Tales from Easement Acres
I assumed these would come back, judging from the quantity of embedded mycelium that remains in the straw. And they did.
I did not, however, harvest them. I should have, to give to my dad, but I didn’t get around to it. Oh well. Still neat to look at. If not palatable, they’re still aesthetic, and it’s an interesting concept to consider that I now have a multi-year self-sustaining mushroom colony, provided I keep feeding it wood and straw. I’m still holding out of the blue oysters!
–Simon
Here’s a cool bug I haven’t seen before in the yard: an eight-spotted forester.
Apparently a native and unremarkable species, this moth lives at the edges of forests and open fields, with their caterpillars feeding on, among other things, virginia creeper. It was, in fact, spotted resting upon a dormant virginia creeper vine at the edge of my yard.
Noteworthy only because it was the first time I’ve seen one.
–Simon
This is a rather unremarkable project, but after spending over $200 on a chemical wash for my A/C unit, following the cost of a thermal sensor replacement due to overheating – some dust mitigation was in order.
In my defense, the HVAC installers got me all paranoid. I’m familiar with washing A/C coils, but with this fancy new unit they impressed upon me the importance of not washing the unit too thoroughly, lest I fuck it up and short out the board. I had just spent $15K on this, so I definitely didn’t want to fuck it up.
Turns out I fucked it up anyway by not washing it enough. I can’t win.
So hoping to strike a balance in the proper washing, I though it might help to simply reduce the amount of airborne dirt in the unit’s vicinity. Also, I didn’t like the accompanying mud pit that appeared with every rain. So I threw down some pebbles.
Not every post here is interesting.
–Simon
I haven’t shot my bow all winter. So on a whim, I fired some arrows off.
How about that?
I guess my muscle memory ultimately outlasts the mental aspects of a given task – not exactly a profound revelation. I mean, this is why training routines focus of repetition. It was just interesting to see firsthand. Stop thinking and just act. Go figure.
–Simon
My last mushroom farming attempt was successful, however the variety of mushroom I found to be unpalatable.
So this year, I’m attempting Blue Oysters. I like oyster mushrooms. I hope this works out. This variety came as plugs, which I then embedded into chunks of a freshly-cut maple branch lost to high winds.
Here’s hoping! If they don’t take, I’m sure the wine caps will be back. The straw in the bucket is heavily packed with mycelium from last year.
–Simon