a few weeks ago, joe took me on a date to learn how to make compost. yeah, we're the newest members of the phoenix permaculture guild where we were greeted with, "just a big, hardy GREEN welcome to you both!"
deep down me and the boys have a hankering for the mountain country life. not so much cowboys and boots as just self-sustaining, green life. as you can see, isaak had no trouble jumping in there and man handling the poultry at my cousin, leslie's, house the other day. we know joe loves all things renewable and even jonah's been into it ever since mr. renkin taught curious george all about compost in the episode mulch ado about nothing.
we've already started a small container of compost in our little herb garden for which jonah and issak consistently collect leaves, pine needles, and banana peels and check on nearly every day for progress. you can imagine the excitement that goes on around here.
deep down me and the boys have a hankering for the mountain country life. not so much cowboys and boots as just self-sustaining, green life. as you can see, isaak had no trouble jumping in there and man handling the poultry at my cousin, leslie's, house the other day. we know joe loves all things renewable and even jonah's been into it ever since mr. renkin taught curious george all about compost in the episode mulch ado about nothing.we've already started a small container of compost in our little herb garden for which jonah and issak consistently collect leaves, pine needles, and banana peels and check on nearly every day for progress. you can imagine the excitement that goes on around here.
so, did you know that compost is actually just a fancy word for "bug poop?" that's what our instructor, vynnie the gardener, told me.
me: "okay, i have a question. when you say we want bug manure, do you mean like, we welcome all kinds of bugs into our pile? i mean, are there any type of bugs we might maybe, discriminate against in our compost pile?"
vynnie the gardner: [blank stare]
me: "alright, so i'm worried about attracting roaches."
vynnie: "oh, you are going to loooove your roaches!"
me: "um, no. i don't like roaches."
vynnie: "oh yeah, cockroaches take the big bites and break down your compost at light speed!"[-or something like that.]
me: "so what, i'm going to go out to turn my compost pile and all these roaches are going to like, [insert hand gesture that illustrates roaches scurrying in all directions and a horrified facial expression on my face here.] ?"
everyone else: [laughter!] and many murmurs to the effect of "she's afraid of cockroaches."
vynnie the gardener then pointed out that we obviously already have roaches, so what exactly was i worried about? maybe he's right. maybe all our cockroaches need is a creative outlet to keep them out of trouble. maybe they'll stop breaking laws like trespassing and loitering in my kitchen and will instead just go hang out at the local compost pile-where hot garbage is hip. OR will they just be so well fed that they'll multiply exponentially and overtake our whole lot?!?
i gotta say, YES! i do have a huge fear of the latter.
and maybe i don't really love all aspects of green living. we'll start by finding our perfect mountain home [loaded with solar panels of course] and planting some vegetables and then take it from there. one step at a time.
someday soon - wilco
6 comments:
yes, that's a very disconcerting thought. Thanks for the enlightenment and admitted petrifying idea!!
"maybe they just need a creative outlet..." hehe
this made me laugh. mostly because i know how deep your hatred runs for these creepy crawlies (picturing you checking on your kitchen floor for the monsters several times nightly) - and i'm right there with you. but maybe they do have a functional reason for being after all. compost away!
(Anna, not Alan)
Gross. I hate cockroaches. Not worth the compost. We just moved into a house that had been empty for like 2-3 months, roaches everywhere. Gross. Had the bug man come today. He just laughed at how freaked out I was. I can't keep from scratching my skin all over the place. Roaches be gone.
lol. Yeah right, like they've never had anybody worried about an ensuing cockroach invasion.
I'm with Jonah, my introduction to composting came from that same lovable monkey! haha. He made it look so FUN! I need to start a pile!
Hahaha! I asked those same questions when we started composting in Flag. No me gusta roaches, and there weren't too many. But there seems to be more roaches down here in the desert and we have less land. An invasion seems inevitable. blech. Oh and, I too, have a hankering for green (both the color and lifestyle varieties) moutain living.... someday. Maybe we could be neighbors, Boys EVERYWHERE...yikes!
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