June 21st, 2017
The Worm Man BLOG
https://thewormman.com.au/the-worm-man-blog/
Hey everyone.
WOW – it’s been a busy week for me.
I’m just going to post some updates in writing for you all – I will try to get some nice pics up in the next week for all these projects – and I still have to do an update on all my other systems for those interested.
The Vermicomposting Planter Project (With Bentley Christie)
I finished off the Vermicomposting Planter that Bentley asked me to design and make for/with him.
The worm unit in it has been started – I used some “oversize” material from harvesting some castings for the garden, which also contains worms. But it makes a great way to start a farm – microbially rich material.
I finished off oiling the outside of the planter.
Ive also finished the drawings to a presentation standard and sent them over to Bentley with the cutting list for the wood. He’s going to make one sometime soon – you may be able to “follow along” with that – I will let everyone know the details when I get them.
We are still developing the plan behind it – more on that when I know more 😉
The Worm Man Online SHOP
If you missed it – I’ve now got my site secured (see the little green lock in the address bar?)
I have added an online shop where people can order and pay for worms to be shipped.
MANY MANY thanks to Quoc-Huy and Larry for the help doing that.
I’m pretty good with all this website stuff – but a few aspects of the process were a little involved.
I’m sure without the help of these guys from the WFA I wouldn’t have been able to do it all myself – THANKS guys !
The Wedge 2.0
This week I have finished off some pretty-up work on the new hoop house and wedge 2.0.
I made a garden bed in front of it and planted marigold seeds on the border (to bring in bees), passionfruit seedlings on the trellis on the right (yellow, red and mystery) – and snow pea seeds on the other side of the trellis. I also planted a few Cuphea “mad hatters”, also to bring in the bees – to pollinate the passionfruit.
The new wedge 2.0 is nearly at full working height, with the addition of material from breeding and grow out trays. It got another good feeding of coffee and aged grass.
In the next couple of weeks I will start moving the feeding front onwards.
The Wedge 1.0
I changed the setup of the old hoop house and wedge 1.0.
I cut an opening into the side of the hoop house to access the end of the wedge in there.
I installed a hinged door on that end too.
Before the wedge gets back to the “other end” I will put a door in the other end too and fix the pallets that make up the internal wall to the concrete floor.
I still have to change over the pallets in the external wall to plastic ones. Just so much to do.
MORE Worm Farms
My composting worm business has been ever growing.
I took the decision this week to increase my available space for them by making more farms with halved-44gallon plastic drums, similar to my first build with them – but hopefully with 3 half drums per “rack” instead of the two in the first unit I made.
I plan to have 2 racks done in the next week – pics to come. Today I got 3 barrels cut in half and washed them out.
I’m hoping to get the structure for one unit made by the end of the weekend.
That’s partially why I changed the wedge 1.0 setup – to be able to have two of these new units on the concrete pad there beside it.
I ended up buying 7 of these drums (plus I have one left over from before.)
I plan on eventually ramping up to using all those halves (it will bring my total of half-drum farms up to 18 half-drums).
This is on top of having composting worms in both wedges, trays of them in the shed, the 3 CFTs and the worm inn.
I have to restart the bath tub as well, as it got emptied to make some room in the shed.
And I have another bath tub to setup somewhere too – you can’t drive by a good bath tub that’s going to be thrown away – you just CAN’T 😀
Wow – a lot of worms – even I think so lol.
BIG VC Order
I got a perpetual order this week for a LOT of buckets of VC.
A farmer wants them every 3 to 4 months.
I’ve worked out a good shipping price for him if he doesn’t want to come collect them.
Those 1000 upcycled buckets I bought may soon come in really handy lol.
There’s another guy I have to chase up too. He’s bought bulk off me twice so far, for an “organic farm” – but he’s a little far away to come here all the time.
I’m sure he’d take more if I initiated the sale and offered the transport solution.
You have to FOLLOW UP FOLLOW UP FOLLOW UP when you have a business.
CFTs
The 3rd CFT – the Beast 1.5 – is near to being full. I estimate a harvest coming in 1 to 2 months time.
Then my plan is to harvest all 3 CFTs each month regularly.
If you remember this was the CFT adjusted for ANC.
But then, even with the utmost care and attention to biosecurity control – reds got in there.
So I can’t say it’s an ANC CFT anymore – and I may have issues harvesting with the closer bar spacing I’ve used.
But I’ve already got a plan to remove the extra bars. I will have to make a slide hammer that will pull them out for me (it backs onto tool cupboards that are too hard to move to knock them out any other way).
Anyway – I better go for now – more updates soon – with some pretty pictures, I promise 😀
Thanks very much for reading my blog – and HAPPY WORMING.
Regards,
Brian Donaldson
TheWormMan.com.au
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