Amanda Takes Off...

Last week, I watched a worm hatch in my hand. It wriggled its way out of the cocoon. Wriggle, wriggle. I watched it, fascinated.

Last weekend, Mark and his Lover came over to our house for a Korean dinner. Spicy pork, sesame leaves, red-leaf lettuce, kimchi, sesame leaf kimchi, mushrooms, three types of pajeon (green onions, mushrooms and green onions, and kimchi and mushrooms and green onions), dipping sauce, brown rice, and some raspberry wine.

Dinner

After we ate, Mark and I separated my worms (more than a pound) into two parts and we got him started on worm composting. I also harvested my compost and restarted my bin.

I actually harvested this bin in two parts, two weeks apart. I used the light harvesting method with a bit of a twist. (The light harvesting method consists of shining a bright light on the worms in the bin. They burrow down, you scrape some compost off until they appear. Let them burrow again, scrape... Repeat.)

My compost wasn't fully finished yet, so when I reached the point where I was tired of harvesting and I was having a hard time finding finished compost, I closed the bin. For two weeks, I didn't feed the worms anything. I just let them finish what was in the bin.

Well, my idea worked very, very well. I was able to harvest the second batch of compost fairly quickly (although I'm not sure Mark thought it was quick).

My first batch of compost was rather wet, so I let it dry out for about a week. Then I ran it through a piece of 1/2" hardware cloth to get some of the still-uncomposted stuff out. When I did that, I found a few worms I'd missed. Based on size, one was an adult when I missed it. The others were juveniles and hatchlings, and I'm pretty sure a few had hatched in the compost.

Freshly Harvested Vermicompost

Since that worked so well, I'll be doing the same thing with this second batch of compost. Wait a week, run it through a screen, take out new worms.

The only thing I really got wrong? I didn't think the first batch of compost looked like much, so I got a 10 liter bucket to store it. Well, letting it dry and then passing it through the hardware cloth really made it "fluff up" and now the first batch is nearly to the 6 liter mark on the bucket. Since I won't be using this compost until the spring, I will probably need a bigger bucket.

Also, there is still some unfinished stuff in the bucket. When my hardware store gets 1/4" hardware cloth back in stock, I'll be sifting the compost through that as well.

Compost, Post 1/2" Hardware Cloth

I've made a few changes to the way I worm compost. Last time I started off my bin with newspaper, but this time I started it off with a mixture of newspaper, junk mail and computer paper, cardboard and paperboard, and cotton. I usually keep my food scraps in the fridge for a week, but I read that freezing the scraps makes them decompose faster, so I'm going to try that.

Vermicomposting, Round 2

I think I did two things wrong my first time around with worm composting, so I'm going to change my methods this time.

First, I didn't keep adding paper bedding as I was adding food. I thought they'd eat the bedding and then food and if I quit adding bedding, they'd finish all the food. Instead, it got too wet and then I couldn't harvest it. (It was really wet.) Then I'd have to quit adding food and add more bedding and wait longer for the bedding to be eaten.

This time I'm going to add paper bedding about once a month. I'm figuring that they'll basically eat the food and bedding in equal amounts.

Second, I started off feeding the four corners. By the time I got to the first corner, if that food wasn't gone, I'd wait a week. This worked well. In fact, the worms mostly followed the food around the box, which made it easy to see how the worm population was growing. But then the box started getting too wet (not enough bedding!) and I'd only feed them in another corner when the first corner was entirely gone. This didn't work as well.

I'm going back to the four corners method of feeding, and I'm going to add bedding to keep the bin's moisture level right.

I did discover one great secret: if stuff grows in the bin, conditions are right. I had a onion end that grew a root a good two feet long. Most of my scallion ends sprouted as well. I had apple seeds sprouting left and right. If stuff grows in your pure compost, it'll grow in your compost-enhanced soil!

Master's Daughter

Thursday, Good Man and I met with Master's family again. We had dinner and we had plans to see Sherlock.

Master's Daughter

The kids came with us to the movie and Master's Daughter sat next to me. At some point she wouldn't stop whispering, even when her mother told her to. I dragged her onto my lap and whispered in her ear. "We can't talk..."

She nodded. "OK, Amanda, but [??? request]."

I didn't know what she'd requested, but I sort of recognized it as something Good Man sometimes says. I started patting and scratching her back. Master's Daughter lifted us the back of her shirt and I scratched her back. Every once in a while she'd whisper "위에" or "밑에." Higher, lower.

