Shari’s Gone Country

The first 2# of red worms arrived Wednesday. Cindy has prepared a home in the basement for them. Later we’ll move the adults to the big outdoor bin and keep the basement as a nursery.

This plastic bin is plenty large enough for about 5# total.

The worms will help us use up food waste, paper waste, horse and sheep manure, and spoiled bedding. In turn, they’ll produce nice black casting, which contain a ton of nutrients for our garden.

They’ve settled in very nicely… working away on food waste and paper waste. Since they’re not happy when you shine light on them, I didn’t want to peel back much of their bedding. If you look closely above the pear core, there are a few little wigglers who didn’t dive fast enough to avoid the picture.

The plan is to actually create windrows and generate enough castings in a couple years to sell to folks in Enterprise, Cedar City, and St George.

That will become our major cash crop, with market lambs as an additional income generator. The horses are for hobby, and the chickens will provide meat and eggs, as well as add their droppings to the composting operation.

With only an acre-foot of water, it’s important for us to find ways to conserve (be good stewards) while also creating a way to show that we use the water we are allowed. If you fail to use your share, you can have it taken away… and it’s very expensive to get it back.