I beg your pardon

I want to apologise for being so silent, for so long. The fact is that we have been so freaking busy around here that I was about to close my blog. Why keep it if I could not come and visit with you, or come and post something so my friends would know that I haven't croked yet, right?

Well... mama nature has a way of helping us. It is a bit chilly today - sorta/kinda - enough to keep us inside the house for a while.

And I do have something neat to tell you.
At least, I think it is neat.

We have a friend that decided to raise worms for the fishermen of the area. You know, earth worms that the fishermen use as bait. Poor worms... Why those people don't fish with fake baits I don't know. Oh, I do, but I feel sorry for the worms.

Anyway, this friend of ours (that I love with all my heart!) has started this business and we went to her house to take a look. Complicated little task, for sure. But fantastically dirty! She looked like a kid playing in dirt, and I wished I could be there working for her.

And she told us that, after the long process of hatching, feeding and fattening a batch of  the poor squiggly worms, the dirt that was used for that batch was thrown away! They sift the worms out of the dirt, put them in containers and get rid of that dirt.

Thrown away??? I asked. How come? How can you throw away this wonderful dirt? Still full of worms (some go through the sieve mesh), worm eggs and whatever else that is so great for planting!?

We usually pay a good money for those shitty bags of dirt from Walmart (which usually smells as sewer mud), and you are throwing this beautiful thing away?

So, we proposed to her that we would buy some of it. We could not agree that it was trash! And we did. We took our trailer to her place and brought it home full of that treasure. More than once. More than twice. About six or seven times, if I can still count.

For a while, I wanted to be a dog and roll on that dirt.

Just take a look at this mix. It even smells wonderful. Dirt, little bitty pieces of mulch/compost, and most of all... worms!

Hehehe... the ones that escaped from the nasty fishing hooks, and are now going to live happily ever after in our gardens! I love them!

The soil in this part of the country is mainly ROCKS. Of all sizes, the bitches keep on showing up their nasty faces, no matter how much you pick and clean the area. They seem to "sprout" from deep down and come up to the surface every year.

Hubby's tiller is the one that suffers more. He tills our gardens every Spring and, as he is doing the work, from time to time, we hear a "KABLAAANG!!!" and a "Crap!!" that follows. He stops and picks the rock up. We could build a whole house, just with the rocks that we have dug from our area.

Now with the new wormy dirt, things are looking much better!!

So, this and a whole lot of cleaning, weeding and preparing is what we have been up to. I have even started to wear my bib overalls, my boots and straw hat.

Friends, I look ridiculous! But it is all in the name of the fun that being outside brings.

My compost pile is also doing really good. End of last year, we filled a special area between the sheds with the wormy dirt and I've spent quite a long time dumping all of our kitchen scraps on it. Even during winter. I'd go there, get a shovel, dig a hole and dump my little kitchen container full of goodies.

Remember?


Then I'd cover it again.

As soon as it got a little warmer, I stirred the dirt up, digging and turning, spreading and digging more. It looks rich, although I cannot know for sure. It does look good. That dirt will be used as our potting soil, when the time comes.

Time for blogging seems to be slipping away from me. And I feel bad about it. But, when we come inside, I am so tired and my back hurts so bad that sitting here seems a torture.

I hope I am forgiven.

Love ya!