08.19.09
Posted in Family, Off the cuff at 8:23 pm by loretta
My boyfriend’s sister in law was kind enough to give me their neglected worm bin when I started declaring an interested in having one. I made a little container to collect vegetable scraps and coffee grounds and have been feeding the worms regularly until they are fat and happy.
When I went to add in a full container of compost this weekend, there was a new tenant inside the bin – maggots!
They turn my stomach but I tried to think about it rationally. They are also eating the garbage. I figured they would be gone within a day or two but upon feeding the worms today, they are still there and in greater numbers.
So I needed to do some research. Why were they there? Would they hurt the worms? Are they good for my worm compost then? These and other questions I researched online.
They turn out to be the larvae of the Black Soldier fly. This type of fly has larvae that feed specifically on compost. The adults are not pests. They don’t bite, sting, or even eat. Their only job is to look pretty and breed. They die in 2 days.
They and the larvae will not hurt my worms. In fact, they will help feed them with their waste. The only concern is that they have a tendency to out-eat the worms. So there should be plenty of food.
Black soldier fly larvae prefer moist composting areas. This indicates my compost bin is too wet. I had thought the catch tray would take care of excess moisture but I guess the compost is too close together to let it all drain. The solution is to fluff up and dry the compost by adding more bedding.
I use shredded paper for bedding. We shred anything with our name or address on it to help prevent identity theft. I figure if a worm eats it, that’s even better prevention. So I mixed in some more shredded paper, spread it out, and fluffed it up. Hopefully, that will help discourage the black soldier fly larva from returning.
I’m okay with some soldier fly larvae composting. In fact, some people have bins with only soldier fly larvae, but I have a worm bin and I don’t want to starve them. If I can keep the maggot level down so they don’t starve the worms, that would be okay.
But they still turn my stomach a bit.
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05.13.09
Posted in Family, Food at 9:38 pm by loretta
So I’ve got a bit of the gardening bug this year. Our yard is dark and tiny, which usually puts me off. I found a lot of shade-friendly offerings this year, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. To me, a garden isn’t a garden without some veg. I used the internet to find shade-friendlier veg, to plant in the “sunny” area of the yard.
While picking out seeds at Whole Foods, I saw this package of Micro Greens.
They are quite trendy right now, and it seemed a fun and not bitter way to add variety to salads. I dislike arugula/rocket, endive, and the other bitter lettuces. Plus they’re super easy, just scatter the seeds, let grow for 25 days, and done! This one is 20% red cabbage, 20% pak choy cabbage, 20% beets, 20% swiss chard, and 20% kohlrabi.
I used one of the window-style planter boxes upstairs for the first batch. Even though I put 1″ fencing over the top, the squirrels happily devoured anything that popped above it. The soil is fairly close to the top of the planter. So I lost perhaps half the greens that way.
I’ve fixed it for the other planters, which are downstairs. They are much deeper, so I can have the soil level about 3″ below the lip to keep the greens for ourselves. I’m spacing my plantings, so I have one batch almost half done, one I will plant tomorrow or Friday, and the one I harvested today.
Not much, but enough to top two salads, garnish two plates, or eat as a snack. I mixed in some cress seed to the next batch for a little more zing.
Since I’m still trying them out, I’m going to wait until I’ve eaten a few batches before deciding to get another packet of seeds. I should get two or three more plantings out of this one.
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12.25.08
Posted in Family at 3:34 pm by loretta
I received a lot of great gifts this year. My favorite is usually the calendar my sister, Bridget, makes for us every year with family pictures.
This year I received something better.
My sisters and I sent “care” packages to our brother while he was stationed in Iraq. In thanks, he made us these. I’m all poignant.
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11.27.08
Posted in Family, Reviews at 8:54 pm by loretta
My friend Jim had his work posted on his yarn shop’s blog.
It’s TEH Awesome!!
Here is the post.
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01.30.08
Posted in Family, Fun at 9:17 pm by loretta
Wicked early in the morning, Maureen and I flew to Seattle, Washington to see our brother, Kevin. He’s finishing his second month of training before being deployed to Iraq. He had this weekend free, but the Army wouldn’t let him leave the state to come see me.
I promise I would have given him back!
It couldn’t be helped, though, so Mo and I went to see him for the day. He had to be back on base by 10p.m. (or 2200, as he and his troop called it).
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Posted in Family, Fun at 5:02 pm by loretta
This was the big day. The 26th. My birthday.
Mo and I had planned a big party, and I invited a ton of people. Day of prep went a little slower than desired. I expect things to run late. Fortunately my friends tend to run late, too. The ones that show up on time are generally sweet enough to pitch in.
The party went really well, once it got going. It was hard to figure out when to wedge in the entertainment. A bigger description and pictures are after the cut.
