worms, worms, worms

Tracy took a short class offered by a colleague about vermiculture last week, and we decided to give it a try. (The No Impact Man has had a big impact on us around here.) We're going to try to use worms to compost our vegetable matter garbage (and since we eat mostly vegan, we have plenty). It'll create some powerful compost for use in our community garden plot this spring. The cool thing about this is that we can do it in our house (since we don't have a yard).

Here's the steps we've taken.

1. We started saving vegetable matter for feeding the worms (the recommended worms are called "red wigglers" or just "red worms"). That didn't take very long. We're only doing one bin for now, but our household probably generates enough to supply four bins.


2. We bought a 14-gallon plastic bin for less than $10. It needs to be opaque, since the worms don't like light. And it shouldn't be too deep.


3. Then we drilled a bunch of holes in the bin, from the top halfway down and in the lid, so they get plenty of ventilation. This is also supposed to help the moisture content stay about right and keep it from getting smelly.


4. We ripped up a bunch of newspapers for the bedding into 1/2 inch strips. We needed enough to fill the bin 3/4 full with damp newspaper, so it needed to be full to the brim with dry strips. You're not supposed to use newspaper that print in color, unless you know the ink is soy-based. Tracy e-mailed the Boston Globe, and they responded that yes, the ink should be safe for the worms.


5. Then we went to the Arlington Bait Shop (after calling first, to make sure they had what we needed, since this is winter time) and bought 8 cans of worms (24 each) for $21 (192 worms). We're told that in six months, each worm can have 96 offspring, which would give us 18,432 worms. Our bin can probably only support about 1,000 or so, but the population is self-limiting--they won't produce more than their food will allow. We can use our worms to seed new colonies, or we can put them directly into our garden (or go fishing). The guy at the bait shop was really nice--we weren't the first ones looking for worms for compost. He says he also sells them in the winter to people who use them to feed their turtles, shrews (I've never heard of a pet shrew), and birds. A pack of 1,000 worms is $65. (Maybe I'll talk the kids into going into business...)


6. Once home with our worms, we prepared the bedding by getting it wet in the bathtub and wringing it out, so that it was thoroughly damp but not dripping, like a damp sponge. Messy work.


7. Once the bin was loaded with damp bedding, we buried a cup or so of food in five spots. Tracy's instructor recommended laying out a grid on the lid, and alternating where you bury the food, so it's easier to keep track of what they like (worms don't like all kinds of vegetables, and you can't feed them citrus). So today, we buried in the odd grid spots. The trick is to feed them just the right amount, so there isn't a bunch of rotting food in there. We also need to watch the moisture levels a bit, and use a turkey baster to drain off the "compost tea" once a week or so (which we can dilute to feed our house plants).

1. Next we dumped in the worms and set them free in their new home. For now, we'll keep the bin in a corner of our kitchen (they need to be between 40-80 degrees F), so we don't forget about them.

For the first few months, we probably can't feed them a lot, but once they're active and breeding, we can feed them more.

I'll report back on how it's going. With any luck we'll have some rich compost by spring, and send a lot less pounds of green matter to the landfill.

If you're interested in more info, the instructor recommended this book: Worms Eat My Garbage


Here are some sites that offer more about composting with worms:

http://www.capecodwormfarm.com/index.asp

http://www.angoraandworms.com/more_about_the_worms.htm

http://www.nyccompost.org/resources/worms.html

http://www.unclejimswormfarm.com/

more on the #$%$^& pinkie

I know this blog is supposed to be about writing, but the pinkie thing is slowing me down (though I did give a try at a new beginning to the novel rewrite today, moving something from close to the end right up to the front). Turns out that I need surgery after all and it's happening tomorrow morning--they're going to insert a metal pin through the tip of my pinkie, linking together the two end bones for four weeks, so the tendon can heal itself (and then take the pin back out when it's done). Sounds unpleasant.

The worst part is that there isn't a really cool story to go with it. When I require some sort of surgical repair, it seems only fair that it should come with a good yarn--"I was diving across the goal, collided with the post, and still managed to block the shot." or "I was buried under a pile of players, watching helplessly as the ball trickled over the line." Something like that. I'm a writer and I understand that often the thing that makes life bearable is being able to weave good stories out of whatever's thrown your way. In this case, I guess I'll just have to make something up.

typing without pinkie, bck to longhnd?

