it's been five months and four days since I got my first gift of about 40 worms plus some egg capsules. Kept them outdoors until the freezes began, and just put them out again, this a.m.

BUT~ the good news. I was going to count them to see how much my 'herd' had increased, and couldn't do it. There were about two gallons of compost and red oak leaves (a must, in my opinion, they love those leaves....) and every handful had at LEAST three large or five to seven tiny ones. I had more babies than it was possible to see, they went from just born (about the size of a eyelash hair) all the way up to one inch, then they all got bigger and bigger, until I could see really fat three inchers all through the compost. Oh, and did I mention all the egg capsules? I saw about one every three square inches, and those were just the ones I could see.

The handful of moldy squash bits including seeds were in there still and the seeds had all sprouted! A huge double handful of pumpkin stalks climbing out of that beautiful black gold. I just pulled them up and mixed them back up with the compost, and included a huge number of the red oak leaves, really burying them. I have to begin to feed them more now our temperatures have gone up. We are about 78F during the day, and about 46 at night, but unless it comes down to under thirty, or over 98 at night, they will stay out there, and I will need to feed them more as it's warm enough for them to really make the rounds.

I think I am going to have to add more newspaper shreddings too, and perhaps add live oak leaves in bits to see how they like those. But, I figured that my squirm is now up over 100, easy, which is a good sized increase over five months, and I will have to use the worm calculator to get any idea at all. To actually take them and count them would not have been possible without injuring them, and I really don't want to do that. But figuring about forty handfuls of compost per gallon, and 3-7 worms in each one, that's EACH, mind you, that is between 300 to 500 worms, conservatively speaking. WOW~

Have some lovely moldy pumpkin to go in next along with a green pepper and some apple bits. Let's see if I get my pound in 9 months!

Thanks, Phoenix! you have given me a wonderful gift, and I am truly enjoying it. I can't wait to get some of the lovely compost out into the peas, beans, tomatoes and basil, for the summer crops.

I do believe by early next year I will be able to compost a whole week's worth of food per week, (about two pounds of worms.) Can't wait!

Gina