As the days get shorter and the sun stares to light up my kitchen for most of the day; nights in the 50’s and days in the low 70’s are making the leaves start to change and my body left feeling the shift. 
Since the day after full moon passed, I have been truly exhausted to my bones.  What is normally a one day restock became a weekend!  Mowing the yard and tending the garden has been a strain. 
I would like to think it’s my body getting more in tune with the nature around it and recognizing that sleeping and fat storage are high priorities this time of year.
My cucumbers are finally done and dead, so I pulled them down and by the 22nd I’m hoping that my very full tomato plant will ripen all at once, giving me a day of making tomato paste.
The roses are loving the weather, and the second crop of beans is going gangbusters.  I even have peppers – finally!

This panty restock – Yard Bird !  One whole raw chicken as the base makes a TON of food for the freezer and easy canning stock to be used as a base in everything from spaghetti and chili to soups and stews.

$25 Dollars – 9 jars of chicken broth and 9 – 13 meals.

One whole raw Chicken - $8
From the farm stand - $12
     Carrots, Celery, Onion, Garlic, Basil, Rosemary, parsley,
Backyard – Free
     Bay leaves, oregano, Lemon balm, Basil, Rosemary, chives, celery, green beans.
Arrowroot flour (or thicken flour of your choice) - $2
½ stick a butter (I use vegan as I can’t have dairy) - $1
Milk / Milk substitute (Ripple is what I use) - $2
Salt / Pepper.

Broth First -
Little water in the bottom of the pot.  I add a little moon water from my fridge water collection. 
Peeling from the carrot, garlic cloves, an onion, chive tops, Celery tops and bottoms and most of the herbs on the top.
Rinse your chicken real well, neck and innards go into the pot.
Stuff rest of your herbs in the center of the chicken and place it in the pot.
Cover 2” over with water, bring to a simmer and simmer it, lid on for 90 minutes.

Pull the chicken out and set it aside to completely cool.  I put mine on a rack so that I can pour off the chicken fat back into my broth.

Stock – I hot bath my jars to ensure proper sealing.  I process for 10 min since there is nothing in the liquid.  Pour stock while still hot into sterilized Jars, hot bath for 10 min.
I got 6 16oz jars, 3 32oz jars and 4 cups for the fridge.

Left over veg and herbs went into two of my large dead plant pots outside with a huge scoop of worms from my worm bins.  Then I cover the mess with a little soil and torn up weeds.  The worms will eat all the dead roots, and the castings will make it fertile.  By next spring I’ll have two large planters with soil ready to go.

____________________



Freezer Chicken Pot Pie filling, chicken salad, breast chicken dinner and Chicken soup.

Pull all the chicken meat off your bones.  It should fall off easily.  Give skin and icky bits to the hound at your right and the Blackmouth Cur on the left.

Carrots and celery get sliced into my food processor.  Chop another onion.

Chicken Salad – throw some dark and white meat into the processor with some onion slices, celery and carrots.  Salt and Pepper and some miracle whip.  I like a little oil and vinegar.  Pulse till chopped and mixed well
Great with Crackers.  Two Lunch’s.

Chicken Pot Pie Filling –
Find three or four small containers and line them with plastic wrap.  Layer in chicken on the bottom, celery, carrots and onion.
In a pan, melt ½ stick a butter, I like it a little toasty, add arrowroot till you have a paste.  Add milk or milk substitute (I use Ripple) till you have a consistency you like for your pot pie.  Make it thick.  Keep stirring for 5 minutes. 
Pour the filling into the containers.  It’ll seep slowly down around the veg, but if it’s good and thick most will stay on the surface.
Wrap and freeze.  After frozen pop out and switch to a large freezer bag.
When getting ready to eat it – defrost slowly in fridge.  Add stock to thin it out and allow simmering for 10 min. 
If you can do wheat, you can use a pie crust (prebake and skip the 10 min simmer as you will do that in the oven)
For non-wheat people, I put it over a twice baked potato, rice, mashed cauliflower, over wheat free toast, etc.
3 large dinners (or for me, 3 dinners and three next day lunches).
 
