What Can Be Fed To Composting Earthworms?

Unlike the magnificent carnivores, the Red Wiggler (eisenia foetida) earthworms used in vermiculture have very small mouths and do not have the greatest teeth. In fact they do not have any teeth at all! Thus, even though they can eat almost anything that was once alive, it may take them a long time to do it. For example, if you give them a raw carrot they will not be able to do much with it until it starts to decompose and softens up a bit. On the other hand, earthworms will devourer a cooked carrot in a few days. Along the same lines, composting earthworms love newspaper and can consume large quantities of it in a relatively little time; however, they cannot handle paper that is matted together. Thus, newspaper should be shredded before it is feed to earthworms. If you do not have a paper shredder you can add single sheets of newspaper to a wormery as long as they are separated from each other by the other organic material in the worm's bedding. Along the same lines, earthworms love cardboard. If you add large pieces of cardboard to your worm bins the worms will love to live in it but they will not be able to eat it until it softens up and starts to decompose. To clarify this issue, I should point out that earthworms are actually eating the protozoa and microorganisms that cover the newspaper and cardboard, the paper simply gets consumed in the process. A lot has been written about what earthworms like and dislike. For example, they are not supposed to like citrus fruit, especially the skins. On the contrary, I have found that my worms love the pulp of an orange and will also consume the rinds as soon as they soften up. The Red Wiggler Earthworms used for composting kitchen waste, however, would not do well if feed nothing but, or primarily, citrus skins or citrus pulp because large quantities of this organic material would make the worms bedding to acidic. In this respect, everything in moderation applies to earthworm farming. Contrary to what you may have been told, composting Red Wiggler Earthworms also will eat any meat product, the rottener the better! Just be sure to bury the meat and other similar items in the bedding so that they will not attract flies. Again, everything in moderation is the rule here. If you give your composting earthworms more than they can eat (over feed them with meat products) the bins will begin to smell bad which, of course, is a problem if your worm bin is indoors. With respect to home vermiculture, the only type of kitchen waste that should not be put in a worm bin is large quantities of fatty substances like grease, lard and butter. Small quantities of these products are OK and need not be separated from the other table scrapes you feed worms. In short, you can feed your Earthworms almost anything from your kitchen, even egg shells! Over wet, worm bedding can be a problem in home wormeries because vegetable scraps, which are excellent food for composting Earthworms, are 80% water. As a result, the bedding of worms that are feed primarily vegetable scraps will rapidly become muddy. The answer, is to place layers of threaded newspaper between the layers of kitchen waste. This practice also will provide a more favorable carbon/nitrogen balance in the worm’s bedding because the high nitrogen content of the vegetable waste is offset by the carbon rich newspaper. What should not be fed to Earthworms? Any leaf that has an aromatic aroma is not suitable for vermiculture. This includes pine and redwood needles and eucalyptus and pepper wood leaves. Redwood and cedar chips also should be avoided in vermiculture. Very large volumes of dairy and meat products should not be fed to your Earthworms because worms have a difficult time digesting high concentrations of oil and fat. However, as discussed above, small amounts of these ingredients are well tolerated and there is no reason to separate them from the other table scraps that you feed your worms.

Death By Tonsilectomy

As readers of this blog know, I have spent a fair amount of time over the past couple of years writing about the deteriorating state of medical care in the United states. Recently, a young black girl was pronounced brain dead after have undergone a simple tonsillectomy at the prestigious Children's Hospital in Oakland California. Unbelievable as it may sound, she simply bled to death postoperatively as her parents stood by her side pleading, in vain, for hospital personal to do something to stop the bleeding and save their daughter's life. To date, hospital officials have refused to comment on the specific events that led to this youngsters tragic death (sighting the dead girls right to privacy) other than to suggest that "These things just happen." Implying that, if a hospital performs enough of any surgical procedure, no matter how simple, someone eventually is going to die. If the inevitable malpractice suit is settled out of court (as most certainly will be the case) and the records are sealed, we may never know, as the late Paul Harvey would have said, the true story behind this senseless death. In any case, what the hospital bureaucrats say is true, at least to a point. Indeed, one in every 15,000 children who undergo a tonsillectomy dies from the procedure. It is quite another thing, however, to argue that a post-tonsillectomy death is inevitable and, thus, acceptable just because it is rare. This case stinks to high heaven of criminal malpractice and the hospital personal who stood by not lifting a finger, other than to provide a tonsil basin to collect the blood, to stop this poor youngsters post-operative bleeding should be tried, convicted, and sent to prison. The surgeon who failed to check on his patient after surgery should lose his medical license and be forced to spend 10 to 20 years in prison. May Rutherford, director of clinical quality at Children's, obviously, should be sacked! Understand, that it would have been one thing if the child had died in the operating room while the surgical team was frantically doing everything in their means to stop the bleeding. It is quite another for them to simply abandon her while she bled to death. In this respect, it is important to realize that this child would not died were it not for the utter incompetence of the entire staff that was charged with her care. The primary culprits include the surgeon who performed the tonsillectomy; the anesthesiologist who obviously did check on her closely enough postoperatively; and the nurses who, after surgery, stood by and watched her bleed to death, without lifting so much as a little finger. Amazing! To muddy up the waters even more, it is questionable that a tonsillectomy was even appropriate for a child who suffered only from a sleep disorder. What were these people thinking?

