Roadtrip Shawl, Worms and our Urban Farming Experiment

Just a bit of a spoiler for the squeamish, there aren't any photos of worms in this post. They all agreed to go off camera for “you know who you are”'s sake.

Just finished the Road Trip Shawl. This is my name for it. Check out Knitters Magazine, Fall 2007, page 42-43 for this pattern by Jane Sowerby. I had to wait for the second skein to arrive from Louet Yarns and it is a great colour match. The last quarter of the structure of shawl and the ruffle needed the second skein. There was no way to shut my eyes and squeeze it all into happening. Not only did this turn out to be the perfect traveling project, it is a dandy for when there are guests in the house.

Mom came to visit

and that meant spending more time than usual in the knitting position. There is only one trick at the first of each row and then the knitter knits merrily away until the beginning of the next row when 4 seconds of thinking need occur again. Once the ka=trillion stitches were on for the ruffle, it was more of the same except the tricky bit was on either side of the 5th stitch. Casting on a ka=trillion stitches wasn't a deterrent to conversation. Who counts a ka=trillion? You just add on until you get to where the body of the object stops, look to see if there are any glaring holes along the way or a big bunch of stitches in a single spot and say to yourself “I'll fix that on my way past the next time”. Once you arrive at the worrisome bit, add a few more or drop a few or knit a few together. Really, who looks? The only tense bit was the ending. Did I have enough yarn to get all the double ka=trillion (because by now I've added gazooka # of stitches to make the ruffle do a ruffle like wave) cast off. The answer was no. That meant either ripping back three rows to get enough to knit the second last row again and then cast off or do the amazing “Knitter Superwoman” trick of leaving the thread where it ended, and then .... crocheting off. It was diabolical from a knitting stand point. I did this tricky thing that I thought would be a complete screw up and it worked! No one can tell were I made the switch. I wish I had thought of this years ago, what a great way to cast off without the worry of is there enough yarn. If crocheting hadn't already been invented, I would pattent this.

While Mom was here, I had a chance to get the livestock organized.

Mom kept the garden furniture from blowing away during the storm of activity while the worms made sure they weren't in the pictures. It took two humans (Steve and I) to hoik the worm bin outside. I have been tossing kitchen scraps in the bin randomly over the winter. We had a bit of a drying out problem around February with the one bin, so I merged the two bins. The one bin was a clear plastic with a clear plastic lid and I think it just wasn't dark enough for worm-like shenanigans. In the blue bin, the worms settled down to serious munching. Once the bin was outside, we drained the worm pee into several bottles.

This stuff is amazing! Really and truly! I know I exaggerate but there is scientific proof somewhere that this stuff is gold. The tomatoes love it, the other plants actually rear up when they see the diluted mix coming and it conditions fallow ground beautifully. I have two bottles and a half pail of liquid, and we moved worms out of the bin and into 3 small pails. I am hoping to find homes for the worms this September when those eager Students careen into the Sustainability year one class. The culled herd is back in the basement, munching on coffee grounds.

How's our urban farming experiment going this summer you ask? Not so hot except for the tomatoes.

The lettuce is a bit sparse, I didn't get my act together around getting seeds into pots in the early spring so the carrots, onions, peas and snow peas aren't part of the crop this year. I did get some carrots into a container and some late beans are doing a nice job of looking enthusiastic. I planted 10 pumpkin seeds for the hell of it and 4 of them are up and perky. No vines yet. We need a vine before a flower can do its thing and make pumpkin babies. Still, we have the rest of August and I can pretend they are gourds. Steve wants a gourd anyways to make a banjo out of. That-is-another-story!

What we did do this year that is an improvement over last year is that we have a better sense of what we can manage to pay attention to. .......Not a lot.

We have a better sense of how hard it is to get potato sets..... impossible this year (note to selves: don't turn the last of the winter potatoes into latkes if you need them for seed potatoes)

We have a better sense of what we can't get a hold of at the Farmers Market......almost nothing.

We have a better sense of how valuable our local farmers are to our incredible tasting local diet... .....Essential!

So in an odd way by having fabulous produce around so easily, my motivation to compete with those Fabulous Farming Families is very low. I like my lettuce outside the door, the herbs are a fun addition to many things, I wish I had the green onions and I miss the idea of neat kinds of potatoes but truthfully, I prefer to go to the market.

We shop for very little outside of food and drinks. Hardly any clothes, videos or movies, next to no shoes or furniture. We do spend money on reading material and we do spend money on eating out a bit too much (Fridays- you know the feeling- there isn't anything in the fridge and it's hot/cold outside and 8 other excuses, just so you can get some great fish and chips and not have any dishes to do) But food shopping is like a puzzle. I like making up the menu for the week coming up, figuring out what meat or protein we need when, what veggies will go with what, which meals Steve will cook (thankfully most of them) and which I will burn, I mean cook. And I like eating it.

Livestock Winter report -2010

Every Urban Farm should have some livestock. Living in Halifax, we are not allowed, yet, to have chickens in our backyards, but I understand legislation is undergoing a change. Let's hope!

