Inoculating the Mushroom Log

Apple tree in bloom.  

Another long term project that I've been wanting to try is growing our own mushrooms. New Mexico was too dry to do this, but we have the right climate here.  I ordered a package of Shitake mushroom spawn, and we cut down a small oak to use as the growing medium for the spawn.

The mushroom spawn are  embedded into small wooden dowels, and the log is inoculated by drilling holes, and hammering the dowels into the fresh green wood. In this case, it is an oak log.  Oak is preferred because it is a wood that will not rot quickly.  If this goes as it should, the log will produce mushroom for about 8-10 years, several times a year.  The first run of growth will take awhile, up to nine months. So, that's why I say, "long term project".  During this first nine months, the mycelium are growing inside the log.  The end of this "run" will be indicated by white  growth at the cut ends of the log.  At this time, the log will be soaked, submerged in water, which will stimulate fruiting.  If I am fortunate, beautiiful Shitake mushrooms will begin to grow along the length of the log.

Steve got a new cordless drill, which I got to try out today. After the holes are drilled, and the dowels hammered in, the holes are sealed with wax. I used the red cheese wax.

First, the supervisor showed up.

"Are you sure you're doing that right?"

The the union reps came by.  They were "helpful".

In other news, we removed the window from the old shed before demolition. We will keep it for use on our greenhouse. The hoops went up in the garden, with some difficulty due to rocky soil, and I moved all the tomatoes and peppr plants to the chick greenhouse till planting day. More onions and celery were started.

the goslings finally have names. After watching their personalities for several weeks, we have decided on Angus and Gracie.  Angus is already showing his goose tendencies by chasing off the young pullets if they get too close to me,  its pretty amusing.

Installing a Fence on the Hottest Day so Far This Year

Yes, there is a little bit of whining behind that title.  We went from winter to summer, sort of skipping the whole nice spring weather thing for the most part.  And this warm weather woke up all the b lack flies. If you don't know what they are, google it. I'm sure they are part of the curse when Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden of Eden..  you know,, "you will now toil by the sweat of your brow, and black flies shall feast upon you whilst you labor".  Ok, well maybe that's not exactly the way it goes. But black flies are devilish little critters that make life miserable.

Anyway,  we needed to get the permanent garden fence installed, and today was the day to do it.  And it was hot. And the black flies were awful.  But Steve did a wonderful job getting the fence up.  We still have to put in a gate, but are using the electric netting gate for now.  We had planned on wooden corner posts, but there were so many rocks, we simply COULD NOT DIG HOLES.   So we just used the t-posts. The result is an almost invisible fence.  Hardly noticeable.  It will keep both the chickens and the dogs out.  While we were working, somehow one of the hens got in there, and started munching on the greens... you just can't turn your back for a moment...And Gibbs the dog would just pee on everything, so he has to stay out too.

Wild turkeys wandering across the pasture.  

The new fence.  Its nice to know the garden is safe from critters now.

The potatoes are planted.  Nobody around here has any straw for mulching, so I used leaves that I raked out from under the red maple. Thats about 150 feet of potatoes.  I wonder if it is enough.  

We also got the big door off the old shed, in preparation for it being torn down soon. Can you see how much that center post in front has kicked out? 

I hope they are eating all the ticks out there. Thats their job, after all.  

Little by Little

Little by little, things are getting done.  Baby steps, often, but steps nonetheless.  Today's work, thanks to some help from our great neighbor,  accomplished in about an hour and a half with his tractor what would have taken me at least a week to do.

We cleared out the area next to the blueberry patch, for raspberries.  That pile of trees on the right is only part of what got pull or dug out.  Big stones were placed back on the stone wall.  It's a big mucky in there now, but maybe I can finally get the raspberries in the ground by Monday.

The potato field, looking towards the chicken coop. Look closely for my two assistants.
I figure about 3 rows of potatoes, some winter squash, sunflowers and field corn will grow here. I will also seed some pole beans on the corn stalks.

A big change was the cutting down of three cherry trees.  (non fruiting) They are a wild type tree, with, yes, lovely blooms, but they were just in the wrong place.  Steve carries the good firewood pieces to the garage, and the rest will go to the burn pile.

The clearing work from yesterday and today. Trees were right in the foreground growing out of the stone wall.

