Long weekend.

Long weekends are always so full of promise. You envision all of the things you’re going to accomplish, all of the projects you’ll be able to complete with the extra time, and yet somehow those bonus days of freedom usually wind up condensing into one long, semi-productive day. I’m not even sure what I did over the past five days I had off.

The weather was gorgeous, we had dinner with my mother and sister, we went grocery shopping, I made roasted garlic soup and carrot muffins, and we went to see Machete (which was AWESOME, by the way—I want to see it again!). Oh, and we did a little bit of work in the garden yesterday. The end! How did that take up five entire days? I don’t get it.

We did assemble our new compost bin, which took all of five minutes. Our old bin was a gigantic, black plastic circle, and while it was effective enough, it was hideous, and the sides were so high that turning the compost was almost impossible. The new bin is attractive, and it’s easy to pull off a row or two of slats to make turning easier.

When I took apart the old bin, I decided to put the first batch of compost (started just about a year ago) to use. There’s something very satisfying about discovering that a year’s worth of raked leaves has produced a nice, rich, black compost full of worms. There isn’t enough space in our backyard to compost all of the leaves that fall around our house, but we’ve been doing as much as we can. I’m also considering a worm bin for the basement—excuse me, I mean a worm chalet. I love the idea of a worm shucking off its boot after a day of skiing and kicking back in an easy chair in front of a roaring fire with a mug of hot apple cider.

I bet worms know how to make the most of a five-day weekend.