Hi Homey Bird, If you want a natural non-chemical feeding programme for your plants, it is still possible to a degree; you don't have to use chemical fertilizers, it's just that I've found the ones I mentioned in my previous answer have worked for me, give good results and they're convenient, chemically balanced and consistant in quality whereas animal and other natural manures are not. True, Guzmanias and other bromeliads grown in the wild, rely on natural fertilizers such as bird and small animal droppings falling into the plant as well as the broken down leaf litter which eventually forms into a soup (liquid manure) in the plants vases. These are all natural products without any chemical content introduced by man. I would imagine to copy this natural process in the home garden, you could apply a small amount of some type of old animal manure, cow, chicken, turkey, rabbit or sheep are the most popular ones. This would take the place of the bird and animal droppings in the wild. Sheep manure is said to be very good as it doesn't tend to be as hot as poultry manure and some of the others and besides, it comes ready made in a handy size pellet. I have applied this as a topping for orchids and other plants with good results. If desired, these can be supplemented with a liquid manure also, which can be made from any of the above manures by just mixing with water and allowing to stand for a week or two and then diluting with more water before applying. This would then take the place of the natural "soup" made from decaying litter in the wild. Likewise one of the many good liquid seaweed fertilizers now available on the market could also be used. This is also a natural product which is usually made from kelp, a type of seaweed which is also a renewable resource. In Australia we have a wonderful product called Seasol which is not so much a fertilizer but more like a "tonic". If you just Google "Seasol" you can read all about it. It is exported to other major countries so I imagine you should be able to get it. In summary, to take the natural route, you can mix any one or a combination of the various animal manures in your mix initially and when growth appears to have slowed down, add a topping of one of the manures decribed. This can be supplemented with feeds of liquid fertilizer made from animal manure throughout the growing period along with a seaweed preparation which can be applied right throughout the whole year if desired. You just have to work out what works best for you. The rule is to start off with little and increase gradually until you find the right balance. As a final question, is natural really chemical free? Remember even some animal manures contain chemicals as the animals are often fed on chemical supplements, growth hormones and/or antibiotics. It then stand to follow that the manure and animal parts used to make products such as Bone Meal, Blood and Bone or Hoof and Horn Meal may still contain traces of chemicals, so how do you guarantee something is absolutely chemically free? I don't know the answer. All the best, Nev.

Bio-accumulation means that the organism *absorbs* more of a substance into its tissues than it loses -- that it is a net sink for that substance. If your worms really were bio-accumulators for toxins, in the short run they would be helping you by taking stuff out of the compost, though of course in the long run they die and their little corpses are reabsorbed in the compost. The worms are probably not a factor in this story one way or the other. You could still hypothesize that toxins leach directly out of plastic bins into the compost, and are not broken down by bacteria either in the compost or in the worms' guts. Anyway, I'm all for building stuff out of wood, partly because you can customize size and shape. Best of luck with the joinery, and don't worry about dryness, which you can control pretty easily. I am a little worried though that the design sounds like a simple wooden box with no provision for water to flow through. Unless you're raking it up quite a bit and using lots of coir and whatnot, you're setting yourself up for a pretty funky bin -- especially since you want this indoors. One advantage of flow-through designs is that water (in the form of lovely worm tea) trickles down, and you're less likely to get the excessive wetness that can get you bad smells (and rot a wooden bin quickly). Oh, and I really wouldn't worry about mineral oil in this application. It's widely prescribed as a laxative -- people drink the stuff! So the trace amounts that will go from bin to compost, and then from compost into your vegetables, are pretty low on the list of hazards to you.

Hi Everyone- 3 months ago I hurt my foot and I believe it is a Jones fracture of the 5th metatarcil.The Dr. I saw dismissed it as tendonitis, and gave me no info or help because the fracture didn't show up on the X-ray. He was supposed to get me an MRI and that was 2 months ago. AS it got much worse from walking on it I went a bought a boot. Make a long story short, the Dr office has been dreadfully unhelpful,(different people call back, lose orders, etc) and I am in severe pain and back in the boot when I thought it was getting much better a few weeks ago,. But I was packing and moving and bending over to carry heavy boxes and twisted my foot and now the bone is painful, red and swollen again. It hurts all night when I try to sleep. I have a hard time finding a new doctor. Should I go to an Urgent care. It has been over 3 months I have been incapacitated. I am a single Mom and have no one to help me or drive me. Driving every day hurts but I have to. I cannot get motivated to go in to Urgent care but think I must. Any advice? (I had also herniated a disc in my back last fall and it took 6 months to heal) I am 49 yr old female. Some of the other Dr office I called said they aren't taking new patients...What to do? I had done this to my foot by taking a leap up into the air and landing on it (the one foot) wrong (was trying to demonstrate a dance move to my kids)It hurt for a few days before I realized something was wrong.

Sorry to be so late responding. I appreciate all of the advice. My e-mail has been acting up so I didnâÂÂt get any notifications and forgot to look here. I thought of cooking it outside just to keep the odor out of the house. Using the garage isnâÂÂt practical with our house design. It turned out not to be a problem inside. I think that I've cooked it a higher temp in the past - often a vigorous simmer instead of barely a simmer. Much better broth quality with the lower temp. Grainlady, the homemade boullion cubes looks great! IâÂÂll remember that for the future. Ajsmama, the bones are from the half cow that I purchased last summer. Since most people donâÂÂt want them, I suspect I can get more from the processor quite inexpensively. I love the effect of the parboiling. I put the bones in a stockpot, then covered with cold water. My stove brings this to a boil in a few minutes. After a vigorous 3 minute boil, all kinds of crud surfaced. I rinsed the bones, then roasted them, and made the stock as usual. There was almost nothing to skim during the stock making and the stock tastes wonderful. I probably didnâÂÂt cool the stock as quickly as I should have, but it was all down to room temperature within 30 minutes from removing it from the stove, and straight into the fridge. I wish IâÂÂd thought to use the blue frozen packs as we have a ton of them. I sadly ended up losing half of my bones before I started, so made this on top of the stove. Fortunately itâÂÂs easy to maintain a bare simmer on that stove. I found that the pan from my 24 quart roaster fits perfectly in my prep sink. We filled the sink with ice and water so that it came up around the sides of the pan; then strained the stock into the pan & stirred to cool. Since my stock was very concentrated, I also added ice directly to the stock, about 2 trayâÂÂs worth. This was a mistake, as I did lose the visible gelatin. It still tastes good, but I certainly won't dilute if at all when drinking.