On Summer and Worms

I've been sick for a few weeks (ear infection turned allergic reaction turned bronchitis turned???) so we've been laying low these last few weeks of summer. Well, I've been laying low, my poor kids are bored to tears:) Yesterday, I had planned to do some serious clean-out of the art/school corner of our dining room, since the twins haven't touched the colored sand in months and their bins are overflowing with 2nd grade papers. However, the energy level was high and I'm feeling a tad better, so I decided instead to go outside and engage them in some weeding.

Oh, yes, I can procrastinate any vital inside cleaning job for a decidedly non-vital outside job; such as removing weeds for our new rock garden. It's true! The dining room is piled high with: loads of crap from our Up-North trip of 2 weeks ago, paper bags filled with the entire contents of the kids' 2nd grade desks, rotting flowers in murky water, year-old medications I keep meaning to recycle . . . . but, I wouldn't want those rocks we lovingly picked from the gravel pit to sit outside without a garden home for more than a week or so. Would you?

Anyway. Collin and Cayla are excellent weeders and quickly began to clear out the appointed space. However, while digging out soil Cayla was sidetracked by a humongous toad whose home we had just disrupted and Collin found himself a worm. The toad quickly hopped away, probably sensing the end of it's days if it found itself in Cayla's death grip. She went to pout on the porch as Collin extracted his worm from the soil. Pleased as punch, he declared this worm his new pet and went off to find him a home. Cayla soon joined him and they disappeared for a good hour doing whatever one does with a pet worm. Next time I saw them, they had filled their new insect jar (Thanks, Grandma!) with dirt and had added grass and leaves for the worm to eat. I suggested perhaps some fruit or veggie scraps, so Cayla quickly found a peach pit:) There was a bit of contention on the name, but I think later that night they agreed on Smugly John Campbell. Flannery wasn't so high on the kids keeping the new pet in their room, but I assured her it was fine. However, I did put my foot down when Cayla tried to take it out to hold as she was laying down to fall asleep. And, Collin insisted we get some books from the library the next day, so that we, "know for real what worms eat".

So, the next day, today, we headed to the library and got ourselves a stack of worm books. This is probably the first time that Cayla walked in the library and didn't head straight for the computers. The kids immediately had to sit down in the aisle and pour over the books. We found out that different worms eat different things and that most likely we had a black head worm. And that we should feed him/her (we found out that worms are hermaphrodites!!!) dirt, grass clipping, dead leaves, and potato peelings. And, we found directions on how to make a wormery! And, then I had to pry them out of there because I had milk in the car.

Hear, hear for worms! Hear, hear for summer! Why summer, you ask? Because this kind of stuff rarely happens during the school year. After a day at school, Cayla and Collin are spent. They are tired. They spend their spare time rolling around on the floor and bickering with each other. They both love school, but it wears them out. A lot of time is spent learning to read and write, at a level that seems way too challenging. If I ever get the guts to homeschool, it's because of worms and summer.

But enough of that, let's get back to Smuggly. He's, um, dead. His dirt seemed dry as a bone to me, so I think the lack of moisture may be to blame. Or, perhaps the overhandling did him/her in? It didn't deter Collin. We now have directions for a wormery! Anyone have a few spare pieces of Plexiglas laying around? And, Collin has already found 3 more worms. They are sitting outside in a bucket of slightly moist dirt. Hopefully, they have the good sense to crawl out if we've failed to achieve the proper conditions. I'll let you know if they survive and any other pertinent info. And, Flannery can sleep soundly knowing there are no pets in anyone's bedroom tonight!

Hear, hear for worms!
Hear, hear for summer!