Trip to Globe for Worms

We took a road trip to Globe today......76 miles from Payson. It's where you have to go if you are lucky enough to get jury duty. But we were on our way to get worms.....I'll explain.

We drove past Roosevelt Lake. It's the largest lake in Central Arizona, consisting of 112 miles of shoreline and 22,000 acres of surface water.

There is a large marina where you can store or rent boats. There were a number of motor boats, house boats, and even some sailboats in the marina. They have a bass fishermen tournament here every fall.

We met an interesting guy at our gardening class who makes Worm Hotels. I have been kinda missing the worms that we had at Silveira and we have been throwing away a lot of good vegetable and fruit compost so....we went to Fred's house in Globe. This is his greenhouse where he makes the Worm Hotels. He has got the design down!

He was given this manufactured Worm Hotel (worth $500!) and decided he could copy the design and make it cheaper for folks.

Here is the great worm "tea" at the bottom of the "hotel." Fred waters all of the plants on his patio with worm tea. (They looked very healthy.....he even had two pineapple plants.)

When we got there Fred was in the middle of grinding up this watermelon for the worms. He calls these blender concoctions, worm smoothies.

Fred has graduated from small bin vermicomposting to mid-scale vermicomposting. He has three bins going at all times. The one on the left is almost ready. The one on the right is new.

Fred also has great tomato and pepper plants in this long cinder block bin. He lowers the lids when it gets too cold. He boasts that he has fresh tomatoes in January.

This is the Worm Hotel. Note the spigot at the bottom to let out the worm tea.....great stuff for plants!

It has two levels.....dirt, shredded paper, veggies on each level. And Fred adds a little sand (very fine sand...not beach sand) for the worms.....they have gizzards just like chickens and need the grit.

And.....the lightning rods are all hooked up and ready for a jolt......hopefully not but we feel prepared now.