Take any left over Filling, add some chicken, carrots, celery and onion and throw it in, add chicken stock to thin it out and bring it to a simmer for 10 minutes.   I had mine over left over rice.
1 meal

Chicken breast’s and green beans with white gravy.  I save one whole chicken breast, Green beans out of my garden (you do you) and some of the pot pie filling with extra pepper thinned with a little chicken broth.
1 Meal

Chicken Soup – Split whatever is left with carrots, celery, onion and garlic into two small freezer bags.  Chop leftover chicken into easy to eat bites and divide it into each bag.  Get all the air out and freeze. 
To use, boil a jar of chicken broth and add the frozen packet.  Add what you are feeling you want at that time.  I generally add some potatoes, frozen peas or corn, maybe a little crab boil if I’m sick and want to clear my sinuses out.    Crackers or bread on the side.
2 Meals.

 I also had a full chicken breast and most of a leg I ate leaning over my sink for the weekend while I did all of this.   

The leftover chicken broth in the fridge will be making chili and spaghetti sauce with the soon to be ripening tomato crop I have coming next week.  

I actually wrote this on July 14th, Half way to the new moon.  It took till Aug New moon for me to make the firm choice that this is the right path...

​July 14th 2025 – and then… things changed.
 
Throughout my life the way I perceive my connection to the universe, my magic, has changed.  The way in which I “talk” to my universe/ancestors/spirits in my mind, has grown, developed and deepened as I’ve aged and gain perspective.  When I was a small child the folklore of my mother, Irish mountain, was how I communicated my wants and needs.  I chatted with my ancestors, I played with the little people, I spelled out words with the Ouija board before I could light a candle by myself.  In 1977 my father took me to see Star Wars on the big screen. I was mesmerized; this is long before the Internet, long before Wicca had reached my state and the only interpretation I had to the universe was mother's folklore.  The concept of the force, the concept that we were all connected, was new to me and from that point till my college years I saw the universe through the eyes of science meeting magic with what little information I could find on secular Buddhism thrown in. 
When I started college my knowledge base changed to a more scientific backed system. We had discovered gamma radiation coming from the full moon, space was attainable by mankind, I started to grasp physics and conceptual mathematics.   At this point I was introduced to the concept of elemental magic by a European author. Where spirits of the elements can be part of the communication line to the power that we all possess together.  These aren’t deities, they are entities that travel in a different version of “space” than we do.  This rang so true in my mind, blended well with the exposure I had to the American Indians in Florida; Once again, my magic, how my connection worked in my head, changed and grew in strength.   
In the Mid 80’s / early 90’s I was exposed to Wiccan in Texas.  Comparing the “wiccan’s” of today with the Texas Wiccan’s of the 80’s is like comparing 2025 cooking turkey with an 1825 wild one; Not the same bird.  The use of directions, colors, herbs, stones, structure….  Based on folklore of thousands of years, matched well with my Elemental mind set, and although the way the connect worked in my head didn’t change, it gave it a mundane outlet, something the collective has been using for thousands of years as a communication device.  Shortly after that, my science brain started to really enjoy conceptualizing the 4th dimension. The 4th dimension is time; we only have one direction we can go on that plane.  There is no reason not to believe that there are entities that move as easily through the 4th dimension as we move through our three-dimensional world.  My elementals became 4th dimensional beings that are rooted to our world through their personal preference.  Fire elements are attracted to fire so to speak. 
I also realized as I aged and my medical conditions worsened, that I believe we can send messages back and forth, up and down our own timeline, quantum physics?  Quantum mechanics?  Math I don’t understand says we can, we can send love back to ourselves, help ourselves find the path easier.  Do you believe that the spirit of your great great grandfather follows his watch?  Quantum entanglement theory says you might be right.  Maybe our spirit, our energy “lives” in the 4th dimension and the watch is the anchor he can find in our 3d timeline.   Once again, my magic changed and my communication with the universal energy became stronger.  My path became clearer.  Up to this point I was not a big ritual, write it out, kinda witch, I wasn’t comfortable with the noun at all.  I started this blog, this Facebook page to just share, to get comfortable showing my power and how I got here.  Mostly I was pissed by the “you are doing it wrong” folks, but that’s another blog post. 

