The Wonders of Wormeries

Wiggly Worms and the Tale of the Coir!

 

A second blog post, but this time a little more light-hearted. Like I said, frugal living is about taking the good with the bad and seeking out the silver lining in any passing clouds. Besides, it's actually rather fun contemplating all the 2013 challenges I can set mysef that involve getting from A to B without a car while living a mile from the nearest bus route and several more to the nearest post office, especially when my income relies heavily on having access to a post office. I have Internet, I will survive!

 

So, what's with the wormery? Well, as I said previously, Dumfries and Galloway Council currently offers subsidised compost bins and wormeries and I'm all for composting and recyling. So, when the opportunity arose to purchase such an object, I leapt at it - almost!

 

Kick into frugal gear, start looking for a better deal, post a few questios and see what happens. What happened was Wormcity! They responded to my 'tweet' by offering to price match the subsidised product, which was £48.49 Not only that, they kindly offered to drop the 49p and provided me with the 'frugal' code to purchase their Wormery 50. (This special code is valid until 30th, if anyone else would like to apply, and includes delivery.)  As you'll realise, this is a huge amount of money to a frugaler, hence my stalling from leaping straight in and buying the council chosen option. So I duly counted out the annual coin collection and opted for the Wormcity Wormery 50, a far better deal, in my opinion.

 

Box duly arrived and I skimmed the instructions. It al looked robust and easily assembled. Indeed, it was, even for a bungling Calamity Jane like me! But I did create one tiny problem for myself, entirely my own doing, I might add...

 

Instructions clearly say, "Place the coir block into a large bucket or bowl. Pour 3 litres of warm water onto the coir and leave for approximately 30 minutes."

 

Excellent! Time to make a cuppa and catch up in the Frugaldom forum! So off I went, leaving the coir brick-sized block in my old baking bowl with its 3 litres of tepid water...

 

About 20 minutes later, I heard a shout from the kitchen, so ran through to be met with heaps of coir crumbling and flowing over the top of the bowl, across the worktop and onto the floor. Arg! Had I read the next sentence in the instructions, I would have been seen, "The coir will expand to 3 times it size..."!

 

The wormery is now set up and has been sited inside the plastic greenhouse, in a spot that doesn't receive direct sunlight. It isn't exactly warm in there but I'm hoping it's enogh to prevent the wrigglers from freezing through winter. At the moment, I'm still shredding old paper to top up their 'house' and hoping they save me a small fortune on compost and plant food next year. That's another money-saving plan put into action that should also go a long way towards my zero-waste plans. :)

 

Now for some other good news. The old oil-filled radiators that I traded for through LETS had been stashed out in the shed after they both gave up the ghost. Last week, a neighbour offered to take one of them away to footer with in his 'man shed' and joy, of joys! Message received saying they'll pop over this afternoon to return one fully working radiator! (Along with a mink trap.) While here, they are collecting the second oil-filled radiator and my thought-to-be defunct dehumidifier. Now if that could be resuscitated, it would be a massive boost.

 

Did I mention that my old 'whirly gig' clothes drier had broken? I need to get out there and assault the renovated outbuilding with a hook, so I can string my washing line between it and the garden gate. For indoor drying, I rely on my wooden upright airer, hence my hoping that the dehumidifier is repairable.

 

Today the sun is shining, there's a beautiful blue sky and almost all of the frost has melted. The pond is still frozen, but the sun should reach it soon, then the ducks can have a splash around and dry out before teatime. Meanwhile, I've warmed myself with a bowl of homemade soup and am about to resume paper shredding to top up the wormery. Only then can I begin working on my money-making, McGonk challenge. :)

 

Have a good day, everyone, and thank you to the new followers and for recent comments received.