Turns out that the thing I didn't understand was "scratch."

Master's Son

Before we went to the movies, Master said, "Amanda, you know 윷놀이? 화투?" I said that I knew both yut nori and hwa tu (go stop) but that I wasn't good at either.

He asked which one I wanted to play. We decided on yut nori. "Next time, Amanda, we play hwa tu."

"Next time, Master? When will that be?"

He paused and thought for a moment, "I don't know, but we will meet again!"

I grinned. It is true.

Playing Yut Nori (Photo Taken by Daughter)

Master and his wife were one team, and Good Man and I were another. The first game, Master's team won. Drats! We had a popcorn bet going on the game.

Master, Winning

The second game, Good Man scored four yut noris in a row. Go, Good Man!

Master, Losing

We had a third game to break the tie and! We lost.

Next time! Next time, we will win!

Good Man's Mother decided we needed new coats.

"Mother, thank you, but I don't need a new coat." I love my coat.

"I want to buy you a coat."

I smiled, "OK, but I don't even want a new coat."

"I don't like your coat," she said, "It looks North Korean." My coat is a Swedish military coat from WWII. It's not North Korean. Before I could protest, she said, "It's a wedding gift."

I didn't mention the wonderful rice cooker she bought us as a wedding gift. I tried arguing a big more, but I finally said, "I have no choice?"

She smiled, "Right!" Mother promised she'd buy us coats as a discount. Ahh, one ajumma to another. (Note: apparently since I'm not a mother yet, I'm not technically an ajumma.)

Me

We purchased my coat first. Mother said I could get what I wanted, but when I said I wanted a red coat she flipped out and said it was too bold and she'd get me a red scarf instead. The woman at the department store offered me a pink one, instead. Oh hell no. We I Mother ended up choosing this coat with a red scarf. It does feel like a nice, grown-up coat, I've got to admit.

The women at the department store seemed rather amused that I was speaking solely in Korean with Mother.

Good Man

Good Man's coat was up next and I really wanted him in black, though he wanted navy. Luckily, Mother and I won! I love this coat. I think Good Man looks great in it. Against, I think the men at the store were shocked that I was rattling off so much Korean with Mother.

I guess it was a good thing we had no choice in buying the coats; we wore them to the funeral.

Part of the reason we came home from the funeral after two days instead of three is that I already had plans made with friends. Mother (mostly, I think) and Father didn't want us to miss all of our plans.

Luckily, Diana and Paul were understanding of multiple changing plans and the like. Diana and I originally met because she sent me an email about practicing taekwondo in Korea. We become blog buddies before meeting in person in Seoul. Her family likes where we do in the States, so it feels like we see her quite often. Diana is marrying today, but unfortunately, we came home yesterday.

I don't know how I started reading Paul's blog, but I'm glad I found it (or he found me?). He writes well-educated, detailed posts about Korean culture and history. He's the kind of expat Koreans want. This meeting was our first time meeting in person.

Along for the ride? Diana's siblings, fiancé husband, friend, and siblings.

We ended up going to Seoul's Armpit (Itaewon) in order to find a tongue room for Diana's Sister (who had swallowed her's). We didn't even end up looking for one. But we did get to partake in some Mexican food, served with nothing that looked like kimchi.

Namsan Tower with the 세해복 많이 받으세요 Woori Bank Tiger

Surprised Butterfly

Min Gi

Paul and Diana's Brother

Diana's Friend, Diana's Sister, Diana

Street Food in Seoul's Armpit

Seen at Itaewon Station

Paul and Me

Unfortunately, Sister and I haven't been able to spend as much time together as we intended to due to her work schedule and the funeral. But the time have had to spend together has been wonderful. I'm glad I kept with my Korean goal before we left; it's made me much more confident in interacting with my in-laws.

Sister has a cool job designing movie posters, so readers in Korea will soon see her work all over Korea! (By the way, Sister's blog is listed in my blog roll. It's Across the Universe. She blogs in Korean.)

(Good Man was with us during all of these photos, being his usual quiet self.)

New Year's Day

Fruit Salad Anju

Fake Cherry Blossoms

Fishy Potato Anju

Fishcake Stick Seller

청계천

Stretchy Exercise Band Seller in Insadong

엿 Sellers

파고다 공원

Pagoda Park Door Detail

Pagoda Park

Cat

Tomcat

Barbed Wire