Notes and info: Thanks for your additions, Fallon, on worms, vermiculture and such (see below) and I love the ice bottles idea to combat summer heat.

I have watched my worms in very rainy weather -- hate the poor babies to drown! I have my pile in very cool, shady corner with a sandy bottom -- it seems like they've been okay. One thing I add is shredded paper, whether newspaper or household paper, when all I seem to have is green in order to balance my compost pile and keep it healthy. Then sprinkle lightly to moisten. Fork, and turn, fork, and turn. But I may use the ice bottles in July--August, the veritable "dog days of summer."

Today I am cleaning off a desk, a table, a cabinet-- excavating paperwork, files, contracts, copies--what needs to be kept? Shredded? Filed in the back? No, toss it. Toss this, shred that. I feel like it's another compost pile, and as I fork and turn, fork and turn, my desk, my files, my baskets, my extra box, that pile over there, oh, don't forget this pile, it feels overwhelming. Too much.

Okay, maybe I let it go too long, but . . .you never know when you will need THAT, do you? And while the computer promised a paperless society, people at the time did not forsee the explosion of litigation that would merit everything being copied in triplicate and FILED AWAY for safekeeping. Ah ha! I think we could perhaps devise a slow compost system for file drawers, wherein items left for storage can begin to break down over say, 6 months? If treated, they could them be scooped? Vacuumed? Shoveled? out the window into the flowerbeds below, providing nicely broken up composted material to enrich the garden. Now, I'm not sure what non-chemical treatment could be used safely, and how it might only affect the drawers/papers you choose, but it's something to think about. I could cut back from 4 - four drawer units to maybe one, since I could easily recycle materials and then fill, recycle then fill, recycle then fill. Fork, and turn. Fork, and turn.