Mushroom Hunting

     Emma and I went mushroom hunting on our property and this is what we found.  Now we have to try and identify them to see what, if any, are edible and which ones might be poisonous!  All together I think we found 17 different mushrooms.  It was a lot of fun!!

 Does pretty mean edible?

 

 The sun was setting and it really made the mushrooms look so pretty.

 Same as above, just a different angle.

  This one is kind of creepy looking, although maybe it's that the picture is a little blurry.  You know, I should really use my glasses when I take pictures!!

 You have to look closely when mushroom hunting because you might miss something. 

 These are the most beautiful orange mushrooms I've ever seen,

especially when the sun hits them just right.  (Really, these are the only orange mushrooms I've ever seen and they were amazing.)

 This one was about 3 - 4 inches in diameter.

 Interesting.

 I don't think this is a shriveled up version of what's just above.

 It's interesting how some mushrooms like to grow from dead logs and some grow in the ground.

 This one looks like popped pop corn.

 Interesting one.

 This one looks like it's hard, but it's not.  It feels like a mushroom.

 Maybe a button mushroom?

 Just a flat one.

 I don't think this is a morel, but who knows, we're new to this fungus stuff.

 These are pretty.

 I wonder how long these grow for the season because if these continue to grow, they might just take over the whole forest!

    This is a close up of the stump above.  Sorry it's blurry!  Glasses, I know, I know!

Well, that's our day hunting mushrooms.  Now we have some work to do.  If you can identify any of these fungi, please let us know!  

Thanks!

Sandy 

July 14

Making Hay

     

Baling 101 - Landon.

      The break in the weather finally gave our area the opportunity to cut and bale hay.  From what our neighbors have said, we (including everyone else), should have cut hay almost a month ago but the weather just wouldn't cooperate.  I can understand, at least a little now, why farmers are so interested in constantly watching the weather to see what the patterns will do because the timing of the weather has to be just right.   

     From what we've learned, you need at least 5 days in a row without any rain to cut and bale the hay.  One day to cut the hay and a day or two of hot, dry weather with, hopefully, a little breeze for it to dry.  Then a day to rake it and a day to bale it.  Then it needs to sit out in the field after it's been baled for at least a day or two so you can keep an eye on it in case it starts to heat up.  If it starts to heat up it could start on fire; not likely, but possible. 

     The reason it could start on fire is because of spontaneous combustion.   If the hay sits in the field for a day or two, you can check on the bale to see if it's heating up or not before taking it to the barn and stacking it.  

      

     Here's a great resource for spontaneous combustion from the Washington State University.

    Thanks so much to The Rancher and his wife for all of their help and taking the time to teach our boys how to cut, rake, and bale hay and especially for the use of their equipment.  It has been an incredible experience for all of us!!

     We took some picture to show you a snippet of what they did in the course of a few days.

 

This is what the hay rake looks like while it's being pulled to and from the field.  I don't know about you, but every once in a while I would see these strange things while out and about and I've always wondered what they were.  Now I know, and so do you!!

 This is the rake doing it's job.  How creative were our forefathers who came before us!!

 

 A view of the field after it's been cut and raked.  As you can see, it was a beautiful day!!

      Just another view of the field.  The rake makes these perfect looking windrows for the baler to come along and bale the hay.  

 

A bale that's been dropped off by the baler.  And that's the baler in the background working on cleaning up the field and making another bale of hay.

 

The finished product!! 

The grass is already growing since we've cut and baled the field so we'll see if we can get another cutting on it again this year. 

July 15, 2014

Sandy

Trying to Get Water out of an Old Well ~ Part 1

After we purchased this property, the boys found this well near the old homestead.  Thankfully it's been surrounded by barbed wire.  Can you see it back there?  

Can you see the barbed wire back there?

Cooper with the brush mower clearing a path to the well.

Landon and Barrett getting ready to try and pump water out of the well.

Barrett was trying to get the end of the hose into the water.  The hose didn't want to stay; it kept curling up.

The top of the water was about 6-8 feet from the top of the well.

The boys figured the water in the well was about 20 feet deep.

Still trying to get water out of the well with the pump.

After working for about 1/2 an hour to get the pump to pump water, Landon decided to take it apart to see why it wasn't working.  When he opened it, we could see why.  This pump came from a friend of ours who went to clean out a mans apartment who no one had seen for a while.  Unfortunately, he had died in his home. 

And here was the problem; at least a big part of it!!  The inside of the housing was coated with tar!

After cleaning out the housing, he was still trying to get the pump to work.  It's not sucking up water.

Shane came to offer his advice (a meeting of the minds).

Landon priming the pump.

Finally, we struck liquid GOLD!!

This bucket is stuck in the concrete and there is a hole in the bottom of bucket from corrosion.  Maybe this was a holding spot for the bucket that they used to get water out of the well?  Any ideas?

     This well hasn't been used in over 100 years and there is still water in it.  We wanted to try and pump water out so we could see if it filled up again.  And if it did, then we could use the water to water our garden that we would like to put in near the bottom of this hill.

     After working on this project for almost 2 hours we finally got the pump to work and when it worked, boy did it work.  We were all standing near the well when the pump finally kicked in and some of us got soaked because they didn't have the hose connected and, boy was it COLD!!

Sandy
July 11, 2014