SusieRose, I love that yellow, and those plants are looking very happy in that new home! Here's 3 of my favorite succulents. These pics are from last year, I need to update, all the plants have grown more since then. This is the ric rac, you can see I planted it in a trash can. Don't know why, bought the can brand new for this plant lol. Too bad I couldn't find a rusty one at a yard sale, but I needed a big strong pot, plus the aluminum is lightweight. The stakes are aluminum from an old shower door frame. This plant is very heavy and prickly, so the only way we can move it is with hand trucks. 2 more of my favorites, Burro's Tail and Night Blooming Cirrus. The cirrus is amazing when it blooms, awesome nighttime flowers! You can barely see it, but the cirrus is hanging on an old trampoline spring, which are great for hanging plants. Succulents & Cacti have become my very favorite garden plant. They are hardy and don't require much fuss. They make it through the winter just fine in my basement with grow lights or low outdoor light, whereas it's difficult to get many other plants to winter over very well. I lost quite a few of the fussy ones (geraniums, begonias, etc) this past winter, because daughter's stuff was down there at that time, and I couldn't water. But the succulents came thru just fine :-) And here's my birdhouse, now y'all have inspired me to plant some hardy succulents, and moss in it. I'm crazy over moss too! ~tenderlee

Happy to post pictures when I construct and fill mendopete's "cages". I am slowly - as is 'normal' and appropriate - discerning the wheat from the chaff. And here's the rub - "chaff" is still part of "wheat". By that I mean that in a recent epiphany, I realized that a whole great lot of "experts" (pick ANY field) aren't TECHNICALLY "liars" (telling falsehoods), they are more "deceivers"(intentionally leading people to incorrect conclusions by virtue of carefully crafted "explanations"). Deceivers in that they know that what they are saying is 'technically' "true", but that any reasonable person will interpret their carefully crafted comments in a manner that is inconsistent with reality. So what does all the above actually mean in the context of this thread? WRT "leaves": I am with you on this most of the way. There are two elements that cause me to stick with using worms to compost leaves: 1) The observation of them coming in DROVES to the fermenting leaves in bags, and 2) leaves compost "on their own" in "regular" compost bins. They are a large component of the "browns" of "greens and browns". There is no doubt in my mind that being made up of considerable amounts of celulose, leaves are a bit more difficult to 'digest'. I think the 'solution' to that is to make them 'smaller'. Your willingness to put the extra effort into your prep - be it #2 above, or "blending" your kitchen scraps - is the same level of commitment I have to macerating leaves to accelerate their 'usability' by my worms. Also, I think that mixing in the goat litter while macerating the litter -with it's urine and straw - will inoculate the leaf matter with microbes that will accelerate their conversion to something edible by worms. So to summarize on "leaves": I agree with your assessment of the use of leaves, but am willing to put in the extra effort to try to facilitate their consumption by worms. "Deceivers" are telling the community-at-large that "anything" can be "worm composted" and that leaves are especially "good". Yeah, "true" (with a lower-case "t"), but not really True, because their use requires extra preparation or a LONG time. Both points intentionally excluded from the propaganda that the politically correct want to propagate. Namely, "You can compost anything organic! Huzzah! Let's save the earth." "Density": I'm of two minds here. What I read, and what I know from personal experience from culturing other animals, is that "density matters". The more there are, the more get made in an EXPONENTIAL manner. By the same token, exceed a certain density threshold, and production is actually inhibited. There just "ain't no free lunches". I share your concern with regard to the density in one bin. The current "indoor" bin I am using has a surface area of approximately 1.79 square feet. (19.5" x 13.25"). From what I read (wheat or chaff???) 500 worms per square foot is a "good" density for "maximum" production, with "maximum production" defined as "half a pound of food consumed per day per square foot". Of course I do not assume this is "the law", but it IS a place to start until I can sort REALITY from "technical truth". To summarize on "density": As soon as I see how the worms are doing at this density AND I have another bin set up, I will reduce the number in this bin to something like the 500 per square foot (500 X 1.79 = 897). I don't agree so much with the "desserts". (Although I am not strongly in disagreement. I could still be convinced.) In the "wild", it is my understanding that E. fetida's primary food source is ungulate manure. Do "we" find them coursing through the 'rotten' apples at the base of a wild apple tree? I'm pretty sure not. That said, I certainly found them advancing in droves to fermenting bagged birch leaves. Were they headed for food, or shelter? I don't know. Could have easily been shelter, as it was the fall in Alaska, and it is KNOWN that worms in Alaska seek shelter from the cold in leaf litter. Meaning... maybe it was 'bedding' (your assertion) that they were looking for. One of the 'settling points' I am coming to is that the quickest way for me to "make soil" may be to macerate and mix the goat litter, leaves, and "sawdust" and call that "soil" for large - multiple cubic yard - planters. For the most part, that mixture would have everything except sand - which I can add - that a reasonably good commercial "potting soil" would have. At this stage, no need to spend the time running all of that through a worm's gut, acknowledging the 'value added' by the worms, but also acknowledging the fact that YEARS could be in the waiting. I do NOT make the above comments in 'argument' FOR or AGAINST any comments or postulates that you or anyone else is making. I offer them to give insight into the "methods of my madness". Just MY thoughts on how and WHY I am acting in a certain fashion with regard to how I choose to "raise worms". I have no interest in "converting" anyone to "my way", and I am most certainly NOT seeking prosyletites. I enjoy the discussions of what people THINK, and do not assume that the person 'speaking' is demanding that I follow their lead. (That assumption fails on occasion.) I LIKE hearing other people's ideas, and theories, and concerns, and suggestions. I hope no one thinks I am willing to simply mindlessly follow in lock-step every piece of "instruction" given. That "ain't gonna happen" for several reasons, some of which are: 1) I have a "y" chromosome; therefore I have a genetic predilection to 'rebel' against authority. To aggressively suppress that genetic predisposition seems counter-intuitive. Why would it be genetically 'carried on' if it wasn't 'useful'? 2) I am not a "follower". That has gotten me into trouble occasionally in my life. Still, the occasional pain that ensued by NOT following, has not been sufficient to beat me into mindless adherence to the 'social norm'. 3) NO INNOVATION OCCURS WHEN WE ALL DO THE SAME THING! All of us doing the same thing is "comfortable, and superficially "safe", but it is oppressive and stifling to creativity. Creativity is OFTEN painful! I wandered there a bit, but I wanted you to know that I wasn't being argumentative for argument's sake. I APPRECIATE your comments, thoughts, suggestions, and recommendations. I have taken to heart FAR MORE of the suggestions I have received here at this forum, than I have rejected. Paul

