What the hay?

My compost hasn't been doing very well lately. I've been finding a lot of flies (not necessarily bad, just annoying if you can avoid them), mold and, recently, mushrooms in my compost. Now, flies and mold are part of the decomposition process, but not necessarily what you want in your compost. Mushrooms are definitely not welcome there.
I was able to determine through my internet researching that my compost was too wet. This is an issue, since I live in the Pacific Northwest and, well, it's wet here. So I covered the top of the bin with a plastic bag, hoping that would keep the water down a little bit. When that didn't exactly work, I decided I needed worms.
Turns out Petco sells the red wigglers I needed! (Note, when going to buy worms, do not buy meal worms, and, whatever you do, don't LOOK at them!! They are disgusting). So I sent Geoff out to get worms, and he came back with this.

Yes, that is a bale of straw, not hay (What the Straw? didn't sound as good as a blog title). And yes, it is hanging out the back of his car. When I told my sister, she said: "I didn't realize you guys were that
rural." Me either!

But apparently we live close enough to the country to be able to buy bales of straw in the local feed supply store. Who knew?

So, between the worms eating the stuff and the straw keeping it dry, I think our compost is on its way to recovery!

Meanwhile, I was able to harvest a little compost and spread it around some of our plants. (That's what the blobs of damp, well, compost, are in that picture) I didn't take a picture of the plants that got compost last week, but I swear they are bigger!

Our sugar snap peas don't need compost. They're huge all on their own. I ate about a dozen yesterday, and there are plenty more where they came from!