Periodically the Monster Worms family goes on a much needed vacation. I bet you are wondering what we do with our red composting worms while we are gone. Do we have a neighbor kid or novice come over and take care of them? NO! We prefer to let our worms go on their own vacation.
I think that our red wigglers, European nightcrawlers and African nightcrawlers like it while we are gone. They don’t get jostled around, picked at or harvested……they don’t like it when they have to leave and go someplace else.
So…..what do we do? Well, it is very simple. All we do is make sure that their bedding is moist before we leave and we feed them. We put in a little extra food too, but not too much. If they run out of food before we get back, they can eat their bedding. They can eat their castings too. They won’t starve. Every time that we have done this, the red worms have been just fine. I don’t think that they even knew we left. Has anyone out there left their worms alone for an extended period? We would be interested to hear about it.
Our youngest daughter’s pumpkin field trip was to the Dell’Osso Family Farm in Lathrop, CA. This farm was started in 1920 and is one of the largest pumpkin farms in the United States. There are a lot of fun things for the kids to do. As you first walk in you see a playground with two jumpies. There is also a tire pyramid as high as a one story building. Just beyond that were pumpkins stacked up around a water tower which was about 20 feet into the air!
We went on a hay ride and we got to see the five story snow slide that they are getting ready for use after Halloween. They’ll need to keep adding lots of ice……our winters don’t get that cold for snow.
Our oldest daughter’s class from 
Later, we took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch so that the kids could get their treasured pumpkins. There was a long dirt road in between two corn fields lined with sunflowers and filled with pumpkins. It was a beautiful sight. These gourd-like squashes ranged in size from soccer balls to large globes. Most of the children opted for ones that they could barely carry.
Next, we saw a working bee hive behind glass walls. The Queen bee was marked with a green dot. It was neat to see the inside structure and the hundreds of bees. The docent told us that in the spring time, they have a 
Senator Mark DeSaulnier was there to hand out the awards and to show his support for the newly formed Sustainable Contra Costa (SCOCO) and the hard work that this organization and businesses are doing to promote “green” practices.
A few weeks ago I decided to harvest some of our “black gold” from our homemade compost bin. This bin is made out of wire fencing material and two pieces of 2 x 4. For instructions on how to make it go to: 
I have this sitting in our garden area and I just move the bin to a spot right next to where it was. That way I don’t have far to go to put back in the unfinished compost. Once I have relocated the bin, I start to restock it with materials that I want to turn into compost. These materials consist of brown leaves and dead plants, yard trimmings and spent garden crops and soil from the garden.
With this type of compost bin, there will always be a 3-4 inch layer of “wall” and “ceiling” that will remain uncomposted. Just remove this layer from the old pile and put it into the new bin. Underneath this layer is where all of the beautiful, nutrient rich compost will be. You’ll be amazed…..what was once leaves and old flowers is now black compost! You can apply this to your garden, plants, or lawn. Free organic fertilizer!
