I just went out and dumped some old banana peels and other bits of plant detritus into our backyard worm bin. At the moment, I can't remember how long we've had it. I started it off with moist newspaper and worms, and ever since then I just dump in whatever fruit and vegetable waste we generate. It's not a lot, really, considering that the first stop for any half-eaten fruits or vegetables is the iguana cage. Second stop is usually in with the hissing cockroaches. The worms play third fiddle. They don't seem to mind though. They just keep crawling through the moist darkness, making soil. We have yet to use any of their soil, but we have plans. Plans aside, it's kind of fun to peek under the plastic lid of the bin and see what rots fastest. At some point, some egg shells were dumped in there (did I do that?) and now they look kind of lonely sitting there in the dirt. Potatoes and onions send up pallid little sprouts, as do carrots. It's interesting to see how long plants can grow in the darkness. Occasionally mushrooms appear. Less interesting than that are the clouds of minuscule flying insects that invade my airspace whenever I open the lid.

Definitely more fun than watching TV.

I wish we had a yard that would support life though. We should all grow food. It doesn't get more local than that. With oil production peaking and prices rising higher and higher, buying (and producing) food locally is going to be something that we'll be hearing about with increasing regularity. Think about all the fuel we use shipping food from out of state, not to mention internationally. Think about getting some worms to work for you. Not that I have any illusions about us actually producing food in our backyard.

The squirrels would get to it first.