We have pets!

350 of them.

Their sheer numbers should tell you what they are,
but if not, here's a hint:











Alameda County runs a program called Stop Waste, to encourage residential and commercial trash customers (that is, all of us) to reduce and recycle. We got a letter asking us to consider buying a yard composter or a Wriggly Wranch, or ideally, both. I read it and gave it to Zirpu, remarking that the county is greatly subsidizing the price of these items. I didn't expect him to do anything with the brochure but recycle it, but Zirpu got online and ordered the set. The day after Zirpu's birthday, two big boxes arrived via UPS. I stuck a leftover gift ribbon on one of them and when he came in I said, "I got your birthday present!"


Yesterday Zirpu and I went to the liquor store/bait shop down the road. As we walked in we passed under a stuffed deer's head that seemed to define "moth eaten" and by the kind of freezer that usually holds ice cream sandwiches filled with sardines in bags with "for bait ONLY" printed on them. Zirpu marched up to the counter and tried to determine whether jumbo or regular sized worms would be better for the worm bin. The instructions that came with the bin said to add about a pound of worms, but the lady was only selling them by number. In the end, he selected 50 jumbos and 300 regular size (which are much smaller than the jumbos, actually). The instructions that came with the worm bin say that if you feed them and keep them healthy, eventually the bin should be able to support 1500 worms.


I am not sure what we will do with the compost and castings the worms produce. Perhaps Zirpu's garden experiment will expand, though most of our backyard is covered by the deck.