My continuing dventures plying golie for my indoor soccer te m unfortuntly cost my the use of my left pinkie for the next six weeks. Seems I tore tendon, which will luckily re ttch itself, but it must sty in splint continuously, or else it'll snp once more. Turns out one uses this left finger when typing. The loss of "q" nd "z" ren't so criticl, but pprently, the "a" is used pretty often. Not uite sure how to hndle blogging nd e-mils. Perhps my writing cn be done longhnd from here on out. (Hoping for no surgery.)


Typing this wy mkes me think of one of my fvorite books, by good friend Mrk Dunn. Ella Minnow Pea. It's incredibly clever nd fun.

Thoughts from the Dentist's Chair

This morning I had some gum graft surgery done. In order to stop recession of the gum around a tooth, the dentist removed a chunk of flesh from the roof of my mouth and implanted it onto the gum around the tooth in question (after removing the top surface of that gum, so that the graft can grow in the new spot).

I've been quite lucky in regard to dental health--in 40 years, I've only ever had one cavity, and I still have my wisdom teeth (though the dentists always ask if I want them out). So I'm not really an old pro at all this dentist work (though I do have a very funny radio play, Spitting Image, about dental work)--I never really know what to expect.

The procedure took a while--probably about an hour of open mouth time, which gave me a lots of time for my mind to wander. Here's what went through my head:

--Should I stay tense, anticipating the anaesthetic not working properly (thank you Alfred Einhorn, inventor of Novocain), or should I relax? Relaxing might make the whole experience more pleasant, but tension feels safer. I once had an operation on an ingrown toenail, when I was in college, and they didn't use enough Novocain. Trust me, when they've cut off a section of your toenail to the root and are scraping the bone down there, you don't want to feel it. The doctor suggested that perhaps I have a low pain threshold. I hope he's cleaning latrines in a third-world country today. Anyway, this makes me nervous when it comes to local anesthetics. It worked out pretty well this time, though they did have to give me an extra shot in the roof of my mouth (not good to start feeling them poking around up there).

--Why don't they have something to look at on the ceilings of dentists offices? (They actually do in some pediatric dentist's offices.) A digital project pointed at the ceiling could allow me to browse the internet, or at least read an e-book or magazine and give me a good focal point. Surely this is an idea whose time has come. I know there's money to be made here. Talk about a captive audience for advertisers...

--I tried to do a little writing work, puzzling over the start of my novel. I'm having a hard time deciding between two choices for the opening scene. Apparently, it's not always a great idea to work this hard in the chair, because my dentist saw my face and was worried that I was in pain. I was in no position to explain that I was busy trying to puzzle out a major restructuring to my new book.

--Try not to be a wimp, I told myself. Think about some guy in Iraq with his arm hanging in shreds, or my friend who just had a kidney transplant. What about torture victims (the ones whose tapes were lost by the CIA)? Think about all the wounded vets coming back from Iraq, who have to try survive with constant pain from amputations or traumatic brain injuries. Unfortunately, this line of thought turns out to be completely useless for distracting yourself from needles injecting anesthetic into the roof of your mouth or from a pair of hands stitching sutures around your teeth.

--Trying to figure out whether I'll be able to play soccer on Sunday (I'm our goalie), or take my son to our first parent-child rock climbing class tomorrow. Do I go for the ibuprofen and tylenol (as the doctor suggested) or do I go right for the vicodin (as several friends have suggested... they've not exactly been cheerily encouraging about the recovery from this thing)?

--How long does this take? Maybe they could put a timer or clock on the ceiling, too, because, man, it took a lot longer than I expected.


The good news is it's all over now. The ten stitches don't hurt much yet (I did take some pain meds) and I've got a quart of super premium ice cream in the freezer (JP Licks). But I still haven't quite decided on the new start for the novel. Maybe I'll need to get them to do the other side.

What I'm Reading: The Trap

I've been having a great time following the discussion at Scott's Theatre Ideas blog, and I happened to see his listing of books of note and The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America by Daniel Brook caught my eye. They happened to have it at my local library, so I was in luck.