What I really do, almost daily, I go out back and look at the moon and just start talking in rhythm of what I want.  I have a great communication ability with my spirits.  If I need a boost I light a candle, I go to some water, I sit on the ground and lean on a tree, Get a lawn chair out and lay out flat watching the wind move the tree tops.  I add the herbs to my food in pots I have blessed with a small ritual I made up decades ago.  I take the day off to putz around, like today.  Not something that anyone wants to see.  I enjoy doing the rituals so I can share with you, I will do it again.  I garden, I jar, I learn how to live in a new climate and place and in our coming political situation.
 
As the world changes around me, as I knew it would, I realized that I have done the best I can for myself. I've moved to the right place, I’ve done the right things to prepare as best as I can for whatever is coming.  I've spent a lifetime learning the small ways that connect me to the earth, the seasons and perhaps the correct community.   For now energy is going to look like meditation, yoga, putzing around in the garden and learning how to do the “food” thing without a grocery chain.  The garden is producing, the weather is fantastic, life is moving slowly along, like the band playing on the bridge of titanic. 

I’m going to start keeping more to my blog for the things that aren’t just the ritual, or just the pantry meal / gardening.  I need a place that will stay there as long as I pay $50 a year with no exposure to the political horror of the day, or which war is killing the most children at the moment.   No ad’s, nothing for sale, just what I do, even when it’s gardening, canning, connecting.  A place that if you want to come read about daily life occurrences, stuff to boring for social media pops or how I grew in my power, catch an occasional ritual or spell blending into life come read and relax.   

I've attached a reel of my summer, home made elderberry jam, canning and enjoying my test garden.  A third of the size of what it will be next year.  Planting mom a rose bush and doing silly little 10 minute water colors.  Sorting through my last life and finding places for all the little things.  

I’ll be opening the clearing to tent campers this fall and the site will become the portal to that. Very low key, very local area oriented (Western NC), very much people who are just interested in a little healing, grounding, resting.  It’s not about the numbers, it's about the people who really need a break.  It’s been a beating for everyone.  I'll be bring back the Broom Closet tab for this.

Every day is a new day, today I started a new table candle today as the New Moon works it magic on me.  You can find the reason and ritual for the table candle under "spells".

Like most pagans I see Litha coming up, the rituals that will be going on in places I can’t reach, the things others do in their home or to mark the occasion.  We seek community in our desire to celebrate the longest day of the year, what we might do with the peak of the sun power, how we might best enjoy or use it to uplift our lives.

I also seek these things, and traditionally it has included making the crown the daisy’s, pick the fresh veggies that are starting to grow in the garden, make the stock, buy the flowers and plants and spend way to much at the plant store.  I will do all of these things and enjoy the long days of the weekend as normal; but it just seemed – not enough this year.  The power of this moment, the transition and the clarity of paths should be used to the fullest!  Or so my mind says to me.  
I tried to write a ritual, something I could post for others; and as I sit and think about it, I’m finding it a difficult way to expand my energy.  So this year, I’m trying something different and deciding to share, it’s my hope you find your own “ritual” for this summer solstice.

Like all of my rituals, I start with my intent.  With the rough start of the new year both in weather and cultural / political upheaval, I have spent a lot of time deciding where the future path of the clearing, and thus my life, should be. 
I seek community, I seek fortification, I seek to allow the land to lift others up as it has done for me and support me going forward, I seek a comfortable and welcoming place for my friends and family to come visit.  I seek to share the calm at a time in history when so many of us truly need just a moment of quite.  I hope to eventually offer this to other sensitive people seeking peace.

I have a small cabin on the property; my ritual this year will be scrubbing and cleaning and re-arranging.  I will fluff pillows and do sheets; I will suck up dust and any creepy crawls will be evicted!  I will spruce up and stock the kitchenette and make the seating area comfortable and homey.  
I will use the power of the longest days to drive my fire, to ignite the start of change.
Where normally I would sleep and nap and enjoy not doing anything, this year, the total opposite.  My back will hurt, I’ll be dirty and annoyed by 3pm.  I will eat the good stew that brew all day while I was cleaning.  I’ll play with the plants in dusk after a hot shower and good meal.  I will take a lot of aspirin and go to bed early.

