Circle of life

So our compost mixer has attracted flies (mostly our fault, since we didn't have a good ratio of greens to browns, about to be rectified now that we have borrowed my parents' paper shredder and all my old bank statements are about to be composted). With flies come maggots. Neither are really all that bad, I mean the bin is outside so the flies aren't a real problem and the maggots do help the food stuff decompose faster. The bigger problem is that there are so many maggots they fall out of the bin by the dozens every time we turn it. Gross, I know. So I set a sheet of cardboard with a large aluminum tray underneath the bin and now the maggots fall into that. But the best part is every hour or so the tray starts rustling and it turns out the birds have figured out that the tray contains free food. So the birds are eating the worms that are eating out garbage that is being tuned into compost. The circle of life indeed.

The update

Wow has time gotten away from me! I really didn't mean to go this long without any new posts. I guess right now I'll do some quick updates, and hopefully soon write some more thought-provoking posts.

Our compost bin(s) are up and running. The worms seem to be doing well and our mixer is filling up. I think soon we'll have to stop adding new items and leave it alone for a few weeks to really get cooking. We talked about what we'll do during that time and I think we'll try to save our compostables and make weekly trips to a local compost pile to dispose of them. What we discovered the last few weeks is that the majority of our waste is compostable, and since we've started these bins we've reduced our garbage output to about two bags a week, sometimes even less, down from a bag every other day or so, and actually daily during the weekend, when I cook more.

In other news, I've been very good about not accepting plastic bags at stores. I think I've only taken three in the last month: one when I bought a can of Raid (not very eco-friendly, I know, but that was before I discovered how effective peppermint castille soap is at killing ants) and wanted to separate it from my other food shopping, the other two times accidental by only realizing after I left the store that I didn't leave the bag. But I still carry my own shopping bag with me everywhere I go and a member of my synagogue sent out this link, which is something I have been looking for and am very excited about getting.

Let's see, what else. Oh, the gardening is moving along. The tomato and cucumber seeds have sprouted very nicely and it's time to repot them. The swiss chard seeds I tried never sprouted which is very disappointing since I really adore chard, but I am trying again. Our lemon tree is growing nicely though it has been infested with ants a couple of times. Some peppermint spray and a water moat around the base of the planter seem to have taken care of that (though they have since moved into our kitchen, yuck!)

Eating local has been going fairly well. It's really not hard once you get used to it. We do make exceptions, like if we want something that just is not grown/produced locally at all (like coconut milk). But overall it has kept us healthier I think since a large proportion of imported items are highly processed (like macaroni and cheese). We did cheat the other day and bought a box of Snyders sourdough pretzels. What can I say, no one's perfect.

That's about it for now. More to come!