Vermiculture Snow Days

in offgrid •  7 years ago  (edited)

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People often ask me, "what do you do all winter?"

This question still surprises me. We are in a severe weather alert for the bone chilling cold temperatures. I think today is -40 again.

Today, we do the worms. Took some soil out of the bottom, and cleaned the little guys up. They give me the best compost!
I had forgotten about them. I keep them under the sink, in a pail. After every meal they get the organic matter, lettuce, pumpkin, eggshells, teabags, shredded newspaper, etc. Organic food scraps are split up with all the animals.

I still get my hands in fabulous dirt in the winter! What a great day!

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The pail has drainage holes so that the compost tea can run out the bottom. My first year trying to raise worms, I drowned them :(

In the spring, I throw handfuls into the composter. I was out there this morning and the centre of the composter is still streaming. It tells me that the worms are alive and well. It will host snakes and toads next year, to keep my garden healthy!

Now..to read, and crochet. It feels like that kind of day!

If anyone would like some, come spring, contact me and I will send them out!

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Life still goes on under the cover of the snow and chilling cold! Wonderful post. Thank you!

This is just a great way to prepared ahead. You're really trying

Thank you! I am looking forward to your blogs!!

Thanks for your concern @earthmother
I just made my introduceyourself post

Regards @funkylove

We just started vermicomposting too, love getting my hands in there during the winter :)

I am so excited for you! For me it is such a win win.

-40C here tonight as well. I think the whole northern half of the continent is in the deep freeze. So we are hunkering down as well. Not much to do at these temps other than keep warm and keep our minds busy. Nice post. We used to grow worms too, when we lived in the city. We were talking about doing it again, but just never got there yet. Well done.

Thank you! I will send some this spring your way!!
Avia is taking advantage.i am almost board gamed out! Lol
Are you having to supplement heat a whole lot in these temperatures? With the earthship?

No need to send worms. we can source them ourselves. Thank you for the offer though.

With the extreme cold, if we don't burn, the earthship drops to about +14C at night and +24 during the day. Even if we had no wood, we would survive nicely. We burn in the morning and evening to bump the temp to +21C just to make it comfortable. However, not required for survival. Even if we did not burn all winter, I doubt we would experience anything colder than +10C in the Earthship, even during these extreme cold temperatures. I think they would make FANTASTIC homeless shelters for people in the city. We could build them in the river valley, south facing and have all kinds of shelters for people to sleep in during the night.

It was my original plan to build an earthship. Even have my books autographed by mike reynolds!! Lol
I decided to stay small and will start with earth ship principles on this cabin. I am looking into cordwood structure for thermal mass, opposed to tires. It's in my 5 year plan! That way I will not "need" wood heat. More self sustainable. :)
I agree.. hey would be so amazing for homeless shelters. I was just reading about the initiative in medicine hat to irradicate homelessness. Great article, saying all people should have access to food, water, shelter. And making it happen.

Did you watch my UNPLUG seminar yet? I share a bunch of our mistakes and what we would do differently. You may want to check it out.

I have learned alot from you, my friend!