Ok so i am new to this vermicomposting thing and have spent quite a bit of time reading this forum and like 2-3 books. Anyway i finally started my own bin. We have tons of food waste in our family so i wanted a large easy to use system that wasnt ugly. Regardless of the opinions of the money spent we bought a Worm Wigwam. I have followed the directions from them and all seems to we going ok, i just am worried about everything. We started with 10lbs of worms that we bought through the people we bought the Worm Wigwam which came in a box filled with "dirt" it was pretty dry so i dumped it in some bedding. For bedding i am using wood chips very small ones as i am a woodworker and have tons of small chips (like 5mm x 5mm size). I have been using this pretty exclusively but i am worried about things overheating and killing the worms. So the bin is outdoors, we live in the west puget sound area of Washington, its not hot, but we do get rain and the bin has holes it the top, i fear its also too wet. I will from now on only add dry wood chips, and i think this will prolly help dry it out some. But i have stuck a thermometer about 8" into the bin and the hottest i have ever seen is 80F so am i just worrying too much i mean even 10lbs of worms aint very much in the size bin we have. And we keep all food covered so to minimize flies, so we never really see worms unless i dig.

So basically am i being too paranoid and how do i know if its too wet? I know people say a wrung out sponge and i know my bin is wetter than that but if i mix dry stuff and stop adding water will i be alright?

Thanks

Steve