Composting With Earthworms (red wigglers)

We're doing some unit studies from Heifer International. We've read a book about chickens and worms and how they both help the soil. The next step was to build a composting bin.

 You have no idea how hard it was to find a plastic bin with the right dimensions. It has to be opaque,  eight to 14 inches deep, and about 12 x 12 per pound of worms. We had, by my estimation, about half a pound, but this way we can expand. Anyway, I ended up at our local hardware store.

 The worms, from Uncle Jim's worm farm. Two worm vendors are actually the same company though; I chose the other one, because they guaranteed their worms live upon arrival, but upon ordering, got emails from the Uncle Jim's.

 Drilling holes into the bin for ventilation (top) and drainage (bottom).

 Setting the worms free in the bin.

 A bunch of damp newspaper, along with a couple handfuls of soil from the yard.

 And a couple of the red wigglers themselves. Some were dead, but most seemed to be alive, so here's to hoping this works.

And then Itty Bitty woke up from her nap, but she woke up in a good mood and played peek-a-boo before I went in (you could hear her). The picture above is how she "hides". Just like an ostrich.