Building the Vermicomposter

We have been attempting to figure out how to build the Vermicomposter since last Wednesday (July 3rd.)  As of today, it is still incomplete, but is far more along than it has ever been in the years since it's been ordered.  Unfortunately, the directions that came along with the composter were extremely unclear and did not specify how and where things were put together, leaving us to deduce the construction of the machine ourselves.  We hope to get it done by this time next week, but Murphy's Law was not kind to us so far.  Hope for the best and prepare for the worst!  The following will be pictures of our progress so far.

I didn't get a picture of everything on the floor before we took it all out and sorted them, but trust me, it was really messy.

Setting up the skeleton of the beast, the two side rails attach to the bottom grate

After a lot of head-scratching, we finally were able to figure out how the end caps fit onto the rest of the machine

My view underneath the machine as I tightened bolts

All of the things we still need to install neatly put away for next time!

Until next time!

- Mallory

A Return to Compost

A new summer, a new action plan.  Looking back at the first posts on this blog, I see so many things that we either never got around to or changed completely.  I wonder how much of this post we will have done by the time I look back on it next summer if I'm still here?  The Rocket has been forgotten for a bit since I've been gone and we've been switching to a new mentor, but I think it's time to revive her.  (Maybe giving it a pronoun will help us not forget it this time.)  Regretfully, Professor Araya is no longer working with us, as she has found better career opportunities outside of campus.  I'm super thankful for her coverage of the composting conference in Arizona.  Our new facaulty mentor is P.J. Ricatto!  I'll miss her a lot, but PJ is great to work with as well! 

Lonely woodchips

We started by putting all the failed composting material that came from the rocket into large buckets so that we could reuse the woodchips inside, and organizing the mess underneath the Rocket.  Most of what we had was either too dry or mostly woodchips, but I believe that we can improve this soon.  We have already talked to the Dunkin Donuts and pizza staff at the first floor cafeteria here at BCC to help us, and hopefully they can learn to only put in food and not other garbage.  Fingers crossed!

For now, we plan.  We're hoping to put together our vermicomposter (finally) soon.  Time to feed some worms!

That's all for today.

- Mallory E.

Looking a little better, but still much to do!