OK Scot, enough about the cougar. LOL It is amazing what you can see when you have snow. Last snowfall we could see tracks all around our chicken coop, and where it went over the fence and all around our neighbors storage, then back around again. We didn't find them until some melting had occurred but we think ours was a red fox since we see them in our neighborhood lots of nights. A couple of nights ago, I walked outside late at night and saw something move by my front porch. Since there is usually a cat there, I didn't even pay any attention until I was well into the yard and when I did look it was a possum. I guess the cats had left him a little food. LOL

If you have a zone in your bin that overheats, make sure the worms have enough worm to move to a cooler area. They will dive back into the hot area when it's at a temperature that they can handle, and it is a quick way to get through the feedstock and get it into your worms. Worms may also act like control rods in a nuclear reactor by impinging on the hot zones and snatching up the microbes and juices that are adding the heat. If you want to cool your bin, rinsing it with water will immediately reduce the temperature, and I've found that it doesn't come back up to the same level after the rinsing.

Thanks for all your replies on this!! Saskatchewan_girl, I hadn't thought about it just being open and no shelf on the bottom. That's a good idea! Sarsclos, sounds really nice with the legs, but it won't be deep enough to do drawers. Oh, how I would like to do that,but only have at best 10 inches to get this done. Pete, ah, sounds like you know cats! I have five of them, all rescues, with the oldest 18 this year! I really just need the set up to be out of the way with room enought for the water dish and one dish of dry food for grazing. Meals are now spread out all over the kitchen floor!! They each have their own dish and they know which one is theirs! phish, would love to see a picture of your set up. I am not getting good ideas form the KD or carpenter and I will even order custom to get this done. Thanks, everyone! Zoey

I think I originated the thread breezy's referenced above, which started out asking a slightly different topic: "who can take credit for the design of your kitchen?" But I was very surprised to learn that (according to folks in the industry/"in the know" who participated in that thread) homeowners have given implicit permission to photograph our homes. Whether that is current practice/"the way it is," that does not feel right to me. I am a private person and I can't believe someone can photograph my own home without my permission. Wanting to photograph my home is flattering, theoretically, but to have my home photographed (and posted to something like facebook?!) without my knowledge? I would be upset. I don't think your architect has the right to do that (unless photography/use of project for portfolio/marketing is explicitly spelled out in your contract. It was not spelled out in ours.) As others asked, how small a town/easily identifiable is your home? I don't really use facebook now so it might be different, but I remember being absolutely shocked that I received photos/details about other people's lives (young children!) who I didn't even know in my facebook feed. Perhaps this makes me sound paranoid, but think how many people may have just seen the inside of your home or who may be "liking" forwarding those photos of your home. A blogger could find them and post them. Someone following that blogger could post your home to something like this forum or someone else could pick it up and post it to houzz.com. This is not supposed to happen theoretically, but photos are posted here all the time without identifiers/permission, (even innocently, like "here is an inspiration kitchen I found, what do you think that wall/cabinet color is?") Someone started a thread here to say she was surprised that a photo she had posted here to kitchen forum of how they'd organized their kitchen drawers ended up featured on houzz without her knowledge/permission. By commenting to your architect's post, anyone following now "knows" your name/who you are. Everyone has different comfort levels with internet privacy, but I would definitely feel uncomfortable. Here is a link that might be useful: Do you want your kitchen in someone's portfolio?