It sounds like you have what you need, and that you just need some practice. Any corded drill (or cordless) can handle this job. It sounds like you have standard, inexpensive bits which are usually high speed steel (HSS), and those are fine, too. You may want to get some better quality bits (like titanium coated) in the future. Unless your walls are actually concrete, you have no need of specialty tools, like a hammer drill or masonry bits. Impact drivers are wonderful specialty tools for driving fasteners into tough materials, but it would be the wrong tool to use on this project. (It would be nice to have a cordless drill-driver if you are driving screws, but you don't absolutely need that, and you need to master the use of a regular drill first.) Plaster drilling dulls bits faster than using them in wood, so you might want to have some extra bits on hand. And even though I have been using tools for over 50 years, I, too, occasionally break small diameter bits, so I keep cheap spares around. While I tend to buy high quality power tools, when it comes to disposables, like bits, I look for bargains since I do a lot of drilling; for your drilling needs, you might want to look at a place like Harbor Freight tools: Drill bits You can get decent bits there for cheap, including things like a set of half a dozen 1/16" or 3/32" or 1/8" bits for a couple of bucks. They have stores in many areas of the country and you can buy online. Too many homeowners have one set of bits that get dull early on and never get replaced, so I suggest you pick up some extras and toss them out when they quit performing well. Good luck, and tell me what happens when you try this again. Do you think it would help your skills development if you practice drilling into a scrap of wood first, just to get the hang of handling your new tool? I also assume that you have a standard variable speed drill, and it would be better to use it at a slower speed when going in to plaster. And did you confirm that the forward-reverse switch was in the correct position? :-)

The correct method to add new concrete onto set concrete is drill & epoxy rebars vertically with min 1" concrete cover on top of rebar. I would also have recomended a single horizontal rebar 1.5" above wire tied to the vertical rebars. A coating of hydroscopic epoxy is applied to the set concrete & whilst this epoxy is still wet (most of these epoxys have a working time of 45 - 60 minutes)the concrete is poured onto the wet epoxy. This concrete 'join' when set has a higher tensile strength than the concrete, it will never let go. I have done test pieces & later smashed apart & it never breaks at the join. These epoxys for joining new to old (set) concrete are readily available, they are refered to as hydroscopic epoxy as they will adhere or blend into the wet concrete. With regards to the steps rebars are probably not required, however I would have used the joining epoxy.