I wouldn't worry too much, compost happens. Ours does that too, no matter how perfect we start out, by winter it's just a soggy cold mess. If it was "going great" initially ie. got warm to hot and at one point had earthworms your fine, just not pretty. At some point all the duff breaks down into a fine enough mix that air and water no longer move through naturally, and I suppose earthworms no longer recognize as worthwhile-sized morsels. You can fight what naturally wants to happen and speed things up by emptying, drying, adding to, and mixing back into your bin, or you can let the slower cooler life forms continue to do their unglamorous job.

I'm no expert at compost and not even an amateur at vermi-composting, but I and my worms have seen and survived similar messes. Hope that helps a little.

In a properly built compost pile earthworms are not of any value, they do not work in that environment because it will be too dry and too hot for them. If you have a pile that has earthworms that compost pile will be too wet for the aerobic and thermophilic bacteria to function and you could easily get an anaerobic pile of compost, which you would only want if it was in a sealed chamber so you could recover the methane gas generated.

I once tried storing partially composted stuff in a garbage can for about a week and was not at all happy with it, dumped and used it at that point. Is this can covered with a lid?

I compost in covered bins. In winter the material just sits there to finish cold composting on it's own. The bottom few inches usually will be pretty wet but the rest usually isn't too bad because of the lid keeping snow and rain out. That seems to help a lot in preventing excess moisture. Then in spring I'll flip the entire contents to mix, let it sit maybe another week or two, then spread.

Karen

Worms can't take wet conditions, they need air to breathe.

It's not too cold, or too full, probably just too wet.

And as said, a hot enough compost pile doesn't have worms in it anyway.

If it's in a trash can, can you tip the can on its side and roll it around to turn the compost? And do you have air and drain holes punched in the can? I use a nail to punch holes in the side and bottom to let air in and water out. You don't want your compost sitting in collected water that can't drain out, anymore than you want a potted plant to have no drain hole. Compost needs to breathe too. Waterlogged compost goes anaerobic and that's not what you want.

thank you all for the help. i do have a trash can compost with a lid and holes. i'll try getting the compost to a warmer spot and doing some of the drying techniques. thank you!