C E L E B R A T E

                                                

Birthday bags of Oyster and Wine Cap mushroom spawn 

                                                            Disclaimer: I wrote this about a week ago so the timing may be a little off.

A few days ago, I watched an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which everyone was highly aware that Captain Picard needed a full-on holiday though he was unable to admit that to himself. That episode seemed to parallel directly to my life at the moment. Though from afar, it may seem like I am an extremely relaxing place, most of the time I have been hard at work. As I mentioned before, I have been busy writing a book, taking an online course, tending the garden, learning about wild plants, getting accustomed to the job, meditating, exercise, yoga, etc etc etc. The list goes on and on. I seem to have very little trouble with motivating myself to be busy and productive, but have major trouble actually letting myself put on the brakes and relax for some time. So, after some difficult convincing, I have managed to allow myself time to just rest this week. I have stopped setting a morning alarm, I have moved slower, and have been mostly having fun playing music. The weather has cooperated with this decision, as it has been rainy and foggy, thus causing our fire hazard levels to be very low. 

This is where the Wine Caps had been placed.

Another part of this decision making was due to the fact that my 28th birthday was a few days ago. When I turned 27, my friend told me that it was going to be one of the most difficult years of my life. I don’t know how he knew that, but it turned out to be pretty true! Thus, I felt it was suitable to have a week of celebrating the fact that I have now passed this hurdle, though I’m sure it’s not just going to be smooth sailing from here on out. I made myself a birthday cake, some delicious vegan spaghetti carbonara, and have been indulging myself on these for most of the week. For my birthday, my parents got me two special gifts: two bags of mushroom spawn so that I can grow my own edible mushrooms in my house. My friend Michael has a beautiful mushroom growing facility (https://forestmoonfungi.com/) and he sent me a bag of Oyster mushrooms and another of Wine Cap. With the Oysters, all I had to do was cut two slits into the bag, which promotes the mycelium (the organism from which mushrooms grow) to extend its fruit out for the purpose of spreading its spores for reproductive sakes. Unfortunately, I don’t think any of those spores will land on a healthy growing environment within my cabin, though wouldn’t it be beautiful if Oyster mushrooms started growing from my floor! Once they grow big enough, I pull them off and enjoy a delicious meal of gourmet mushrooms. They will repeat this growing once or twice more. With the Wine Cap mushrooms, I made a little garden bed for them outside with wet cardboard and pasteurized straw. Pasteurizing straw just means putting it covered in water for a week, so that the bacteria on the straw dies off and doesn’t affect the mushrooms growth. When I pulled off the lid of the straw container, I was startled by the stench of ammonia that entered my nostrils. It is the smell of dead bacteria, but is also the smell of cow manure (which contains a lot of ammonia), so for a few days afterwards, my site smelled like a stinky farm. Hopefully these Wine Cap mushrooms will fruit before I leave here at the end of August! 

Oyster Mushrooms! They look like an alien landscape. Note the white powdery stuff below them. Those are their spores! Also, see how the bald eagle has landed on one of them

Along with all this, the spinach and kale in my garden are growing quite rapidly, it seems! Though there hasn’t been a lot of sun for them recently, I think they have been happy with the amount of rain that we have had. Perhaps they will be ready for me to eat in a few weeks. It is nice to have put in a lot of effort with them in the beginning, and all I have to do now is water them when it’s not raining and weed the beds every so often. The only other thing I can think of to mention is that the other night there was a massive thunderstorm all around me, which forced me to be awake for two hours. Though I enjoy storms during the day, I was pretty afraid to be woken up like this. I’m always quite sensitive in the night, so having explosions and dramatic rainsounds all around me was a little frightening!

Storms a-coming!

That’s all from me now. I’m going off to continue my restful weekend.