Hail Britannia

Things have been really busy for me this year, as one could surmise from the dearth of blog posts. So I've been trying figure out how I can cut back on some of my chores. As a result I decided to decommission my worm bin. I realized that I use my regular compost bin much more, and since I do cold composting and never turn it, it's also chock full o'worms. The worm bin was just a little too redundant for me to keep. It was really sad. I imagine this must have been how Queen Elizabeth II felt when the HMS Britannia was retired.

On the upside, I did find something awesomely gross inside the deepest depths of the bin that I just HAD to share...

This picture might not seem too impressive, but that's just because it was hard to get a good photo. So let me paint a picture with my words instead: THIS SLUG WAS FOUR INCHES LONG!!!!!!!!

I've seen photos of banana slugs before, so I knew some species could get big. But this is a regular ole' garden slug that had somehow ballooned to this horrifying size.

I stared at it for a while. But then we had to get back to the decommissioning ceremony. So we threw out the slug, and emptied the bin and split the last harvest of castings and worms between the base of a pear tree sapling and a rose bush. Then we played the backyard anthem, said a few words, lowered the colors, closed the captain's log, and secured the watch. 

(cue backyard anthem-- 

by which I mean the Green Acres theme song)