A Year in the Forest

  The forest was damp and the air cool this morning.  I took the opportunity to go off the beaten path and look at some other areas.  I am not sure why but the bird activity was really ramped u, they were flitting around and bathing in puddles everywhere.  I did find one thing I have been looking for – more of the deer carcass from a few days ago.  I also found some fresh puffball mushrooms that I picked and we had or supper.

  The forest is different today.  Yesterday and overnight we received over an inch of rain.  That was not enough to get the ground good and wet but it did bring down some more leaves and change the tenor of the forest.  I did find a couple of mushrooms which was a welcome change after the last week.  And one that I found was another Maitake, one of my favorite mushrooms.  It was only about two pounds but big enough to provide mushrooms for a few days.  I took time to pick up some chestnuts and a paw-paw and eat them while on my walk.

I got to go out in the woods in the morning today.  It is cooler and this morning a little quieter.  The air is moist and the ground is dry.  The leaves are coming down more all the time and all the paths are now covered with leaves.  For some reason, the leaf colors don’t seem as bright this year, probably the hot dry weather.  I took a little time and went off my beaten path today and was rewarded by the change. 

First I found enough oyster mushrooms to make a good batch to cook.  Second, I followed my nose and found another paw-paw patch with ripe paw-paws all over the ground.  I gathered about 20 good fruits and left that many more that had some blemish on them (usually something took a bit or two out of them).  There are few things as sweet smelling as paw-paws.  They make things like honey-suckle and corn pale by comparison.  Super sweet smell.

The log which had 2 or 3 pounds of mushrooms a couple of days ago was completely cleaned out today.

  Here is the view today.  You can see the trees turning and the leaves on the ground.  It finally got a little cooler around here.  Yesterday I foolishly decided to wait a day to harvest a big batch of honey mushrooms.  I should have known that the woodland creatures would get them if I did and sure enough, what was 2 or 3 pounds of mushrooms was almost completely wiped out.  I got maybe 1/4 of a pound.  Oh well, I guess they needed them more than I.    I did smell a pawpaw again but was unable to locate it.  I saw a few squirrels but did not see the deer again.

The most interesting thing happened before I took my walk.  I was talking to my neighbor and he was telling me how a skunk got a yellow jacket nest for him also.  He related how the skunk used to live under his shed.  When I asked him how he got rid of it, he said that he had taken a piss around the shed every night for a couple of weeks and the skunk just left.  Now he only does it about once a week to keep it away.  Haw never heard of that.  But more interestingly, he told me how he had been at the back of his property, which backs up to my woods, one evening when he heard a low growl like a big cat purring and when he turned to look saw something in the underbrush going off.  This is the same woods I had heard the large cat growl in.  There are not supposed to be any large cats in our area and we have both been told we were crazy when we told other people about what we saw/heard.  I guess its nice to have it confirmed, now it makes me wonder what is in the woods.

  Here is the picture looking down into the stream bed as I have been showing the past few days.  You should start to notice how there are fewer leaves.  You can even see the sky in the background a little.  All the paths are noticeably covered with leaves now and there are more coming down all the time.

I fully expected all the mushrooms to be gone today but was surprised to see that not only were some new ones coming up but a log that had a few sprouting yesterday is covered today.    The picture only shows a small portion of the mushrooms.  I plan on harvesting a big batch tonight and having them for supper.

The squirrels are still very busy and I saw them on the ground again today.  I have not seen or heard a deer in a couple of days.