Phoggie - we buried ours last night. We live on a main road with lots of traffic and our entire family is standing outside at dinnertime with a huge shovel and a prayer digging a hole next to the for sale sign in the front yard. We said the prayer and my husband put St. Joseph in right side up facing our home. (He didn't believe in putting him in upside down.) We have been saying the prayer at each meal and I starting reading the bible last night (have a lot of catching up to do). So I am trying to bring our Faith out more to make this work. I also followed another Sellers suggestion about the price you want on the floor (did that in a closet with pencil). So we'll see. I'll def post if we get an offer.

priswell... Thank you soooo much, that tip on alfalfa was great! On Thursday I went down to the local feed store and perused the horse feed aisle. I found alfalfa pellets @ $14 for 40lbs but saw alfalfa cubes on sale for $9 for a 40lbs bag. Got it. Yesterday after juicing, I just added my powdered-up layer mash to the wet pulp to suck up some excess moisture and then I opened the bag of alfalfa cubes (a strong scent of fresh hay filled the room... it really smells good) put just seven cubes (approx 1.5"x1.5" cubes) into the Vitamix, which didn't work so well because there just wasn't the weight of grains and so lacking sufficient gravity to get the proper flow going in the blender I ended up having to force the cubes into the blades (what a mess). However I finally did get it all powdered-up and added it to the pulp and immediately it suck up all the moisture and then some... the mix went from being slightly wet to grainy dry. I actually had to add a cup of milk to loosen it back up some. NOW, I see why you mention using it to adjust the moisture level in the bin... excellent tip. Depending upon where you're reading on the internet (the various horse feeding websites) "they" say alfalfa can absorb anywhere from 3X to 10X its volume in moisture... (some owners soak these cubes before feeding to their horses). Also the bag says not LESS than 17% protein which should work out to around 2.5-3% nitrogen... that's a lot... no wonder some people use this stuff as fertilizer in their gardens. I also read its C:N ratio is 24:1 which I think is nearly ideal for composting purposes. Also I added blackstrap molasses to my mix (been doing that for a while now without issue) and some powdered milk... That stuff is rather expensive as it works out to about $1 per quart (for the small size box)... it puts a LOT of calcium into the mix but still a bit pricey for me. In the end I got about three 8-10lbs bags of this mix into the freezer and will thaw and feed approx. one bag every 3-4 days. Even including our regular additions of kitchen scraps I'm beginning to fall behind on the feeding loads... these worms are voracious (not to mention how their numbers have just multiplied like crazy recently... honestly this increase in appetite has taken me by surprise). During my stroll down the horse feed aisle I spotted beet pulp (on sale $10 for 50lbs) and dried molasses called "sweet feed" @ $18 for a 50lbs bag of the premium (premium because of the underlying forage the molasses is sprayed onto is suppose to be the really good stuff horse-wise... I've read that cheaper stuff can be found for as little as $4 for 50lbs). 50lbs of any of this stuff will last me a couple years, so it is really cheap to feed through the winter months. I didn't put aside nearly enough pre-composted leaves for this winter and have been forced into giving the worms a lot of shredded cardboard lately, this new found source of nutrients (alfalfa) with an ideal C:N ratio (not to mention all the minerals and vitamins it contains) is just the ticket to get the bins through the winter until the snow and ice outside melts and the outdoor composting piles thaw so I again have access to the composting leaves... plus I'll now be able to keep up with the numbers of new worms provided I have bin space to hold them all. I really need to start a couple new bins... REALLY

Grandson's birthday party was held in the afternoon. Went back to their house for gift unwrapping and finally left at 7:30. Stopped at a diner and had chicken noodle soup, chicken fried steak, baked potato, mixed steamed veggies and french bread and butter with iced tea. Burp.

Sleevendog, the wonderful thing about belated Birthday well-wishes is that they extend the happiness : ) And thank you both (Islay, too) for the Charcuterie Definition. I didn’t know the French pronunciation, but doubt I’ll use it here, or even the word charcuterie. Most here would think me pretentious, which is silly as I like to use words correctly. So, does this mean if I make canadian bacon or pastrami (from pork), I can (temporarily) call myself a Charcutier? LOL! Well, I just might anyway! Sleevendog, thank you also for mentioning the free-edge/live-edge board. That was my gift to myself : ) I think it’s so beautiful! I often toss together a board (the bread board above was from an old restaurant, the charcuterie with live edge from Etsy) of cheeses, crackers, meats, apples, grapes… whatever I have on hand, for pre-dinner snacking, or lunch nibbling. I wanted a larger, prettier board than the bread board : ) Funny thing is, when I bought my first furniture, the area in which I lived had tons of furniture with free-edging/live edging (horizontal slice tree trunks, vertical slabs). And they were cheap! And huge! I bought a large one for my coffee table on a major budget. New! After a while, the area was over-saturated with them, and I couldn’t give mine away when upgrading. Truth! So when they first came out, it took me a while to not see them as ‘cheap’ stuff! I have learned a new appreciation… everything old is new again : ) I think it looks both rustic and fine, simultaneously. I am a wood grain lover. And while I have your attention, those flageolet beans? Amazing. We can’t stop eating them on salads. I’m making some with leftover too-salty ribs, shredded, and roasted tomatoes next. Mercurygirl, you sound like me, I’ve moved several plants, including roses. Hard to keep up with where they are until they leaf out or bloom! Naturegirl, you are most welcome! Edie, I have one of those rolling pins! So heavy! I am sure you can roll it out thin enough. I would recommend a few things… if using crackers for cheeses, don’t add cheese to the cracker dough, just make them as is, and perhaps toss in some dried herbs (the flavor of dried herbs does come through) as appropriate. If serving with a soup, or alone, cheese tastes wonderful : ) Annie, don’t do what I did, though, and over prep/cook! I was feeling a bit frazzled by the time the day rolled around! But yes, making lots of nibbles satisfies everyone. And they can be easy ones. BTW, your hummus was wonderful! Thank you! I froze some, and hope that’s ok.