I will be fulfilled this year, not by moving my energy with my mind for intent, but by moving my energy with purpose and work and my body.  Showing the universe and my ancestors that I am ready for people, for community to start to visit me.  I’m open and welcoming of the change I have been thinking about for months.

I’m sure the ritual will come, as it always seems to, but for now – the fire of purpose burns bright!

The image below is the horror show left over from the army core of engineers were done.  The river will take care of their mistake, but it's going to take away half my bank getting there. 

As we finally start to roll into Spring in the Clearing, like many people I have been through some serious ups and downs in the last ten years.  I have lived here full time for six months now and even with the stress of moving, hurricanes, complete lifestyle change and medical struggles, I’m 100% sure this was the right choice, the right path, the right place to be in this moment.  My choice to sell my home of over a decade, in a population center of over 400k people, and move to a cabin in the woods where I know no one, has already started to show positive signs, even in these political times.

I have spent 10 hard years coming to this moment, and I have done it alone. I finished a career on the high note, had the privilege of taking care of my parents in their final days, invested my money, purchased my space in the middle of lockdown 2020, built my cabin and my rental camp; all with the subconscious awareness of what my future self will need.  My subconscious laid out a path and my intent for the small goals along the way have added up to a magnificent clearing on my path of life.  Completing my detachment from my city home and lifestyle, I have spent a month doing nothing but resting and trying to find my next goal.

It has occurred to me that over a decade saying “I’ll rest when I have time”, I’m actually at the “Have Time” moment!   Who knew it was an actual thing!

For the first time in my life, I can’t see a path.  I can’t see what I should be doing.  My elemental connection is strengthening and my ability to communicate with my universe is growing exponentially.   It’s a lesson in faith and trust in the universe that is the hardest for me and I imagine anyone who has a good feel for seeing their own future.

As my own mind calms, a new voice surfaces and it’s not mine alone.  Now that I have started to quite my own mind, the land is starting to take up a voice, starting to tell me what IT wants.  For all things there are balance and for my amazing spot, the balance says “share”.  Share what it does for you, Let it do it’s healing things for anyone who needs connection, needs to rest, needs to regroup.

While I work towards those goals, trying to figure out what that will look like, I spent the full moon in a drowsy joyous dream.  I light my table candle.  I prep ginger and lemons for teas and lemon drop candy.  Lemon rinds dried and ready for wax and wicks for Litha in July.  I purchased two rose bushes in honor of my mother on Sunday (Mother’s Day here in the states), grape vines and Lilly’s.  Pretty things to begin my new garden with.

This area of the river, although a very nice private little beach now, was once completely covered with tree's.   Where once a fairy stream overgrown and hidden is now a stripped open to the sun.

With the world having issues after issues and the American Political system doing its best imitation of a dumpster fire with a pointy stick, and the Snow Moon high in the sky, I would say most of us feel the pressure.  While the full moon pumps up the power and calls us to transformation energy, it lights the fire inside to action.  Right now, many of us are in survival mode and have no time or energy do anything put keep swimming and hope someone stops the crazy. 

The problem with working the “magical muscles” for lack of a better term, is you are more sensitive to ALL the energy.  Your neighbors, family ties, friendship ties, work relationships, all the people at the grocery, in the bank, it goes on and on.  Even with great shields, it’s still part of how the world is breathing, it’s heart beat connecting to you. 

Like all of you, I have been reading the comments and trying little things to sleep at night, not have anxiety, and still eat and maintain my health.  I wanted thing that aren’t a ritual, are just part of living so they would be easy to maintain and not become a “chore”.

From last full moon I have been doing these four things, and they have helped immensely. 
No full moon photo’s tonight, 30 degrees and freezing rain, but I know she’s up there!

1.  Nothing computerized/ No TV for the first 30 minutes I’m awake. 
I try not to think about anything but what I am doing in that moment.  Some mornings, I water the plants, some I journal or pull a card, mostly I just sit there in a daze drinking coffee and being thankful I still have a house. (I’m in western NC).