Addendum to America In Decline

My conservatives friends and relatives who have read galley proofs of America In Decline are of a single mind. They are confounded by some of my recommendations for righting our floundering ship of state which, to them, at best smack of socialism and, at worst, pure unadulterated fascism or communism. One reviewer went so far as to remark that "Carl Marks would be very proud of your latest rendition of his Communist Manifesto." I understand these criticisms and take them very seriously. I am now in my 78th year and, in my view, am becoming increasingly more conservative with each passing day. However, having said this, we are now living in a twenty-first century world that is much different than it was when I entered this world in 1936. Pure capitalism was king in those days, and rightly so. It is hard to argue that these United States would have become the economic juggernaut it was in twentieth century were it not for the liberties granted to us in the constitution and our capitalist way of doing things. In my opinion, the concept of equal opportunity for all to become the best they possibly can be, which is one of the foundation blocks of capitalism, is largely responsible for the successes we American's have achieved since the nation's founding 238 years ago. Unfortunately, over time, equality of opportunity has morphed into, and become badly confused with, the socialist concept of equal outcome for all. While it is true, as the socialist are wont to remind us every minute of every day, it is the height of unfairness that some people are born smarter than their fellows while others enter this world dumber than a box of rocks. Fairness, or lack of same, however, is not the issue that should concern us. Everywhere you look in our imperfect world unfairness abounds, the question is how do we best deal with the cards that are dealt to us. In days long past, when anyone capable of performing manual labor could find employment that paid enough to support a family, innate intelligence was far less important than it is in today's world of high technology. Nowdays successful people are paid for their intellect not for their ability to swing a hammer or shovel dirt. As I harp on incessantly in this book, the socioeconomic problems our nation faces today are worsening by the day because the mean IQ of the nation is falling one to one and a half points each generation. As a result, less intelligent members of our society will find it increasingly more difficult to find meaningful employment with each passing year. There is no magic bullet that will magically increase the mean IQ of our nation any time soon. There are ways to smarten up our population, as I have discussed at some length in previous chapters; however, in the short run, we must play the cards that we have been dealt and face up to fact that the principals of pure capitalism will not be enough to dig ourselves out of the deep hole into which the liberal have throw us. The key to the nations survival as a viable economic force is simple and straight forward, we must put our people back to work! For this to happen we must provide them with jobs that pay a decent living wage and force those who are able bodied to take the jobs that are made available to them. As discussed a length above, bringing back manufacturing jobs from abroad and curtailing illegal immigration are two important keys to the social and economic revitalization of our nation. Unfortunately, at this point in time, a fair amount of social engineering will be necessary to achieve these goals. Some of these measures, including the stiffening of import tariffs on goods that are now manufactured in third world countries; some degree income redistribution; and the implementation of a livable minimum wage for intellectually challenged people who are trying to raise a family will, admittedly, be difficult for conservatives to accept. However, what are the alternatives? Unless we are willing pay a fair price for manufactured goods like tennis shoes or commodities like lettuce or string beans, can we expect that they will be produced by American workers? If not, where will the tens of millions of intellectually challenged people, who are not destined to be employed in high tech jobs, find employment? If we do not put such people back to work at meaningful jobs, is it not likely that they will turn to lives of crime or, worse yet, life-long government dependency? It seems to me that our governmental policies must reflect, rather than ignore, the realities of the changing demographics of the world in which we live. If, in some instances, governmental policies that smack of socialism and isolationism are necessary to bring about meaningful social change then we conservatives must grit our teeth and accept those realities, at least until we can right pour floundering ship of state. I will be the first to abandon the socialistic measures I reluctantly suggest in this book if someone can come up with better solutions so the socioeconomic problems we face. So far, no one has done so and, if we continue down the present path of increasing governmental dependency, we are domed, sooner rather than later, to become a socialist wasteland like Greece. That, of course, is simply unacceptable! For those who have not read The Bell Curve, and believe that we are all born with we are all born with essentially equal IQs, the answer is to expand programs like head start which are designed to level the playing field for the disadvantaged. Those of us who believe that there is a significant genetic basis for intelligence should focus on governmental programs that, over time, will increase the mean IQ of our citizens by, among other things, reducing the birth rates in low IQ women and eliminating the immigration of low IQ Mexicans into our country. Yes, some of these policies will smack of socialism but, none the less, they are necessary Perhaps the biggest criticism of America In Decline pertains to my suggestions that, at least on the near term, trade policies which snack of isolationism and tax policies which, to some degree, redistribute the nation's wealth, will have to be implemented so that people with low IQs can make enough money working at low skill jobs to support a family. Again, governmental policies such as these are socialistic and, as such, repugnant to the vast majority of conservatives, including me. However, at this point in time, given the hand we have been dealt, I fail to see a viable alternative to the changes in social policies that I suggest in America In Decline. To continue down the road we are now headed is, as I've said repeatedly, simply unacceptable.

