Hay

Thinking of buy some hay bales and building a three sided worm bin. I can fill with horse dung now and in March be warm enough to put in the worms, then as the wether warms I can put castings in the Mark II we will have built.

Jan 2010 update

Cold out. May have to find new site due to the owner of this we we have now having famly/work issues. Lets hope for the best for Trevor.
Did you know that Sweet Water picks up 5000 LB of food wast week in Milwaukee? Think of the savings in land fill and how that goes a long way to help Sweet Water grow worms to feed the fish to feed us!
Keep a good thought out.

WAyne

Status 12/25/09

Well too cold for much activity in the bins. I know I am being silly that the Red Worms are most likey froze I covered on of the piles with 12 " of dirt to try and save them but have been told that the worms probuly would have went into the dirt cap.
However the eggs they laid will hatch in March at the latest.
So looks like the effort should go into marketing and getting resources for the effort.
To everyone out there Merry Xmas and a great New Year

Its Cold outside!

Well with the temp dropping and the ground frozen most of the visible action has stooped.
Hope the Red Worms went deep but I understand they do not.
Still collecting Horse dung to continue to place on the home compost piles and cover the Raised beds 8-12".
Time to learn more about the art and network. This will all take time lets learn this together.
Note City of Racine Mayor has yet to see me about the Urban Gardening ideas after telling me he would do so.
Well I guess I do not have to vote for him.

Status

Quick update. Going with the Mark II bins. As we were hoping to get them set up on the land we must wait for the farmer to make the land. We understand that he has been working overtime and some other issues in his life must be dealt with.
WE will take them as they come. In fact by helping in his efforts we have forged good bonds. This I am sure will help us maintain a good reputation in the area he is located in.
We hope to still make a few bins and fill them yet this year but if not we will do other efforts for there is no end of activies to do from educating in the effort and helping gather resources.

City of Racine hates composting.

http://www.journaltimes.com/news/local/article_f011c30c-dd70-11de-b3bc-001cc4c002e0.html

IMHO if its not in witting the City will ticket who they will. AS any number of home owners in Racine will tell you UNIT just does want it will. Also IMHO trusting Helding or the Building Dept is a mistake.
DEmand the written ordinances are changed

We were wrong!

Well looks kike after further research I discover I was wrong!
The State of Wisconsin Exstention office was very nice and explained that 4-5 weeks in the winter to do compost was a big quick in Wisconsin Winter the below 0 temp will do my bus and worms few favors, good chance since the piles are not large I could in fact lose most of my worms. Frozen worms do little eating. :(. Now I can get a little space and use my basement to do some experiments with the worms but I can not count on much happening during Winter.
So from Jan to Early March be time for planing and gathering resources. Nice thing is that part of the plan is to see what works and I am prepared for set backs.
Plan to haul more Horse dung to what I have here.
Maybe we will still put out the bins even if we only can haul food for a short amont of time. Again lets see what works. Going with the Mark II see the example drawing