Just spent the afternoon sorting through the worm poo and getting all the worms out. I'm sure there is an easier way but boy that stuff sure is nice compost!

I got about 50lbs of the pretties compost I've ever seen, started with 1lb of worms last November.

Made a new house for them today with a 22 gallon rubbermaid container, lots of airholes. Trying to prepare for the hot summer in AZ. I gave them plenty of shredded newspaper, some of their old compost, some pine needles and a compost container (my kitchen container) that had been sitting in the sun for about two weeks of well rotted food with maggots in it. Gave it a spritz with the hose and closed the lid. I hope they appreciate all my hard work!

Some things that I noticed during my reflections:

Worms really like apartments and condos-eggshells, pinecones and especially pine needles seem to be preferred houseing.

Pinecones don't make compost but do make good nurseries.

Dry worms are skinny worms. One bin was dryer then the other and worms were skinnier and less active. I had let them dry out/stopped feeding for past month as I prepared to harvest. I guess I let the top one get a little too dry.

Worms reproduce a lot! I must have 10X the number of worms I started with. I will need a lot more worm containers in the coming year I think. Planning for the fall, I will move some back to the old houses and make another couple of rubbermaid containers.

Pine needles make beautiful vermicompost, much to my surprise. When I ran out of newspapers several times I covered food with my abundant supply of pine needles and they are not quite finished composting but are nearly done. They will be incredible in my heavy clay soil.

Don't water worms unless you are not feeding. I have not watered my worms in Arizona at all this entire winter and the one bin was the perfect wetness. The other was slightly dry. Perhaps this is why many people have mass exodus?

Worms seem to do better with a little bit of neglect. Stop feeding them everyday or feed a little less. When I fed less they started looking better and the nasty bug population went down.

All in all, I'm thrilled with the results of my first 6 months of worm raising. I made some mistakes but I managed to keep my worms alive and happy. Now I if I can just bring my heirloom tomatoes all the way through to harvest!

I did have to kind of wonder what people would think about a physician and her doctoral student/engineer husband digging around poo and playing with worms for an entire afternoon in 90 degree heat! Sort of reminded me of Brad Pitt on 7 years in Tibet when they were trying to save all the earthworms while building a theatre for the Dhali Lhama.

My husband was so worried that we would leave some of the worms in the compost headed for the garden and they would die. He cracks me up!