What would a Head of Lettuce Cost if Farm Workers Received a Decent Livable Wage?

We all know that most farm workers live in a state of abject poverty. Having said this, just how much more would we have to pay for agricultural products, such as lettuce, if farm workers were paid a decent living wage? That's the sixty four thousand dollar question. Economists at the University of California Davis have studied this issue at some length, I believe the results of their research will surprise you. Presently, a head of lettuce costs $2.99 at WalMart. Only six percent, or 17.94 cents of what consumers pay for the lettuce goes to the farm workers who raised it. Ninety four percent, or $2.81 of the cost of that head of lettuce goes to the farmer, truckers, middle men and retailers. At present the migrant workers who cultivate and pick the lettuce are paid a mean annual wage of around $13,500. The vast majority of these workers are illegal aliens from Mexico because Americans refuse to perform stoop labor for a meager $6.50 an hour, and rightly so I might add. Now back to the question I originally asked. What would the head of lettuce cost at WalMart if farm workers were paid a decent wage? Let's say $26.00 an hour or approximately $54,000 a year? The cost paid the farmers, trucks, middle men and retails would remain unchanged at $ $2.81 but the farm labors share of the pie would increase four times to 71.76 cents a head; thus, the cost of a head of lettuce, that originally cost $2.99 when produced by wages approaching slave labor, would cost a whopping $3.53 if produced by workers who were paid a decent wage. How many people, do you think, would stop buying lettuce if they had to pay $3.52 a head for it rather than the $2.99 it now costs when Mexican illegal's produce it? More importantly, do you think Americans would be willing to work in fields if they were paid $54,000 a year to do so? I think the answer to both of these hypothetical questions is obvious, don't you.

Rudolf The Red Nosed Wine-deer.

It was the day before Christmas and all was abuzz at the North pole. In the old days Santa and his elves could load the sleigh in a couple of hours but now, with so many more children to reach, it took several days to load the giant Airbus A380 that carried the presents Santa delivered to children who lived in all four corners of the world thousands of miles from the North pole. In any case, the job was finally done and the elves gathered around the fireplace for a glass or two of Mulled wine to celebrate the completion of another year of hard work. Toy making kept the elves busy most of the year and they were looking forward to their annual vacation in Santa's tropical retreat at his secret island in the Caribbean. They could already envision the scantily clad native girls that would be frolicking in the island's warm water with the reindeer. After a few glasses of the mulled wine they could even imagine that they actually could catch one of these water nymphs, although they had no idea what they would do with her if they did. As most of you know in times long past, Rudolf got the job as lead reindeer because of his shinny red nose which, of course, lit the sky's so that Santa could see where he was going on this annual Christmas eve flights. Less well known, is the reason for Rudolph's nose being so bright and shiny. Yep, you guessed it. It was that magical mulled wine! Rudolph had tumbled to the fact, quite by accident centuries ago, that the more wine he drank the shiner became his big red nose, just the thing for guiding Santa's sleigh through the crystal clear Christmas eve nights. Of course Santa paid a price for having a tipsy lead reindeer and, on occasion, Rudolf got a little confused and missed a house or two as he made his way through the star lit sky. But, as luck would have it, the houses missed most often those of children who had been very naughty the past year and didn't deserve presents anyway. So in the end things worked out for the best. Now days, of course, Santa didn't need a reindeer with a magical nose to guide his massive Airbus through the Christmas eve sky's. Bill Gates, who provided Santa with the state of the art airplane, also provided a crew of pilots to fly the plane. Rudolf, the honorary leader of the Christmas eve flights, now sat in the executive suite in the back of the plane with Santa, Doner, Dancer, Blixen, Dasher, Prancer, Comet, Cupid and the elves. Mrs. Santa made the mulled wine from a recipe her mother had given her centuries ago. After all these years Rudolph's nose still shown as bright and shiny as ever, although it had increased in size a little with time.