2.  Have a trigger moment in the evening a couple hours before bed that triggers your mind into the “we are winding down and being present in our safe and happy home”. 
For me this is 7:30ish combined with a series of events, take my calcium, make a cup of tea or hot chocolate, chicory, or decaf.  Basically, a drink that I must prepare for myself, not just grab.  Let the dogs out and double check the greenhouse heater, stand outside for 5 minutes, sit on the step and look up.
 
3.  No triggering TV or any interactive internet; social media, email, videos on current events, etc. after 8pm. 
I like to be in bed by 10-11, so this gives me 2 to 3 hours with only activities and things centered my home.  You will fill this time with something.  I enjoy YouTube learning channels and do a watercolor painting every couple of days, knitting socks (I’m halfway though since last full moon), I watch movies or HGTV / Food Channel, non-confrontational TV.  I work on organizing my apothecary space, anything that doesn’t involve interaction with the outside world.  I sit down and wrote this. 😊


4.  When I lay down at night, and my mind starts to generate any sort of worry or stress, I make up a little two line chant in my head and then close my eyes, and while I say it over and over, I push all my extra energy out with my words.  I just let it flow out of my body either in a direction or ever direction. Whenever I start to think about things, or tense up, I start the chant over.
“Universe hear me now, this witch desires safety this hour”
“firework shiny in the sky over this amazing buy” (I’m trying to sell something expensive right now)

Images: my full moon ceremony which got a 5 minutes candle and a read over tonight.  I’m a tired witch.
My evening tea, dried oranges from Yule, elderberry and rosehips. 
One of my watercolors.  This was my 3rd one. You know what it is, that's a win!

As we can all see I took a little hiatus from posting as my life went sideways in a whole new way. 
Anyone who has been doing ritual magic for any length of time, will eventually take a break, change what they are doing, wander away for a while; but energy manipulation is a birth right to all beings and although we might stop the ritualistic side of things for a while, energy doesn’t stop moving or interacting with you any more than you can stop breathing.

I decided in June to throw out my 15 years retirement/life plan at year 9 and leap both feet into making things happen sooner.  When instinct tells you to move…. Listen.  After 50 years when MY instinct starts screams MOVE, I move like a purpose, very fast and very drastically, and in this case, literally.  I’m selling my property in Florida and have moved full time to the clearing in North Carolina two months ago, exactly one week before Helena devasted the area I moved too; then Milton hit my Florida house with direct impact on the north side of the eye wall, good times.

The clearing was spared any real damage and for that I’m thankful.  My apothecary in boxes, my LIFE in boxes, over 25+ tropical plants needing a safe warm place to ride out the winter and two large dogs, no power or water for 2 weeks, no internet for a month and half; you get the idea.   Unpacking my box’s in the dark with only a scratchy radio, I knew nothing but gratefulness as many of my neighbors have nothing to unpack, nothing to see or hold, memories and lives gone, washed down the river. There was a lot of crying, for me, for them, for my family who are now all ethereal ancestors.   

Thursday was our (the dogs and I) first snow living in the clearing, first snow for the puppy ever.  As I sat and watched the snow slowly shift down, mourning the death of my parents who passed at this time of year, knowing the emotional beating that comes for me with December ever year, something in me decided it was time to start reconnecting on a more conscious level again. 

So where to start?  Unpacking my stuff…  UG…..  no, we will start with what boosts us to our highest path, food and comfort.   So, I lit my table candle, turned on my mister and added some moon water and lemon essence and spent the day doing the “thing”.

