The worms are doing OK, and they say hello to one and all.

I probably should have brought them inside during the heat but I didn't.

I've been adding, as often as possible, bags of frozen wilted lettuce, mango peels, pineapple skins, apple cores, corn cobs, any old vegs and fruits. It seems to keep them cool enough, long enough. They produced a lot of castings this summer. I use it sparingly for reasons I can't fathom. A lot of it is sitting in a bucket right now out by my veg garden and I should just dump it around and water well. I think I'm hoarding it for new plants. I guess.

I harvested a nice pile of worm castings last week. I don't know what those other creatures are...the tan cocoons.

I like the pretty vertical worm. She/he looks a little like a sea horse.

Fresh worm poop!

I kept the worms outside on my deck much of the summer but it just got SO hot that I decided to bring them into the basement for some cooler temperatures. I've read that they prefer temps between about 60 and 85 and we've had an especially hot summer so I wondered how they fared. When I harvested these castings it appeared that I had a good number of worms but they were all large...many fewer small or medium worms. I wonder if only the strong and large could withstand the heat?

I love my worms even more now than I did before. They are so much more compliant than my bees. The amount of time I devote to both bees and worms is about the same, but the amount of time I spend worrying about the bees is way off the charts. A beekeeper in my general neighborhood lost her 8-yr-old hives when a tree fell on them in one of the recent storms. My hive is surrounded by big old trees just aching to fall down --- see http://pamela-j.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-tree-damage-from-yet-another-nasty.html.

Pretty and healthy and so productive.

Worm humor.

Source of worms in the DC area.

Cycle Jerk asked "Do you know of any place local to buy worms? I too live in Silver Spring." Here's one young lady, she's about 11 or 12, who has a small business selling worms. If she's out of business, let me know and I'll give you some of my worms.

A birthday book from my sister!

I'll let you know what happens in the story. I'm sure it has a twisted plot.