The worms

I promised an explanation of the worms, so here it is. When I was caught up in the prepping fever, I was extremely discouraged that I couldn't keep chickens, or a decent garden, or really anything useful due to living in a small apartment. Determined to find SOMETHING, I stumbled across vermicomposting. Seemed simple enough. So I went down to Wal-mart and bought a 5 gallon plastic tote and some fishing worms. Got home, and realized one small problem: I had no access to dirt. My complex is heavily manicured so I couldn't just walk outside and dig a hole. Back to Wal-mart for a bag of dirt. Got the worms set up, promptly named all of them Jim, and crowed my success all over the social media. Dutifully turned the soil and fed them rice and various leftovers. A couple weeks in and a small increase of worms later, I made the bad decision to leave the top slightly askew to air it out a bit. Came home from work to discover my bin in complete disarray with duck prints all over my porch. None of the original Jims survived the Great Duck Attack. Back to Wal-mart for more worms. The next batch survived for much longer, and have been happily doing their worm thing safely secured. Until about a week ago. In my efforts to start up yet another small batch of attempted container gardening, I dumped all my old soil from prior failed attempts into the worm bin. One of them contained the little white foamy balls. Apparently, worms don't like those. The second Jim population dropped dramatically. So this morning I went to Wal-mart, bought a second bin, a bag of dirt, and 30 more worms. Dumped the first bin's contents into the bushes and fished out what few survivors there were, and now I have two worm bins and 30-40 happy worms. I have surprisingly used the bins much more than I thought. Egg shells are a common addition, as have been grapes and leftover rice from chinese dishes. I was able to once trade some worms for some pepper seeds (which was unknowingly thrown out by the dear fiance) and they churn out some really good soil. But really, no matter how many times I get asked why I have a worm farm, all I can say is it makes me happy. It has to be one of the lowest priority knowledge to have in the scheme of things, but it is mine. I have worms, I grow worms, and have awesome soil. It is something I have created with my hands. Is that silly?