The Adventures of Mushroom Farming Begins....

Here in three neat stacks are 213 logs

cut from hardwood last week.

Each log is 40 inches long.

This angle grinder has the bit attachment

needed to drill the holes on all the logs!

These are the inoculators!

(They will deliver the mushroom spawn

into the holes in all the logs....)

                    

Here are the blocks of cheese wax.....

They are melted and used to seal the holes of spawn and

the ends of the logs!

Here is ONE of the bags of mushroom

spawn that were used!



All together used 4 bags of

spawn to fill all those logs!!

(That equals 22 pounds)

NOW the hard part...

 WAITING FOR NEXT SPRING!

I've shared this on Simple Lives Thursday!

Please go check out some

wonderful ideas shared by others!

Mushrooms... The Next Step

Pete is drilling the holes, approx 4-5 inches

apart all the way down the log.

Depending on the diameter of the log,

you can drill a few rows.

 Pete and Arnie are filling the drilled holes

with mushroom spawn.

Audrey & Steve are painting cheese wax over the

spawn and over the ends of the logs.

This helps keep the moisture in over the

next year until they start growing!

 As the day went on.... the 'party got bigger'

We have a whole assembly line of helpers now!

Pete built the cool table so that the logs

can just be rolled down the line from holes,

filling holes (with the bags of spawn in the

center area), to waxing them up on the end!

Abby, Austin and Audrey are working on

the waxing process here!

A bit out of order, but once Austin helped

get the waxing caught up, he and Steve started

drilling holes on another stack!

Pete & Donna are working the palm

inoculators as Rita is keeping the log steady!

Can you see the wax seals?

The end of the day....  all the logs

are inoculated heading down to a

shady place where they will be stacked

again and

rest until spring!

In the spring, these logs will be shocked by

putting them into a cold water bath for up to

24 hours and then within 10 days the fruit

of mushrooms should begin to grow!!

We have ONE log from last year when Pete & Steve

went to a training seminar that has been shocked.

We are awaiting the fruit!!

I'll keep you posted as it grows!

This was shared on Simple Lives Thursday!!

Go check out the other wonderful

ideas that folks have shared!

Mason Jars

My daughter says I am a 'jar hoarder'.

I say, "But there are LOTS of fun & practical

things you can do with jars. You can't

just get rid of them!!"

Check out this project!

 I bought the lids a few years

ago when we were in an Amish

community hardware store. My

original plan for the lids never happened,

so when I saw this idea, I KNEW I had all

the parts needed to make it!

Another GREAT reason to keep

mason jars!!

(and parts of the unfinished projects)

Laundry

Laundry...

It may sound odd, but it

was an exciting weekend around here!

The washing machine came out and

I can do laundry at home once again!

For those of you who have the conventional

washer/dryer set up in your home, you

may not appreciate this.

BUT, if you've

had to depend on the laundry mat and know

about putting the endless stacks of quarters

 into the machines....

you will certainly understand the excitement

of warm enough weather to

HANG OUT THE CLOTHES!

There's nothing like the 'April fresh smell'

of clothes hung out on the line in APRIL!