I Buy Dirt

There is a pile of mulch on the floor of my bedroom.

More specifically, there are three 11 liter (10 dry quarts) bags of cypress bedding taking up a not-negligible amount of space beside the ladder I use to get up onto my bed.

So, basically, there’s a pile of mulch on the floor of my bedroom.

A friend of mine grabbed them for me this past weekend at a reptile show that I was unable to attend; he dropped them off yesterday (which I much appreciate), and now – being that my freezer is full (of coffee grounds, chicken, and rats, apparently), I feel like I’m starting a compost pile right there in my living quarters.

I definitely leave a smaller carbon footprint than others, but this is a bit ‘green’ even for me. ;)

…What does the full freezer have to do with anything?

Cypress mulch has a lot of perks; it’s great for maintaining humidity while remaining mold & mildew resistant, it does a fantastic job of odor control, it’s reasonably attractive, and it’s inexpensive.

It is also a natural bedding, which means that funky little critters might enjoy making their homes in it before it gets into the snake cage. One way to help prevent contaminating the tanks with these joyous little organisms is to expose the bedding to extreme temperatures before I use it in the tanks; I shove the bags into the freezer for about a week, pull them out to thaw, then use them. The other alternative would be to bake the bedding; aside from losing the natural moisture in it (which I want to keep), there’s something weird to me about sticking what is basically damp kindling in the oven (cue visions of burning the house down).

I’ve got to take a look and see what I can move, how I can make room… until then, I’ll continue to hope that no one mistakes what’s going on and starts tossing their garbage in here.