Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Lunch and Flowers and Worms! Oh My!

It's amazing to me how much work it takes just to make a small area look decent.  But since Spring has indeed sprung and I want to like what I see when I look out the front window, somebody had to do it!  But first, lunch with an out of town friend....:-).

We made plans to have lunch with our friend Bob who we had not seen in almost two years because of traveling.  We decided to try a restaurant in our town that Chris and I had not been to before.

Somebody is very happy about the idea...haha


Bob came in right behind us.  We had spent a few minutes outside looking for one of his motorcycles, but learned that he had driven instead.


Bob ordered some tacos.  They looked good, but I'm not sure that they were.


Chris ordered a "slider trio" and a very strange salad which happen to be my favorite part of his lunch...:-).


I ordered a pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw and mac and cheese.  I shouldn't have....really.  I was NOT good at all.....:-(. I have never heard of a pulled pork sandwich which did not have barbeque sauce on it.  And I don't like cheese sauce that is gritty and graining as though it was not cooked long enough.  Yuck.  I only had a couple of bites and was done with all of it.


It didn't take long before we decided to leave and get some coffee.  We went to this other cafe that we had never been too.  I know, daring aren't we..ha


It's nicely done on the outside and I love to have coffee at a bistro.


 Here is Bob and Chris, chillin...


I snapped this picture of the inside of the cafe.  We later found out that it doubles as a church on Sundays.  Cool......:-)


We had to make another trip to Vancouver after searching high and low for more of the Hibiscus that we had purchased a couple of days earlier.  So, we had to beat feet after lunch and head out again.  We made a short stop and then hit the highway.  We managed to find two more plants and headed straight back to our little town.  Unfortunately, we were not able to get everything we wanted from the one store, so we had to stop at another to pick up two more winter heather.

these are they.....


We got the last two trees in and the heather and was very glad that the rest will be done once the bulbs die back in the flower pots.


The landscapers are supposed to come some time this month and lay some sod.  I think things will be beautiful once everything is done.  We knew from seeing them along the highway to plant them on a slope.


 Afterward, we decided that we needed to harvest some vermicompost for our plants and make more bedding for our worms....:-).  You might remember when we set up the first system in Lawton last year.  We now have one here in Canada too that we have been maintaining for the past 5 months.

It works perfectly for smaller spaces.....


The temperature was perfect for the little guys.....:-)


I could almost hear the little guys cheering because they were about to have a bit more space and fresh bedding.  whoo hoo...ha

The system is called the Worm Factory 360 because the tray constantly rotate and get emptied when it is time for harvest.  Once you are ready to take your compost out for "curing" it needs to be separated from the little guys that are living in it.  We do it by putting the material in small piles and waiting a few minutes for the worms to work their way down to the bottom.  They do not like the light.

You gently pull the compost off of the top of the piles until you reach the bottom of them combining them into less piles as you go.  We then sift out any thing that had not yet been processed and put it back into the system with the worms.

After the separation took place, we were left with 1 1/2 gallons of pure castings for our plants and garden....
It should be rich, range in color from dark brown to almost black, smell like fresh soil and be very slightly moist....:-). By the way, the little tiny white specks are pulverized egg shell that I added early in the process for the purpose of ph level control.

Composting worms like it neutral or the composting food scraps will will burn their delicate skin.  Egg shells is a great way to do that...:-).  It also helps to feed tomato plants, roses and other plants that like calcium.  Not recommended if you want to use it on acid loving plants as the calcium neutralizes the acid.


ahhhhhh, perfect!  Thanks, guys!  Back to work now....:-).
.

see ya soon!

10 comments:

Pastor Chris said...

Gardening and lunchtime and worms oh my! What a fun time we have eh?

livin'itup! said...

Fun times! When you visit us in Shoreline next time you'll have to have the pulled pork sandwich from Rainin' Ribs! :)

Tripping Sister! said...

Sounds like a plan to me! I've not had their's yet....:-).

Unknown said...

Pat/Chris:

It was great that you managed to make time for me. I'm glad I didn't have to touch those worms. I'm squeamish

Your garden is looking good. can't wait to see it later after it is landscaped.

I didn't realize you were coming down to Vancouver. We could have had another coffee somewhere

bob
A weekend photographer or Riding the Wet Coast

Tripping Sister! said...

Hey Bob!
Yeah, that's why we had to get going so that we could make the drive back and get them in the ground before we lost light. I thought you were going to hang out in Squamish for a while and take pictures!

Trobairitz said...

So many good things in one post.

Way cool that you got to visit with Bobskoot. He is always so full of stories and energy.

I would have loved to play with the worms with you. For some reason I find them fascinating. You can't find anything better for your garden than the castings.

When the sod is down the view from your windows will be beautiful.

Deb said...

Slimy and nummy, all at the same time!

Oh, I meant the FOOD! LOL

Fun post and glad you guys had a great get together!

I am keeping the Worm Factory in mind for when I move back to the country or at least have a yard again.

Tell me, do the worms like coffee grounds? I always heard that they did.

Tripping Sister! said...

Brandy,
It was good to see Bob. We had not seen him in almost two years!

I hope all of the plants do well out there. After we move,if we ever do that is, someone will have a lovely view!

Tripping Sister! said...

Deb,
yes, they like coffee grounds, but they are really only used for "grit" to help them digest their food. They don't have teeth. They have gizzards like birds. so they need the grit or sand to help them break the food down.

I don't know if they would have enough nutritional value left in them after brewing to give to them just as a food source. And before brewing would probably kill the poor things!

The worm factory is great if you are limited on space as we are. Takes up less space than the typical rubbermaid bin which is what some folks use.

Deb said...

My neighbor out in the country made a "worm bed" and was always asking for donations of coffee grounds. I always wondered why.

Now you have answered my question. I had no idea!