your compost pile.