When I cleared the thorny bushes and vines yesterday, I discovered this nice healthy rhubarb plant I didn't even know was there. Rhurbarb pie anyone?

Now that the trees are down, our view got a little bit better.

And the cherry tree blossoms, along with a few daffodils will grace the kitchen table to remind us of spring!

Preparing Seed Potatoes

I should have done this several days ago.  Better late than never, I guess. I cut the seed potatoes into plantable pieces, and laid them on this old screen to dry. It's propped up between two raised rows in the garden, so air can get underneath. 

Here are the pieces. You can see I have some pretty good sprouts already.  Though you CAN plant the whole potato, you may end up with several plants all bunched together, because each one of these eyes, with it's sprout, is a potential plant.  So I just cut around the eyes, leaving some potato with each piece.  You CAN plant these right in the ground after cutting, but that is risking the pieces rotting before they can grow. Better to let them dry for several days, a get a leathery dry surface to prevent the rot from happening.

Heirloom raspberries, a gift from a neighbor who is thinning her rows. Gotta get these in the ground soon.

Mostly what I did today was clear brush. It was hot, sweaty, and buggy work. The black flies are out, nasty little critters.
You can see the before and after in this shot.. I got as far as the trees, and just had to stop and take a break from the heat and biting insects.  All those thorny bushes are what I am digging and cutting... they all have to come out.  

Morning

Nothing refreshes like a nice drink out of the nasty geese pool water.

It's about 6:15 am. Sun peaks over the ridgeline.  I hear robins, woodpeckers, and chickadees.  It's a beautiful spring day.

Sunlight hits the hillside. Trees are budding out!

This camera angle is a bit skewed, but even so, the goslings are getting mighty close to being as big as the hens. They are already bigger , at 3  weeks, than the 4 month old chicks.  

Tree shadow on the white house.  

King of the dirt pile.

Looking for bugs...

They seem to be listening to something

Cuteness.

And, here are the goslings enjoying a morning swim in their kiddie pool. They do love it.

Planting

Cabbages and onions actually got planted in the garden today! wooHOO! I have a few more cabbages to put in tomorrow, along with some lettuce and spinach and kale, broccoli and cauliflower.. all the early stuff. Will seed carrots also. This is the fun part.  Well, eating it all is the fun part, but this is rewarding after doing sooooo much backbreaking work getting the ground ready. There are four different kinds of cabbages, about 50 of them I think.  And maybe 150 onions, I lost some of the seedlings. Need more if I am to have enough to last till next year.

The youngsters hanging out by the compost pile.  Those white Brahmas are really nice looking pullets, don't you think?

Empty seed trays (what the onions were in), now ready to seed some flowers.

accckkk!  The chickens found my pepper seedlings and snacked heavily,pulling some of them completely out of their pots. I don't think any of them were completely destroyed, but, as you can see, they got nipped pretty well....
AACCCKKKK!   See why I had to put the fence around the  garden. Even so, they reached through and nipped the cabbage plants close to the fence.  

All of the photos of the garden area are barren and brown. That's because the former owner scraped the topsoil off that flat area to use as a driveway.  Maybe we can eventually  put some new dirt down and re-plant some green around the garden, I didn't want you to think the whole property is like that, so here is the side yard to show that things really are starting to look like spring here...Forsythia blooming and green grass.

The big chickens could not figure out the new waterer, but the youngsters took to it immediately.  Nice, clean, poop free water... That is a Plymouth Rock pullet on the left, and a Light Brahma pullet on the right. Both very pretty.

Another shot to the northeast.. trees are beginning to bud and pastures are greening up.

Temporary Garden Fence

This is electric poultry net fencing.  It is a great, easy-to-use modular fencing system that can be used for other small animals too. I dont have it elelctrified at the moment. I just had to get something around the garden before I started planting or the chickens would scratch it all up.  We plan to eventually put a permanent fence around the garden, and we will use this  fence to place the chickens safely in other parts of the property.  They will be quite safe from predators-even hawks wont fly into a small fenced enclosure like this.

This is the gate.  The gate will be electrified also, but the plastic handle allows the user to open and close it without getting shocked. We will have a solar charger hooked up to the battery that runs the fence... at some point.  I dont need it electrified yet.

So maybe I can plant a few things tomorrow!

My summertime cologne.  It is officially black fly season. And hey, I like the smell of citronella and cedar!