Getting By With A Little Help From My Friends…
It was such a good title. I was so happy with my plan to give Mr Stripey some nightcrawler friends. After all, his dirt seemed a little packed in from watering and hanging upside down. He seemed lonely out there on the patio all by his lonesome.
Last night, I get this brilliant idea to aerate Stripey a little by adding some earthworms. A few problems immediate presented themselves. First, where the heck do you buy them? I don’t fish. I don’t live particularly close to fish, and there are verifiably NONE in my yard. So this morning, I called a bait shop that didn’t sell bait. UGH. A good start, I figured. That lady suggested Wal-Mart. Everyday low earthworm prices? Nope. They didn’t have ‘em. I remembered a pet store not far from here, but apparantly they went out of business. Poop. So I fell back and punted and called Petsmart. Wouldn’t you know? They had some!
I schlepped over and bought a lovely styrofoam container marked “Nightcrawlers.”
Yep for a mere 6 bucks, I was the proud owner of… 6 earthworms! You have to be kidding me? 6 bucks? Note to self, next time, open the lid, poke the little suckers to make sure they’re moving and they’re less than a buck each. Yow!
So I bring my precious cargo of 6 wormies home and plop them in the tomato jar. I thought at the time the jar was a bit warm - it was hot today - but I figured the little guys would burrow down in the dirt and be fine. Well that’s what I get for thinking. I killed all six of them. UGH. I’m most depressed about it. I’m a worm serial killer and now Mr Stripey is not only lonely, but also a little worm graveyard. ICK. I tried to console myself by saying they would compost, but still. I suppose I should go out on the patio and say a few kind words about the little nightcrawlers that didn’t. Crud.
On the bright side, Stripey looks good. I turned him a little in his bottle, so he’s starting to twist a bit looking for the sun. It’s kind of neat to watch, because the turn is so fast. Typically within a few hours. Here are some pics of Stripey and the worms for you - I really like the last picture on the right, (the closeup of the leaves) where you can see it turning in on itself trying to get back to the sun again.
Oh - the pic of the earthworms - they were ALIVE when I took that shot!