America In Decline

We are living in the last days of the great American experiment, of that there can be little doubt. Detroit, with a murder rate of 54.58 per 100,000 is the largest killing field in the country but the nation's capital of Washington DC is not far behind with 13.9 murders per 100,000. Seventy two percent of black children are born out of wedlock; the streets of large cities like Oakland California and Detroit Michigan look like war zones; 59,500,000 of our citizens are on either welfare or food stamps and another 10.9 million are unemployed. Just a few decades ago the USA was the wealthiest nation on earth, now we rank 7th in per capita income and one in every six Americans struggles with hunger. Cities, large and small are filing for bankruptcy at an alarming rate. States like California with $162 billion in admitted unfunded pension liabilities (outside analyst's peg the true figure to be between $500 billion and $884 billion) is already bankrupt, but most of the people living there don't know it. The nation as a whole, with a federal debt exceeding $17.3 trillion, also is bankrupt. Each citizens share of this debt, which is increasing $2.7 billion each day, is an astonishing $54,345. The printing presses of the Federal Reserve cannot keep this sinking ship afloat much longer. No, as a nation we are finished, may as well stick a fork in us and be done with it!

Trench Gardening

Winter is upon us and this is a great time to consider a soil rehabilitation program for your garden, especially if you are dealing with an inhabitable clay or sandy soil. The soil rehab program, which I call trench gardening, admittedly, requires a fair amount of work but I believe you will be amazed at the results that can be achieved by this simple gardening technique. Organic gardeners are going to be particularly pleased with the vegetables they produce in a trenched garden. In some ways a trenched garden is similar to a raised bed except that it is buried in the ground rather than being above the ground. There are no fixed rules for the size of the trenches or, for that matter, the positioning of the trenches in a garden. However, as a general rule of thumb, I believe the more trenches and the closer they are positioned to each other the better. In this respect, one 30 foot long 8 foot wide section of my garden is a solid two foot deep trench consisting of about 65% organic material, 25% earthworm castings and 10% native clay soil. However, most gardeners who use the trench gardening technique, construct 1 foot wide and 1.5 foot deep trenches (the wider and deeper the trenches the better). The trenches run the length of the garden and are positioned 3 to 4 feet apart. The trenches can be filled with any organic material that one has available. I fill my trenches with primarily with horse manure, fir sawdust and oak leaves. The sawdust is mixed in with the manure I attain from a local stable. If it were available in large enough quantities, I would add food scraps to the mix. Several authors, who write about trench gardening, recommend that composting earthworms be added to the material in the trenches but this is not necessary if the trenched material contains horse, cow or some other form of manure because these animal wastes invariably contain composting earthworms. In fact, red wiggler composting earthworms are commonly referred to as manure worms because they are invariably found in manure throughout the world. In any case, plants and vegetables are planted beside the trenches so that their roots can have access to the rotting organic material that has been placed in the trenches. For a gardener raising organic vegetables it doesn't get any better than this! The following winter one can dig another trench adjacent to the initial one and repeat the process. If the trenched gardening technique is continued for a few years, depending on the size of the garden and the width of the trenches, the soil in the entire garden will have been converted from the initial inhabitable clay or sandy soil to a wonderful organic rich loam ideal for raising almost any plant or vegetable. I hope you have found this blog to be of interest, please consider becoming a member of my blog.