Very late post

I know, its been along time since the last post and there a a few reasons why.
First I was having problems getting my computer to run and I still do not know how to get pictures attached to the posts yet (I know that you that do it every day do it without thinking, but you had to learn it to!).
Time is also a factor, I have to make time to get a post written and there are only so many hours in the day. The main time consumer is my off the farm job. I have to commute 2 1/2 hours round trip (115 miles!) and then 8 hours at the job (or more if there is overtime). Then when I get home, The dogs, cats and worms need to be feed and watered and the dogs need some outside time. I can't let Bela out to run free or she would head for the horizon and I would not see her for hours (If at all!) and deer season is open and there are deer dogs running around the woods at all hours of the day and night. If she got hooked up with a bunch of them, no telling what would happen.
I also have an addition! FRONTIERVILLE on face book! I have been playing this game for a few months now and I go through withdrawals if I don't get to play at least once a day! Right now I have peanuts to harvest and cotton too. Not to mention helping out my neighbors out on their homestead. If you are not playing this game, I know what you are saying "Move away from the game and get other things done!" But if you do play, you understand.
Also there are several Farm Bogs that I read, just to see what other people are doing and how they handle things. The main ones I follow are:
"Red Worm Composting" (Bentley is my Mentor and always has an answer to all my questions concerning worms. If you are interested, He has a great hand-out on his web-site and its a PDF file and the right price - FREE!!!).

"Bee Haven Acres" They raise Fainting goats, mini-horses, Bees and Chickens. This is a great Blog with lots of pictures. I recommend going to the first post and read it all the way from there. She has a great writing ability and she loves what she is doing!

"14 Acres" This is a suburban family who moved to the farm a few years back. They raise produce and make wood-fired bread for their locale farmers market. This a family that "TMEN" use to refer to as "Those that are doing it"! I really like this one!

"Scrouneman" This guy is funny and also has a great way of telling the story! His has a great N8 tractor and has built or re-built the implements he works the land with. Dairy cows and goats, chickens and barn cats galore. Makes me smile just to think about some of his stories!


"Garden now - Think later" This one is written by a military wife with a husband who is deployed a lot and two small boys to raise. She grows a lot of produce in her back yard and also belongs to a locale CSA. Her life in general and she invites you to share part of it with her. Great pictures and a really nice Blog all the way around!

I could keep going, But the list is really long and I will add to the list in future posts.

Ok, Lets talk WORMS! The out- side bed (wooden box is 3' X 7" X 14') is doing well. I started back in April with 5,000 bed run worms (worms of all sizes) and the bed is getting crowded! If I were to make a guess at numbers - between 15 and 20,000 now. A few week ago I sorted out about 3 lbs of worms and 10 lbs of worm casings. I am concerned with the cold this winter. If last year was any indication, the bed could freeze this year and all the worms lost. So what I am doing is taking the worms out of this bed a little at a time and setting them up in a 30 gallon tote in my utility room off the kitchen. This makes it easy to feed them and to make sure they have enough water in the bed (not to wet, but not to dry either!).
The worm casings that I got out were placed into a 5 gallon bucket to cure a little and we used them in a home made growing medium we used to plant Crape Muttles last night. And the funny thing about this is during the time the bucket sat in the shed, eggs hatched and babies worms were doing their thing. This tells me that there were a lot of eggs in the compost pulled from the bed and that there are a lot more still in there.
Worm eggs are like chicken eggs. They hatch in 21 days, as long as the conditions are right. But if the temps drop and even freeze, they can take up to 3 months to hatch. So when the temps rise next spring, I could have meny more worms in that out- side bed!
So I guess that's enough of me running my mouth for now. But I will be back to start it up again soon.
Tom

Had to make a move

Hey everybody,
Because of the new requirement from blogger to use a Google account to be able to access my blog, I had to set up a new account and shut down the old blog. So now I have to start fresh and try to incorprate some of the old posts here and add new ones. So if you are new to this Blog and want to see the old posts they are at "thewormscrain.blogspot.com".
I was not very dillagent with posts in the past, but I hope that with the new blog I will make time in my schedule to get a new post in every day or so.
For thoes of you visiting for the first time, welcome! And I hope that you will come back offten to see how the worms are doing. Yes I said WORMS! Here on the farm I have started adding livestock with a herd of WORMS. Back in april I started with approx 5,000 "RED WIGGLERS" and now I would estamate that thier numbers are real close to 20,000 now. And they have been helping me reduce the amount of trash that I have been sending to the locale landfill. Because they eat all that I can produce. But more about that in a later post.
I know this is short for the first post, but I need some time to sort thrw the posts I made before and the pictures I want to post here.
So, I will talk to you later.