Wandering The Woods
This is the in-between time here on the farm. We are not yet into really winter weather and a little too cool to be considered fall, the mushrooms are still popping up in the forest although at a much slower pace than a month ago. I have been trying to get into the woods each day while this in-between time holds along with my mushroom buckets and farm dogs to keep me company.
Even trying to take a picture of the canines while we go a-walking is a difficult task because they are moving constantly, trying to out-smell each other to find new animal trails, dens, or whatnot.
I’m not just on the lookout for the mushrooms, I’m also trying to persuade the large herd of elk that our woods are not hospitable. I tried to count them as dusk fell at the farm, I tallied 45 with more in the tree line where I saw movement but could not get an accurate assessment.
Along with the scouting dogs, I carry a loud whistle (gifted from a dear friend) to toot at odd intervals as I walk the paths. Part of the hillside has had significant elk damage as they have torn through the foliage on their way to the grazing/hay field at the bottom of the hill. With the grass stunted by the cooler weather, we need to keep as much of the grazing available for our cows. Hunting season cleared out a couple of the animals, but since the end of the regular elk hunting seasons, the group has come back to forage in earnest.
I know I cannot keep the critters out all together, but while I take in the beauty of the forest, I can do my part to put a damper on their damaging ways and get a few mushrooms as I roam.
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Susan – One mushroom story from me. You told us that the orange peel mushroom would puff out spores if you breathed on top of it. I tried it a few times with no result and was beginning to think you were pulling our leg and chuckling at your readers trying to get down close enough to puff on them. Then last Friday, I was babysitting my four-year-old great granddaughter and told her the tale when we spotted the orange mushrooms. She got down close, puffed on the mushroom, we started counting to 10 and by 7 that mushroom puffed back! You weren’t kidding. It didn’t work on all the orange mushrooms, but it did on a few. The tale is true!
I love getting friends, family and visitors interested in some of the amazing things I have found in nature