Sunday, May 31, 2009

Wise Worm's Mission Statement

On May 23rd, the membership Board met to discuss, among other items, an educational mission for the organization to qualify us as an L3C. In an amazing and dynamic 20 minutes, nine of us collaborated to create the finished mission statement for Wise Worm Composting:

Wise Worm Composting educates communities to create a sustainable practice of diverting 100% of compostables from the waste stream.

Our hope is that collecting food waste and converting it into soil will be only one of the ways that we influence communities' choices. Whether people choose to start their own home composting for their garden, or work with us to seperate their compostables for pick-up, what's important is that we collectively produce less waste and more soil.

We scrub our totes by hand, too.


We love our customers. It's important to us to keep our totes and buckets clean. It's one of the ways we strive to make composting easy and convenient, so that we can meet our mission of helping to divert 100% of compostables from the waste stream.

Road Still in Progress


We're gaining, but the transition from the road bed into the field continues to pose problems. So, we will keep excavating the top soil and laying in sand and gravel until, presumably, we don't want to drive any further. And then we'll be done. Terrance build up the road and reinforced its edges leading up to the culvert (seen here) which stabilized the near side. The culvert and the drainage are working splendidly. Thank goodness, since it has rained all through the month of May.

Friday, May 15, 2009




We've begun construction on the road that will lead to the permanent site for the windrows and to the sheep barn. Of course, we picked the coldest and wettest weekend of the spring - Mother's Day weekend! - to begin this endeavor. Many thanks to our friends for braving the windy mist and mud to haul rocks and dig in the drainage. With another load of gravel delivered, we hope to have construction completed on the road (and photos of the work updated on this blog!) tomorrow. Hope springs eternal. Pun intended.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Board Meeting Notes, from April 4, 2009


Mission Statement. The development of a vision for our enterprise will help to shape our organizational mission, which in turn will allow the Board to prioritize activities and strategically choose a direction for Wise Worm. Please check out the post from Friday, April 24th to add your thoughts to the list of words and phrases. At the next meeting, I will compile these for additional discussion.
Operations. We did get a price quoted to put the road in to the back field, where the operation will be moved permanently. We are considering building the road in two stages; the first stage will cross the mucky drainage the borders the field. We have made significant progress toward filing with the state: 1) thanks to Paul, we have a draft waste management plan; 2) we have a friendly rapport with the Act 250 office, and are in the process of writing our narrative for a possible permit; 3) we dug the test pit in the back field and it looks encouraging (3 ft, no water; 6 ft, no bedrock). We discussed purchasing a temperature probe at $110, and plan to do that shortly.
Incorporation. We discussed incorporating as an L3C (limited liability corporation with an educational mission). Suggestions were made to contact the following organizations for information and technical assistance: VT Composting Association and the Highfields Institute for sample bilaws; Clark Atwell, local business attorney; UVM Cooperative Extension Women's Agricultural Network; VT Small Business Development Association; NEKCA small business support center (Emily will provide contact info); Northeastern Vermont Development Association, the Charles Carter Center.
New Developments. A request for residential foodwaste drop-off was made by a local family to start in June; Marcus connected us with Burke Mountain Academy, interested in starting a composting program; four opportunities were offered for us to collect additional ammedment: two prodigious manure supplies, woodchips from Eric Davis, and shredded paper from Burke Recycling Center; the Town of Burke is interested in a community foodwaste collection site at the recycling center.
Next meeting: May 23rd. 6:00 pm Potluck at the LaPointe's house
Next Agenda: 1) up-dates on permitting, 2) Mission and Vision statements, 3) continuation of work on management plan, 4) educational program development for schools and community, 5) new opportunities. Please comment to add to the agenda.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

New Windrow 09-01



Howdy! We just created a new windrow in the back field which will ultimately be the home of the whole operation. It is windrow 09-01, shown unfinished, upper left. It includes uncooked parts of our original windrow, which Matty and I are digging into in the photo below. We will move this older pile to make room for a road out to the field. Much of the pile is finished and will be screened for our first sales! The road will be a welcome development for Taloulabelle the Tractor and me. It is still mud season in the Northeast Kingdom.