Cabbage Worms

Well, when I got home today and checked on my garden, I noticed small holes in my Broccoli and Cauliflower leaves. It didn't take a lot of research to get a guess what the cause is. I checked and found several small green caterpillars and discovered they are in fact cabbage worms.

Now, how to get rid of them organically. The two most consistent ideas I've seen are: 1) Pick the worms off by hand(Done). 2) A product based on BT(Bacillus Thuringiensis). I'm gonna run out tomorrow and see if I can find some at one of the local big box stores, or the local garden center. Plan B is I will order from Amazon, here are a few they offer.
    

Update: I didn't find any of the above locally, at least not yet. I did find some Safer Brand 5162 Caterpillar Killer with B.T. Garden Dust 8 Ounces at the local Menards. I'll let you know how it works.





6/15 update: The Garden Dust works great. No more worms. A few days after I applied the dust I saw several of those white moths come around and lay more eggs. As a precaution I applied more garden dust. As of today my cauliflower looks much better and I have no issues at all with holes in my leaves.

Worm Factory Worm Composter

As part of my gardening bug, I decided to buy a worm composter. After looking around locally and reading lots of different reviews I decided to buy this one:

Worm Factory DS5GT 5-Tray Worm Composter - Green

I truthfully think it would have been fairly easy to make one, I found a few different ideas on the web, but in the end, I decided to buy an off the shelf unit, since I had no real idea what I was doing. The set up was quick and easy, I've had it operating for six weeks now, no issues whatsoever. It will probably be at least 3 more months until I get some actual usable vermicompost, so I won't know for sure until then.

The two biggest concerns I had as I set it up. Would it make my basement stink(its a finished basement)? And where to get the worms to start. First, I've noticed absolutely no odor with the composter and none of the worms have gotten loose(my wifes concern).

As far as getting the worms, that was a bit more difficult than I expected. The best source is to find someone else with a worm bin, see if you can get some of theirs. Unfortunately I didn't know anyone local. I did a search on craigslist, the closest I could find was an hour drive for me one way. I checked local retailers, the price  seemed excessive. In the end I took a risk on an Ebay seller, I got lucky and found a good one, they shipped the worms quickly and in good condition. Anyone interested here is a link to the seller. Red Wigglers. For those who wonder why I didn't get them from my yard, regular earthworms don't work well in worm bins, Red Wigglers are the preferred type.


Update as of 6/4: For the first time I noticed a very slight odor coming from the bin. I think I got a little carried away last week putting scraps in it. I took a look inside and the worms are working on the scraps so I think I'll just wait a week or so before I add anymore food scraps. The odor isn't horrible(at least not yet), but it is noticeable for the first time.

GrowCamp Modular Greenhouse

 As promised, I know I jump around a lot. Today I'm thinking about Greenhouse's, I'd like something I can put on my deck, and also something that looks ok in a suburban neighborhood. I stumbled across this one in my research, I'm not buying today, more reading to do. But it does look like something that might be perfect. Since I don't need it for a few months anyway, I have time to research.

Here is a picture of GrowCamp 4'x4' Modular Vegetable Growing System.

The best price I found is $430 with free shipping from Amazon. Does anybody out there have one, or something like it that I can compare with?

Update: Thanks for the question. I decided to buy a raised cedar bed, I will add a greenhouse to the top next year I think. But the cedar bed is working great in the summer. Here is where I bought it.

Backpacking Stove

I plan to start doing some backpacking this summer. I plan to go fairly short distances, maybe 20 miles on the high side, maybe sleep over 1 night. I've used alcohol stoves in the past, and may decide to do so again, but I've been researching small fuel stoves that would be easy to carry. I think I'm going to buy the Coleman 1-Burner Dual Fuel Sporter II Liquid Fuel Stove, it seems to offer the best value as far as weight, price and versatility. Here is a picture of it.



The other two similar stoves are also offered by Coleman. One is lighter(the Coleman Exponent Feather 442 Dual Fuel Stove), the other(the Coleman Exponent Multi-Fuel Stove) burns kerosene as well as the white gas and unleaded the other two burn. I will probably burn mostly white gas anyway, but it is nice to have options. Both cost about $30 more than sporter two does. Here they are:

    

My final idea is the MSR Whisperlite International Liquid-Fuel Stove, It is most expensive, and I just don't like the design as much, just my personal preference.

If anyone has some advice I'd love to hear it.

K Cups Coffee Makers

I've owned two of these things. I spent a ton of time researching them, and kept reading how great the coffee is. After actually using them I do have to admit, the coffee is awesome. When using the Amazon Subscribe And Save Program, you can get the coffee for about 40 cents per cup. Not real cheap, but also a lot better than buying coffee at Starbucks or another restaurant.

Now for the bad, the first one I bought, a Breville BKC600XL, kept making partial cups of coffee, or overflowing water. On the plus side, the company was very responsive and sent me a replacement, unfortunately, the replacement worked the same as the original. I finally figured out that it only seemed to happen with Decaf K-cups, or Tea K-cups. So the trick was to reprime the water each time we made Decaf, kind of a pain, but  it worked.

Here is the BKC600XL



I got a chance to get a Keurig B70 for a big discount, so I decided to see if it worked better. The first thing I noticed was that it wasn't nearly as loud when it ran, so that was a big plus. Unfortunately, that one also seems to have trouble with Decaf pods, I don't know why, but it shuts itself off every time we make Decaf, again if I reprime the tank each time it works ok, and the coffee definitely tastes great, just kind of a pain.

Here is the one I have now.


If I was going to buy a single serve system again, I think I would go with the cheaper and simpler solution, something like the Aeropress Coffee and Espresso Maker. I use the word simpler, I guess I really mean a more low tech solution, I'm sure that there are some things I need to know about this one as well. If anyone has tried one of these I'd love to hear about it.