Bees are possible, but we were supposed to be going on Sabbatical this coming July and I didn't want to start a hive until we returned. However, that has been delayed by a year so the bees will be some time coming. We have also been told by Phoebe that she won't step on the property if there are bees here. Choices, choices! At the moment, Phoebe wins, but there might be bee aversion therapy in her future.

Our main livestock are the Lucky 3 worms. We received these a couple of years ago from a friend's neighbour. We have built the herd up to two bins worth of worms. I pulled out enough worm soil and worm pee to keep my garden fertilized last summer. The tomatoes loved it. The geraniums were also pleased. The geraniums are currently looking a bit flustered so I am going to give them another drink of diluted worm pee this weekend. That should give them some winter luster.

Worm pee you wonder? It isn't really pee, it is the moisture from the humidity that gathers inside the dark bins. As the worms work their way through the kitchen scraps, they generate heat. And the little buggers reproduce irrepressibly, adding heat. Imagine 10,000 worms reproducing, it staggers the imagination. And it happens in my basement every day. I'm surprised the lid doesn't blow off the bins.

Back to reality. The moisture can build up in the soil, making a soup and this is drained off about every 6 months. The worms like it mucky, so I'm not too worried. If I see a bunch of worms at the top of the bin, it means it is either too wet or I tossed something in they didn't like. One friend claims you can hear the worms munching. I think this is the water squishing about, but I can't hear anything, and I've spent minutes listening. Maybe she said it as a practical joke so she can think of me with my ear to the worm bin?

Once a year I turn the bins upside down on a tarp in the driveway and spread the soil out as thin as I can, with a heap in the middle. As the soil warms and is exposed to light, the worms scurry to the dark heap in the middle. I harvest the edges of the soil, diluting it with lots of water and it makes an excellent soil fertilizer. The middle heap goes back into the bins. Last year I had enough to make a second bin and I should have been less lazy and made a third bin last fall. We generate enough kitchen scraps that I could keep 4 bins happy, thanks to coffee grinds.

I'm rather slap dash about my Lucky 3 worms. I just toss the scraps in, shred some newsprint on top, sometimes stir it up and ignore them as much as possible. Perfect livestock, no early morning milking, no spring shearing and no vet bills.

Since I can't have chickens, I have a bird feeder. As of this Christmas, we have two.

They are from Connecticut Yankee. The green one is the newer model and because it is wider in diameter, those amazingly smart crows and their cousins the Blue Jays, can't stick their greedy beaks in and get the chickadee feed. Crows and Jays are aggressive enough they can fend for themselves. I try to feed the little guys. We have chickadees, a few types of sparrows, house finches and sometimes a yellow finch as they pass over during migration. At the eensy-weensy island-spit of land in Liverpool, we see yellow finches, along with several other cutie pie birds so it is possible the yellow finches could use our feeder more regularly, but they don't. We also have blasted starlings and idiot pigeons.

We put a suet feeder out last winter, guaranteed for small birds. The small birds ignored it and the starlings learned to jump from the ground, four feet into the air and flutter long enough to get a mouthful of suet. I tossed the bloody thing out last month. The 15 pigeons' main job are to stand around on the various roof gutters and annoy the cats. This gives the cats exercise as they sit on the rad covers and object. They would otherwise spend the day sleeping, saving up rest in case tomorrow is busy.

We have occasionally seen the Downy woodpeckers, (the ones that have the black and white feathers and the red splotch on their heads). They like the various stumps we have left around the shrubs, getting bugs even in the winter from under the bark. Our most special guest was a Yellow Shafted Common Flicker. He likes to visit every so often, peer about and then take off, while I scrunch up with excitement indoors. I don't know what he's looking for and I'd provided it if I could figure it out.

Our other livestock, the cats, are doing well. Bruno is fully recovered from his traumatic partial tail removal. All the fur has grown back in and he swishes it around as if it was an ermine stole he needs to display. He's a little touchy about any feet near his tale, and I guess I can appreciate that. Bruno misses Phoebe a lot and whenever she comes over, he is in her lap the first minute she sits down for a long drawn out purr fest.

I miss Phoebe especially at bed-time when Bruno tries to convince me that sleeping with his head on my shoulder is a good thing to do. Nope, get the to the feet of the bed, you hairy thing!

Cleo Belle continues to rule the roost. She caught a mouse last month. I don't consider the mice one of the livestock. I suppose they are more numerous than I care to think about and they do live inside the structure of the house. But that is temporary. I called the pest control people and we'll blast those buggers out of the walls before any mice lovers read this blog. Cleo continues to sit on various tops of bureaus and cupboards, looking intently at the paint. I think this is her way of pointing to the mice. Bruno watches Cleo Belle watch the mice. It is all very exciting and exhausting. (see above re: in case tomorrow is busy and sleeping)

Steve is Cleo Belle's livestock. She wrangles him into his different corrals; his office chair, the kitchen chair, the living room chair or his bed. She stands on his lap and shouts until he extends his legs out and then she settles down for a nap, or several. She doesn't do this with me too often, she mostly stands on the counter top and screams “Where are those long legs, I need a nap!”