Our Tenth Anniversary

For our tenth anniversary, Phil flew home. He'd been working in Colorado since Sunday night, and I was relieved not to have to move all the animals, set all the fence, and take care of my normal tasks, too.

I ended up taking a random route up to the airport; it turned out to be providential. A freak storm hit Charlottesville that afternoon, after record high 100 degree temperatures. We had a little rain in Esmont, but Charlottesville had trees torn in half and branches scattered all over. Phil's flight was delayed out of D.C., and we were all so excited to see him and eat at Chipotle.

But Chipotle was closed; traffic was directed and redirected all around the city, so what should have been a quick hour took two. When we finally reached home, all starving, I reflected that I managed not to lose my cool, despite almost hypoglycemic hunger pains. That's what ten years of maturity will do for a woman. Yay!

Earlier in the day, the boys and I had gone to see a worm expert. Jim Ashley, the worm crusader, gave a presentation at a senior center. Very interesting! A master marketer, he gives presentations in schools, and the students all get a bag of worms. They add their lunch scraps, and the worms reproduce, and all have a good time. He's been doing this for four years; make a business selling worms. Wow.

Some of the interesting worm facts:
* Forty percent of waste in America could be composted by worms, and turned into excellent (EXCELLENT!) compost for the garden. Cardboard, shredded paper, vegan food scraps; all are good.
* Worms reproduce in a very interesting way. All worms are both male and female. When two are eating near each other, they get a little excited and they both put off a gelatinous fluid. They intertwine, and as they slide past, the fluid mingles and will form multiple eggs. Each worm can produce up to 18 eggs a week, so their reproductive rates are quite impressive.
* Compost tea made with worm castings (where you soak castings in water until it looks like tea) is an excellent insect repellant for plants. The tea coats the leaves and makes them less appealing to bugs. And the extra compost tea soaks into the ground and gives the plant good nutrients.

All of this made me quite excited to start vermi-composting. I have seen, at times, Phil turn over a layer of the compost pile and have it crawling with worms. But perhaps our pile is too hot right now; there was nary a worm to be found. My vermicompost pile will have to wait.

But maybe someday I could have the most unique farmer's market stand around: buy some apples and some worms! Ha!