Would You Like Worms With That?

Yesterday I had the priviledge of consuming a warm and caffienated beverage with Joe Bartmann - director of the Sioux Falls Green Project.

For months in advance of this meeting The Family has been busily preparing to welcome some new friends into our home. We added a new room (rubbermaid tub), made special modifications (The Boy 12, a drill, some stregically placed holes), and commandeered some bedding (shredded documents).

I reported our part complete. Now it was Joe's turn. He did not dissappoint - arriving with a mysterious tub in hand, passersby appeared confused by the mysterious and perhaps dangerous ink scratchings on its lid.

Inside the tub - a fistfull of Wred Wrigglers. Yes indeed. I have worms. These worms will be fed various non-meat food stuffs. These worms will create castings (that's gentlemen-ese for poop). I will feed poop to my garden. My garden will create food that I will eat. On occasion my hands might get dirty doing it. It will be a miracle.

I can't help but think it's a little bit like the pigs in Deadwood - the television show, not the town.



Joe calls these starter packs. I'm a little afraid of what he means by starter! Am I on some dangerous path? A slippery slope?

First I'm collecting worm poop - how long before humanure starts to feel like a natural idea...humanure IS a natural idea? Flushing a toilet with drinking water - that's the unnatural idea.

And so it begins...

(I do not mean to imply that humanure is a goal or even an intent of mine. Nor is it Joe's...as far as I know.)