For one thing it was smelly, a bit like the bottom of a compost pile.

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They eat table scraps, and their waste goes in the compost pile.

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So now, I spend a large portions of my free time watching praying mantids molt, hummingbirds catch gnats over the compost pile, monarch caterpillars munch away the milkweed.

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Not long after, it became obvious that my bag, a freebie from the National Book Festival, was a mini-compost pile, with a pretty obvious lining of various meat and vegetable sleazes.

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