Composting is for the worms

As many of you know, I've been working on composting for a couple of years and have been failing miserably. This year, I'm done with failure and have made two compost bins - one for food waste and one for yard waste. For the food waste bin, I will be purchasing red worms and they will be making the compost for me. The yard waste bin, I have to do the work myself. I have promised Nick that I won't make him touch it since he was such a wonderful man and built the bins for me (and he gags easily!). The worm bin has a nice little bed of starter material in it (moldy food scraps, shredded paper and torn newspaper) and just needs some very ugly red worms added to it.

The yard waste bin is done as well. We put in some moldy food, shredded paper and the top part of the heinous, galvanized trash can composter gone bad material that was salvageable. Oh, that's a story in itself - I shan't gross you with the details. Let it be said that if you want to use a galvanized trash can, you must punch holes at various levels along the sides and then bury the bottom 2 feet so the moisture can drain out.



The best way to get started composting is to research what works best for where you live. The galvanized trash can works well for yard and food waste, but remember the tips above. Check out this hilarious article about making a worm farm. Here are some great resources for finding out about composting and worm bins:

• www.composters.com
• www.digitalseed.com/composter/index.html
• www.urbangardencenter.com
• www.compostwashington.org

My amaryllis finally opened and it is GORGEOUS!!!

Gardening Season - it's started!

In case you were unaware, gardening season has officially begun. I received my most favorite seed catalog from Seeds of Change back in January and have been drooling over the pretty pictures. I organized my seeds from last year and found what I could save and use this year; threw out what didn't work last year (FYI - Nasturtium attract aphids like crack); made my list of new seeds I'll need this year and have been outside getting things ready. I need to still empty out 3 of my gardening boxes from last year and will refill with new compost from Cedar Grove and will refresh the rest of the boxes with said compost. The awesome thing is that my tomatoes I planted way back in the fall are now almost 3 feet tall and itching to bloom - which means (crossing fingers) we might have tomatoes come April/May. I've planted my indoor starts - peppers (sweet and chili), cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, pear tomatoes and eggplant. Next month I'm going to plant my cold hardy seeds - lettuce, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, onions and squash.

Nick and I built our first compost bin which will be used for food compost using red worms. I've decided to try my hand at using red worms and I cannot wait to see what my pretty white box will yield. We'll build the open-air yard waste compost bin this next weekend.

I'm working on something new and exciting with a work buddy, involving food and health and I can't wait to see what will happen - stayed tuned!

Love is in the air...

I married an amazing man 11 years ago and we'll celebrate our anniversary in August this year. However, 15 years ago he gave me my first flower from a boy - it was a carnation, a pink carnation (which means "I'll never forget you") and I've been smitten ever since. Over the last few weeks he's been doing some amazing things around our house - created a "treasure" hunt of hearts (exactly 32 hearts for my 32nd birthday) that were hidden all over the house. Then a few days before my birthday, I came home to a house strung throughout with yarn (no pictures as a new camera was at the end of the yarn trail) and various darling treats in pretty bags scattered throughout; the kicker though was the words along the trail, 32 in all, that he felt described me. Talk about making a girls heart go pitter-patter!!

Valentine's was a love filled weekend of favorite food memories (chocolate covered strawberries, epic sandwiches, etc.), construction of a compost bin for food compost, working on my Jeep and much more...

I am so blessed to have this man in my life that sometimes I feel like my heart will burst. He is definitely "THE man". As one of my favorite bloggers said, "Now, I have my very own Valentine, and it is Mr. Tomczek (I changed the name to my honey). And all he has to do is smile, wink and slap my behind as I walk by, and I am hopelessly in love." That's real love people!!

Good Eats in Leavenworth

I had to share a few more photos from Leavenworth...

AMAZING desserts!!!

The guys decided to try chocolate dipped Twinkies while we were in Leavenworth - very hilarious!

Now that's good eats!!

Jumping through January

January came and went with an absolute flurry! Birthdays, get-aways, applications and lots of fun. Here's the list:

√ Apply to grad school; now waiting with bated breath for acceptance - stay tuned!

√ Finish monstrosity of a puzzle and vow to never do that again.

√ Start planning garden for 2011

√ Celebrate Nick's birthday

√ Celebrate Rachel's birthday with a weekend of girlfriend time (who were also celebrating their birthdays!) - spa day, lunch, lots of chick flicks, girls slumber party, dinner, shopping and winter market time.

√ Annual weekend in Leavenworth with Aaron and Connie

New Years Accomplishments

Pick a word, any word and try to live by that philosophy for a year. My word for this year is "perseverance". Dictionary.com defines perseverance as "steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., esp. in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement. Continuance in a state of grace to the end, leading to eternal salvation." I love it!! My goals this year include going back to school and completing my Masters, becoming fit and STAYING fit, re-building my spiritual life and persevering through those difficulties that I know I will face.

One thing that we persevered through and finally finished was our pantry remodel. Cabinets are finally in and all of the pantry bits that were in the kitchen are organized on the shelves and where they belong. It's beautiful!! Nick will have to make a few more shelves, we will never use this company again nor recommend them to our friends and we will probably never use this style of cabinet in our house anywhere else - but it's done and it's so lovely.



What are you persevering through this year?

Play Time

I married a man who loves toys - Legos, game pieces for computer games, computer games, Wii, cars and now K'Nex. I will admit there are times that the clutter drives me crazy, but I love this man!! I had bought a K'Nex roller coaster to put together as a family at Christmas, but also bought a 15,000 piece puzzle that we tried to put together. Neither was finished and the K'Nex was not even opened. So this last week Nick and I put together the K'Nex roller coaster. By the way, Nick has already reworked the coaster and built it with a completely new track. Yep, he's a crazy guy, but I love him to death!