Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year December 2010

This summer went by fast and after school started it seam to go even faster, already Christmas. I hope this finds you well and healthy.
I started out this year to be “more green” with my life. I want to do more, but I’ll see…
This desire led me to starting a worm compost pile. I found a BIG wooden box by the tractor shop here in town, and asked if I could have it. Yes, pick it up any time. I don’t have a truck,but Chrisy and David do. I asked them to get it for me. After a few weeks went by I thought I would pick up the box myself and put it in the trunk of my car, letting it hang out the end a bit. Just so happened that Chrisy and David picked it up, and came by to let me know. What a laugh I had, I told them I was going to get it myself, oh yea, it took all David and Chrisy could do just to get it in the back of their truck and the box hung out the tailgate by 2 feet! This was just the start of my worm composting adventure.
Now this sounded fine at first, but you have to get “green waste" grass clippings, vegetable scraps and leaves. Ok, the grass clippings are easy, just mow the yard. Leaves no problem just rake the yard. Now the vegetable scraps that is a bit harder to come by when there is only myself eating at home and this is only one…
I work 7:30/8ish to 6:30 Pm at the school. I am the Food Service Manager. We serve breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack at 6p. So there are a lot of vegetable scraps there. Every day I ask the staff to save the vegetable “scraps” for me. Most of the time they forget, so I have to remind them, by saying something like, "my worms could have eaten that you know." "Put that in the worm bucket." The one that gets the most reaction is - "Save that, I’ve got worms!"
For the most part this has been on the fun side of being green. I have also got the grandkids in on this too. The one thing that is fun for them to do is shred the newspaper and put it in “for the worms to read” – they like small print so that is the reason for the shredding, you know.
I got the right kind of gardening tools and started out. For some reason my worms didn’t seam to be multiplying as they should. It seems as if they were dieing off. I had a teacher at work, which I got the worms from, come over and look at my worm-composting. Sure enough my worms were dieing. I was working the compost too much, only need to turn the compost once a week or so not every day, who knew? Ok a new set of worms was given to me. OK here we go…..by this time it is late in the fall, and you guessed it now it is snowing. So last week I decided to bring my worms into the garage, so they wouldn't get too cold. I looked around and found a nice place to set a new box and move in the worms. The box didn’t fit so I had to find a new location, ah-ha! The water softener does not work so I could take it out and bring in my worms. Ok sounds easier than it was…. I took off the top cover, a little water Was inside the tank but I think I can lift it or slide it out the garage. Now there are pipes and hoses coming and going from this thing, off one hose now the clamp that hold the motor on. WATER every where! My little dog runs to the door, oh did I say it was about 20 degrees out? No? It was. I thought it was the water in the tank, and it would soon be gone and that would be that. OH no it just kept running, now down the driveway. I got a grip, came to some of my scenes and started looking for a turn off valve. I finally found one and started turning like mad! (righty tighty, lefty loosie) Ok, the water is off, And I am wet from top to bottom and water running everywhere. Oh and I had my stereo there that I was going to bring in, yep it got wet too. Inside I go with my little dog, 2-too. Ok what to do?... It is getting late so I decided to take a shower and work on this more tomorrow. NO water! I called Chrisy and asked for David, he is sick at home and she was taking children home from church, sure Enough it was Wednesday. Called David and begged. He said he would be over. Not more than a ½ hour later he shows up, by this time I had to get water out of the toilet tank to wash my hands!
When David asked what had happened, I told him that the clamps popped off when I used this big nail to push them with. As he rolls his eyes, and asked where are the parts? Oh one here and the other? As I start looking around… oh here it is. David clamped it back together and turned the water on. I called Chrisy to let her know David was on this way home. I asked what did David have to say? he said- “We Need to get your mom a boyfriend! That way she will have something to think about besides those worms!"
So going “green” is not as easy as I thought it was going to be. I think I will do more gardening this next year.
I do spend time with the grandkids, Aliva 8, Emmalee 3, and Benny-boy 2. On the weekends I go to Boise and sew quilts with my mom.
Love & Laughter,




PS you might enjoy this:

Ode to the Lunch Lady

Teachers come and teachers go,
It’s the lunch lady who you get to know.
She ladles the gravy, she scoops the peas,
You can get an extra portion if you just say please.
Five days of the week, the lunch lady is there,
Handling you a tray with a pizza square.
Although some of the food might look a bit scary,
You can rest assured it’s sanitary,
Because the lunch lady serves her food with pride,
Even if she’s not sure what’s inside.
Potato nuggets, corn dogs, pudding and pie,
Casseroles, medleys and something that’s fried.
She fills your plate with a smile and a wink,
And reminds you to pick out something to drink.
Lunch lady, lunch lady, you’re the diva of the school,
I don’t care what my friends say, I still think you’re cool.