First week of 2016

There isn't as much farm and garden work to do in the winter as their is in other seasons, yet there is always something that can be done. Winter has been slow to arrive this year, which suits me fine. This week has included planting more garlic, adding a second layer to the worm farm 360 composter, maintaining the old style worm bins, ordering spring chickens and cleaning pet cages. The first seed catalogs have already arrived too so there are those to ponder.

I planted a lot of that garlic which was sprouting, had a little too much help from my doggie friends. It was quite cold the day I transplanted I so I waited a few days, until it warmed up again,  to move the bin and pot with the transplants outdoors to overwinter and go dormant.

It was time for some worm bin maintenance this week. So far I really like the worm factory 360 which we upgraded to after many years of just using a couple plastic bins. Worms make some great compost for the garden. They eat all our vegetable scraps, peanut shells, coffee grinds, anything like that. It's a lot easier to use this new worm farm, just add a new level every month or two and the worms migrate upwards. After several days I decided to see if they really were migrating, yes they seem to be as the photo below shows. There were a lot in line though so I grabbed a couple handfuls and helped them into the second layer to start eating from there. 

Dartha wants to help with the worm bin.

There's even a cheat sheet-reminder on top of the worm bin, very easy to use.

Our old worm bins, they will retire after this year. Most of the worms already have been moved to the new worm farm. I knew that I missed some worms in the great worm sort during the fall so decided to maintain these through the winter and then add them directly to the gardens.

Another way we compost is ye old composter outdoors. The wild Turkeys sometimes eat out of it though!

Outdoor composter

 After bringing out today's compost, since the worms can only eat so much, I walked around to see who has been walking, hopping and jumping through the yard. I saw a variety of animal prints. Looks like there was a scuffle between rabbit and cat or something cat sized in one spot.

Scene of the crime?

Who's been sleeping on this forgotten about lawnchair that never got brought in for winter?

The most fun was of course researching and the ordering spring chicks. They will be another form of composting for us and a very cute one at that. Their names re just breeds listed on a receipt right now, we will meet them in early May. I don't see the words when I read it I see the cute little chicks that will grow into cute big chickens. The blue silkies raise the most interest, they could be blue-50% chance, Black-25% chance or splash 25% chance. I do hope to get at least one splash colored, figured with 4 I have a chance.