What a handsome boy Guiness is!
Get your own corgi done in felt – visit the Fiber Friends page and holler at me today! I still have room in my waiting list for holiday orders, but don’t delay!
Pacific Northwest Mushrooming – By Dummies
haha – yes, that’s right “by” dummies, not “for” dummies, as we really don’ t know what the heck we’re doing.
My husband and i LOVE foraging for mushrooms. We have two species we know how to ID (and know how to ID their look alikes) so that we feel confident eating them: chanterelles and king boletes (porcinis). Neither of which grow on our property, doh! We do have some pretty neat shrooms out here though, so we went gathering last weekend and brought them home to research and attempt to id, NOT eat. Here’s what we found:
These big fellows just popped up in the ‘trash area’ left to us between the barn and shop. They’re growing under a Maple tree. I believe Andy had an idea of the genus but i can’t remember.
Boletes are my favorite mushroom to cook – King Boletes in particular. We have a LOT of the red stemmed “bitter boletes” which i think you can tell from their name that they’re no good for eating. We’re not positive, but we THINK these are “fat jack” Suillus caerulescens. Supposedly edible but not delicious. I just hate not knowing/utilizing a potential food source!
We’re almost positive these are “shrimp mushrooms” a type of russula. The older specimen smelled strongly of fish/shrimp! I’ll admit, we did cook up a tiny bit and taste it, and it was gooood.
I haven’t a clue with these, but they are just gorgeous! We’ve got whole herds of these peachy colored mushrooms out in the woods. So lovey! They look a bit like “lactarius rubrilacteus” and do, in fact, bruise greenish.
These mushrooms are so.neat. Tall and skinny with a magical fringe. The gills are powdery looking. We IDd this one too, and again – i can’t remember. If my husband would answer his stinkin phone while i write this post it would be REALLY HELPFUL. There are several stands of these very magical looking mushrooms. They are clearly not edible, but totally gorgeous.
And lastly are these little colony guys. Growing in dense clusters they reminded me of ‘chicken of the woods’ but i’m sure that’s not what they are.
Are you a mycologist or knowledgable in the word of mushrooms? Lend your comments to our ID attempts! What kind of mushrooms are these, and what do you think of their edibility? Yes, no, flavorful, gross?
Filed under Foraging
Barn Renovations! Part 2: During
One day down, a few more to go! We didn’t get quite as much done as i’d like this past weekend, but we only had an afternoon to do the work as i had to work on Saturday. This coming weekend is all about the barn, though – so hopefully we can finish this wall and get the track up and get a good start on the opposing wall as well. Doors will probably have to wait until the next weekend but they can’t come too soon: i’ve got 6 new kits born, 9 getting bigger every day and another litter due any second. I’m ready to move them on over to the new cages, that are almost ready themselves.
Pocket was an excellent supervisor and was probably quite bemused by all us humans cursing loudly at tiny screws that refused to pierce the metal like they were supposed to. I think we’ll be finding screws as far as 20 feet away from the barn for years to come – those things are little stinkers! And thank goodness our ‘hired hand’ is about 7 feet tall or we’d never have been able to get the top bits screwed in just right. Now that we’ve got ‘the hang of it’ i’m hoping we can increase efficiency a bit and hammer out the rest of the wall. Oh right, we have to work around the track from now on…. cutting metal is my least favorite job on this work site.
Note on materials: we purchased our lumber from Van Well’s in Dallas and had the metal cut to our specifications from Willamette Valley Metals right here in Pedee! The metal came from about 3 miles away – now that’s going local! We chose the lowest priced metal that’ sa bit thinner than roofing metal and i think it looks just fine. For whatever reason the screws they sold us just don’t piece the metal easily like the screws we used on the chicken coop. Not sure why, but definitely curse inducing.
New boards up!
First metal up!
Looking a little nicer, ay?? I can’t wait to post the finished before/after – though even the after we’ll have completed soon won’t be the ‘real’ after, as i still have tons of manure to shovel out of the barn, long walls needing replacement before we get pigs (those little pig noses would jus tlove to squish out of any rotten spots!), and a bunch of painting/sealing to do plus just general CLEANING of the mess that is our barn interior…. One thing at a time…
It’s interesting working with someone else who isn’t part of my family unit. I’m normally quite the task master, hustling (safely) from one place to the next and maximizing efficiency at all times. Working with someone else means in part, working at their pace. Though in this case it also means access to a lifetime of knowledge, expertise and a bunch of really nice tools. Pros and cons, i guess. 😉
Next up, assembling my hanging cages and hopefully at least one wall finished!
Filed under DIY, Home, The Homestead
Filmore the Yard Pheasant
He’s baaaaack, and along with him are a few hens and about a dozen youngsters.
His tail sure has grown out since the spring and he struts around like he owns the place. I wonder what the pheasants and other birds will think when we get all the scotch broom cleared out. We’ll have to be sure and plant other understory shrubs to maintain their habitat. I sure love having such colorful lawn visitors! Though i’m sure i’ll feel a bit more like making him dinner once i have baby crops sprouting/ being eaten by pheasant mouths! For now, i think he’s too lovely to eat.
How about you? Are pheasants lovely to watch, or delicious to roast?
Filed under Critters, Wildlife / Birds