Nine meals for under $20.  Baked chicken from Walmart ($7) and $12 dollars of veggies from the Veg market on the way home.
- Chicken salad for dinner.
- Make stock.   Stripped the meat off the chicken, picked a bunch of herbs from my pot garden, chopped the veggies down and added all the bones and veggie parts to my insta pot and set it for 25 minutes.  Part went into chicken soup dinner that night, part went to making butternut squash autumn soup and the rest went into single serving jars for future use.
- Chopped all the veggies and the chicken meat into single serving packets for the freezer, ready to just drop into broth at any time for home made chicken soup.  I made 5 of these packets, individually wrapped.    When the time comes, I crack open a jar of broth and just add the packet for 5 minutes soup.
- Cut a butternut squash in half and chopped a bunch of sweet potatoes all went into the oven to bake down, 45 minutes later the stock was out of the instapot and butternut, sweet potato and apple were in it with my chicken stock on the bottom.  Tons of cinnamon, real ginger, cardamon, pumpkin spice all on top.  15 minutes of pressure, blend it smooth with a hand blender, jar most of it immediately while it’s super-hot.    Add coconut milk (or cream if you can do dairy, which I can’t) and eat.  Made three jars of “based” so I can just open, add milk and have a lovely hearty soup in 5 minutes.
- Scraps not used in the stock went into a large freezer bag and into the freezer.  This will be worming food come new moon for my two work buckets.  The freezer keeps it from rotting and breaks down all the cell structure.  You must leave the bag out overnight before you put it in the worms, or it will be way to cold and could damage your colony.  
I have easy worm bin direction further down on my page/website.
Last, the butternut squash seeds were saved and will go into my seed stash.  This new moon I’ll plant 2 while cleaning and feeding the worm bins and let them hang out in the greenhouse till March.  It’ll be warming up a little and squash will think it’s fall!
 
I spent about 5 hours doing all of this, watched the snow, was visited by a young buck leisurely walking across my back yard.   My desire to actually write this up, take the photos, post the things, interact with my public magical world for a bit while I drink my coffee feels like movement.  It feels like a connection. 
Feels like I want to write a ritual for selling my house! 

As we go into the season that for some of us is true hell, remember, living in magic, taking care of your body and mind is the truest form of connection of your higher path.  

​Wishing all of you a happy uplifting Summer Solstice!

I am blessed in my life to be at the moment most witches only dream about; moving to a cabin in the woods and living a connected life with nature.

I have been absent of late from social media due to the stress of decisions made and the need to work hard on the mundane.  No ritual today, but I am taking a day off, and reflecting on where I have been, and how everything over the last decade has led to this moment.    

Since I have started to pack my witchy stuff, sitting on this lovely June 21st, when light and dark are balanced;  I started to think about some of the questions I have seen in social media that I always skip by because I don’t understand them.  One of my biggest skips I finally understood.
People asking how others “stay connected to their craft” or expressing that they feel disconnected from their energy or abilities. 

I have never really understood this question or perspective.  You are always connected to your craft, it’s like breathing; you don’t just stop doing it.  I always wondered what drove people to feel this way.  Obviously, there are MANY people out there, not only from the social media post and the comments under them! 

Packing my witch things, I finally get it.

At this point in my life, I have a dedicated witch pieces parts area that’s large.  For my lifetime, this is unusual and something that only really started 7 or 8 years ago.  Before that, I never really did ritual unless it was a long-term spell or something requiring great concentration.  Daily life is a constant flow of energy for me, from getting a good parking spot, to things just going right most of the time.  “Lucky” doesn’t really cover it when it comes to bigger issues.

As I am packing everything I love to take with me, I started to realize that social media and many of todays books and literature is built around the parts AS the energy, not just the tool, like a cell phone. The perspective of western / European energy manipulation is to build up energy, you use the energy, then you ground the energy.  This is disruptive to the body’s natural flow.  In eastern energy manipulation, energy is a constant flow.  It’s always there flowing smoothly (if you are lucky) you just turn up and down the tap, rarely you clog the outgoing for a couple of seconds to really build up a big ball; BUT the natural state of the energy in your body is always flowing.   Like a river through your body, not a bathtub emptying when you pull the plug.   If you are exhausted after ritual, your bathtub isn’t big enough.  Rivers never get exhausted.

When people use items, their bodies are building up energy as a cue to the item.  If you don’t have the time or item to cue your body, and that cue is directly related to your ability to collect energy or communicate your will; THAT’S why people feel disconnected.