It's a fun read, especially if you're an American artist trying to figure out how the hell to stay afloat, when life seems to cost more all the time. The basic point he makes is that the growing income disparity in America is wreaking all sort of havoc on the middle class. Part of it comes from the growing class of rich folks bidding up the price on housing and college education and childcare. Middle class neighborhoods are quickly disappearing from our major cities, leaving only the rich and poor.

This growing income disparity affects our entire society, because professions in which one once used to able to support a family in a modest middle-class lifestyle (like being a teacher or social worker or even a public interest lawyer) have not seen their wages rise with the cost of living.

"In 1980, it was inconceivable that a University of Chicago student's first job--even as a social worker or editorial assistant--would pay less than her annual tuition. Today, it is entirely conceivable, indeed probable that students who take jobs as social workers or editorial assistants will earn less than their tuition fill. An idealistic University of Chicago graduate from the class of 1980 who opted to stay on the South Side and teach in an inner-city public school would have earned $13,770, more than two and a half times her $5,100 senior year tuition. Today, such a student would earn $38,851, only 23 percent more than her senior year tuition of $31,500."

The truth is, it doesn't just feel like it's harder (financially) than ever to be an artist or intellectual, it actually is harder than it was in our parent's generation.

He points out that there's a deep cost to our society when the financial burden of undertaking society-benefiting jobs is so high. The best and brightest are drawn away from public service, not just because there's riches to be had working for consulting and corporate law firms, but also because it takes more and more money to support a family these days.

On the other hand, there is a bit of elitist whining underway, and sometimes it's annoying. Still, if you can get past that, you will hear a passionate voice calling for strong reform to make ours a more supportive society for people who want to create and serve. He even talks about how our screwed up healthcare system suppresses our entrepreneurial undertakings. Having a stronger social safety net (healthcare, education, childcare) would provide more freedom for all Americans to pursue their dreams.

As with many books that take the time to point out our system's various failings, the time spent on laying out actual solutions is small. I'd like to see a book that starts out assuming that the readers agree on our problems (10% of the book for this) and then helps provide a plan of action solution (revolution, anyone?). This book is 95% about the problems, which is fine--he certainly got me all worked up (it's a quick read). But I'm more interesting in how we take action to make things better (campaign finance reform, universal healthcare, state financed education from Kindergarten through college).

What I'm Writing: Boring Bits

I'm finally back on a more regular writing schedule, which has included work on two new short plays--one is funny and the other is absolute dreck (hard to know if it's salvageable).

I'm also finally back to writing my new novel. I'm sure that at every new step, I say, "the hardest part of writing a novel is _______" with the blank being filled in by whatever step I'm on at the moment. The current step is trying to undertake a second major rewrite, much bigger than the others. I've been at work on this project for two years, and I figure it'll take another year to complete. At the very beginning of an overhaul like this, I'm just peering down into the gaping abyss, thinking, "how am I going to get down this thing?"

The oft quoted line from Hitchcock is helping me: "Drama is just like life, with the boring bits cut out." I just did a quick skim of my manuscript and also put together a new chart showing the structure and timeline (yes, I do such things). It's pretty easy to see that I haven't done a very good job of getting rid of all the boring bits. I've got a draft with a good foundation for the characters, some interesting scenes and some good writing, and a lot of detail about what happens to these people. But as my readers (thank you) told me (pretty gently), it's just not gripping (possibly/probably not even engaging, which is a few steps down from gripping).

The good news is that I have an idea of how to fix this, because it's a project worth finishing. What makes this the hardest stage is that a good bit of it involves sitting around thinking, reading, rereading, and sitting or pacing, while trying to reframe things in my head, listening to new variations of old voices, trying to rewire my brain before I actually let my fingers loose to start typing. It's easy to feel modestly content when there are new pages being written every day, but sitting and daydreaming about the novel is harder than it looks. But, based on my limited experience, part of the trick to getting the novel finished (and finished well), is getting the train moving and then knowing the right moment to hop on for the ride.

Tthings are in motion. And I'm pretty close to being ready to jump.

interesting maps and stats with LORT distribution

I love number and maps. Here's some great stuff that Scott's put together at Theatre Ideas:

http://theatreideas.blogspot.com/2008/01/tcg-and-nea-google-map-and-spreadsheet.html