Yesterday morning at about 8 am I drove to the post office. I knew it was early (they don’t have the mail out till 9:30) but I also knew I probably wouldn’t make it back before they closed and didn’t want to wait another day. I knocked on the window and the postmaster opened it as I asked her about getting a live shipment and told her I might not be able to get back there before they closed. She told me that wouldn’t be possible as they hadn’t gone through the packages yet. I said “oh, I am expecting some live worms and was hoping to get them this morning”. No sooner than the word ‘worms’ came out of my mouth and she and her assistant were looking for my package. I had it in my hands in less than 30 seconds. I guess they didn’t want the extra visitors hanging around any longer than necessary.

It was fairly cold but not freezing when I picked them up. When I got them home and opened the package they weren’t very active and were cold to the touch. I am not sure but I am guessing the delivery truck wasn’t heated. I placed them on the bedding and filled my mister bottle with slightly warm water and gave them a light spray. They slowly started waking up and working their way down into the bedding just before I left for work. All had survived the trip as there wre none left on top when I got home and when I pulled back some bedding they were quite active.

I held off on feeding yesterday as I had added a little cornmeal last week. This morning I chopped up a couple of tablespoons of left over salad (no dressing) and buried it in the bedding.

After a little delay (cold temps I’m guessing) I rec’d the email informing me that the redworms I’ve ordered will arrive tomorrow. Since I had added some food to the bin last week it has had a week to begin breaking down and should be just right by the time they arrive.

I had to upgrade the aquarium heater on Wednesday as the smaller one just wasn’t making much of a difference in the bedding temp. I went with a 50 watt model and a taller jar. Now the soil is at about 72F a few inches from the jar which is about the best I am going to get in the winter. I did notice that the bedding against the jar had dried out when I checked the bin yesterday so that is something I will have to keep an eye on.

I’ve placed a covered 2 gallon bucket under the sink to receive any future worm food and have a garbage bag of shredded paper ready and waiting