My only solution.  I naturally, as all infants do, flow energy and was raised manipulating it.  When I learned about wiccan magic in my early 20’s and started practicing with tools, I really messed myself up energy wise.  I took Tai Chi to return my energy flow to normal.  You could choose a eastern movement form or martial art and the chi (energy) balance is a free benefit :) 

Over the last couple of decades I have made several worm bins, some hand made by me and some purchased.  As of this decade, this is my favorite.  Built for one person, I only attend it about once every 4 to 6 weeks.  I keep it indoors where it can’t be infested with any bugs that aren’t serving me.  This small bin feeds my entire container garden which includes many food related plants.    
This one batch of worms is about a year old, meaning that I purchased red worms from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm; Just google him about a year ago and the colony has been alive and well since then.   This bin I purchased off amazon for $30, but they are $50 now “4 tray worm compost kit”. 
Please consult the internet for basics of how and why you would want a worm bin/composter, many folks out there better than me at this and have dedicated a long time to it.   I personally am interested in the casting (poop) for my garden.  EVERYTHING loves worm castings. 

Here are my tricks to awesomeness once you have the basic concept:

1.  Keep it in a clean bug-free area!  It will not smell or draw bugs if you follow my process.  You will only open it once a month or so.  I always take mine outside for the initial opening JUST IN CASE.  If you open it and bugs are present, you have a problem and need to tear it down and clean it well, hand pick out as many worms as you can and then restart the entire thing.  The only thing more annoying than this is having a house full of flying bugs for the next 2 days on top of it. 
2. Keep your scraps for the bin in a sealed Tupperware container throughout the month, in your fridge.  Only open the worm container once every 4 to 6 weeks and feed it all at once, ensure a tight seal on the containers and then leave it alone. 
3. When harvesting out the castings (worm poop) I put the “mud” directly into my containers in a little hole in the dirt.  If I can’t dig a little hole because of roots, I will lay it around the top and then water it lightly.  When you have many of the thicker castings out from the edges, put it over a big bowl or bucket and spray it down with water, I use mist level.  The black water dripping out is straight fertilizer, most of the worms have already vacated this level because you were messing with it and flipping it around. The spray will leave the food and much needed moisture without drowning your worms.  You can then water your house plants and other smaller pots.  Only a little, you aren’t trying to wet down your roots, you are trying to get as much of the castings into the soil and leave them there as possible.  I’ll often do this AFTER I water just so the soil is wet and better capable of holding onto particles.
4. Get a bag of plan dirt, no fertilizers or anything in it (no miracle grow!).  Always put a thin layer of dirt under the food scraps, take the sprayed down leftovers (Tip 3) and throw that on top of the scraps and then a layer at least ½” thick of soil on top, then the lid.   The worms need it, and it keeps any wayward smells or insects away while the worms go to town on the scraps. 
5. If you have dead plants or old dead root balls, you have worm egg heaven.  Leave a root ball in the bottom tray to improve your worm population.
6. Feel like your worms are too many and going through the food to fast?  Throw a bunch in your containers.  They will happily live on old dyeing root and broken-down material.  

Today while the norther US is getting slammed with snow, I’m standing outside trimming my eucalyptus tree!  For those of you into container gardening, these guys do great.  I trim him about once every three to four months.  This is his first trim this year.  After collection and any dead or problem areas are removed.  I spray down any scaley areas or problem spots with water and dawn dish soap.  Don’t mist your plants and then put them in the sun!!  The water will magify the light and burn the leaves.  I trim for constant branching and getting to move of a small bush. 
I remove all the leaves and place them into a clean and sterile jelly jar with a new lid.  Cover with fractured coconut oil.  You can use any oil you feel comfortable rubbing on your face.  I avoid olive oil as it’s partial to mold and I like these to last about 6 months without fridge.
I heat the oil slowly in a double boiler for about 15 minutes and poke it with a toothpick to make sure all air bubbles are out of the oil.  Then seal up the jar, wait for it to completely cool and into the fridge for two weeks.  Strain and into a dark glass roller ball top.  Label and you have an instant sinus relief oil!

Very pleased with my new 2024 Wheel of the Year.  File purchased off Etsy, burned into the wood plaque by my good friend.  I had him leave the moon phases empty with just the outlines so that I could darken in the moons as we go through the year.  Really pleased with how it came out. 
I included it for the first time in my new moon ritual on February 9th.
The file is not mine, some of the date spreads (like Yule) are not the spread I celebrate on, however, I'm still very pleased.