I almost missed blowing out the candles! I have some weird kind of phone karma that has people calling me at awkward times. It struck right before Mo brought out the cake. I went outside to answer it. I also apparently stink at getting people off the phone. I swear I tried, but after I heard them start to sing, I essentially had to hang up on him. Everyone laughed.
The rest of the evening went well. I was sorry that I got such a small chance to talk to everyone. I’m told that’s the sign of a good party.
Good.
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01.29.08
Posted in Family, Fun at 12:28 pm by loretta
I needed to run a ton of errands, but by noon I felt a migraine coming on. I hoped food would help, so I had a lovely lunch with my Sweet. Sadly it didn’t, so I fled home as fast as I could. I managed to get the pork in the pot (easy). I emailed the producer of the TV show I was to help on that evening to let him know of my headache. Then I collapsed for four hours. Ugh.
When I finally woke up, Maureen’s date for the weekend, Rory, had just shown up. They went out for dinner. Keith went somewhere for something else. I’m zombie-ing around the kitchen, fussing over the pork, when I hear screeching. I look up and my DUMB yellow cat walks in from the rain with a bedraggled, but alive, bird in his mouth! I follow him around until he lets it go and snatch it up. It’s warm, alive, and very unhappy. I wish someone else with a working brain had been there. I puttered around the living room for five minutes or so wondering what to do. Finally I decide to call Stacie. She has a brain and is wise about animal stuff. She says to take it to the Humane Society, so I do. I’m not sure driving was the greatest thing for me to be doing, but traffic was light. The bird was admitted and I filled out forms and returned home. Of course, everyone had returned while I was out and was worried about me.
The rest of the evening was spent socializing with Rory and watching him and Mo drink a bit much. Rory knows a ton of jokes. He also brought a game called Set, which I turned out to be good at, even in zombie form. Then we went to bed.
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01.22.08
Posted in Family at 3:48 pm by loretta
Today I feel: Like a chicken with its head cut off. More than usual, anyway. My head is too full of stuff. I have to figure out how to focus on something.
Today I did: Checked “My eBay” status at least 8 times already. Labeled around 50 PRP bottles. Checked Facebook. Looked at my eVite at least 5 times already. I’ve started, but not finished, the first section in my online Election Officer training.
TV I’m watching: Project Runway. Naruto. How It’s Made. But not lots of any of it.
One thing from last year I didn’t blog about: I made a fanclub group for “Keith Explains!” on Facebook. It’s worked quite well.
I luv Facebook: I feel in little ways it connects me to more people than those I actively have time to hang out with. However, I dislike this new trend Flixter has of automatically challenging all your friends to movie quizzes. Opt in, not opt out, people.
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01.20.08
Posted in Family, Fun at 4:06 pm by loretta
Today I feel: Hung over. Last night I went with Maureen to see a band that one of her co-workers is in. Maria, Shiaw-Ling, David, and Victoria came, too. The band, which has a clever, but not memorable, name has a full horn section. It was great! I danced a lot more than I thought I would. I drank many martinis and made what I’ll call “dance floor friends.” These are people I may never see again, but were fun and friendly on the dance floor. It’s an experience worth repeating.
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01.06.08
Posted in Family at 10:39 pm by loretta
Today I feel: Like there’s something I forgot. I was sad yesterday after Dan and Lois left. Weird, I know. I think they were a human representation of being on vacation, which is over.
Today I did: Set up the sewing area in the library now that the ‘rents are gone. Tested and cut epaulets for the dolls. Moved the now-dry short boxes of manga back into the library. Friday morning, Lois and Dan discovered one of the skylights leak. Keith kindly extracated wet comic boxes (only short boxes) and threw a tarp over the others. No comics appear to be damaged. Looked up what alli is on the internet. Scary. It’s like it turns the fats you eat into olestra. Remember olestra? It’s the fat substitute that makes your ass leak oil.
Yesterday I did: We took Keith’s ‘rents to the airport. Dan wanted to eat at IHOP, but the wait was too long, so we went to Specialty’s Bakery and Cafe. I was not impressed. I understand that eggs are not their forté, but even the cinnamon roll was not great. Afterwards, I went home and moped a while at the rain.
TV I’m watching: Eureka. We have a lot of this SciFi channel series saved up, since we often only have one night a week, maybe, that the three of us watch a show together. Before the writers’ strike, we watched Heroes. Now that everything is on hold, we can go back into the TiVo list and watch Eureka this season. We really like Eureka, even when it gets a bit silly.
One thing from last year I didn’t blog about: The Cinequest Film Festival. We had folks from Cinequest on “What’s Up Wit’ That?” and got press passes to cover the event. I saw a lot of great films, including, but not limited to: Outsourced; Blood Car; and Indestructible.
I luv Facebook: The application Flixter does a reasonable job of comparing your movie taste with your friends across a reasonable spectrum. Sadly, most of the people well compatible with my taste are either far away, or awkward to see films with.
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