Wolf-Fart Puffballs, Bee Nucs & RoHo

Barn at Sunrise

This week I've spent my mornings searching for edible mushrooms. There is an Arkansas specific page on Facebook for mushroom hunters and they are a wealth of geeky information.  While they prefer the Latin names to converse with, I much pref saying wolf-fart puffballs (insert adolescent giggle here) instead of Lycoperdon pyriforme.  Lyco in Latin means "wolf" and perdon means "to break wind" which brings about the nickname. I haven't found any edible eats during my hunts yet, but am told they are definitely out here... in particular oyster mushrooms, lion's mane and hedgehog mushrooms.  Crossing fingers for a mushroom kill soon.  In early Fall I'll definitely be searching for the coveted Morel and I'm in a prime location for it.

Wolf-fart Puffballs (actually, a fungi and not a mushroom)

 I ordered my bee nuc!!!  A bee nuc is a small bee colony centered around a queen and has five frames for the colony to expand and grow.  My neighbor up the way keeps bees and she is going to drive with me when I go to pick it up in May and show me how to get started.  Bees do best in direct sun and there's a place where my garden plot will be that is perfect and will hopefully bring great pollination to my corn and everything else planted.  I'm very excited as I've wanted bees for a long time but previously couldn't keep them because there were horses too close by which is a no-no. 

Finally, I added a rooster to the family this week.  He is a young roo named RoHo and is named after a fun old song sung by Archie Campbell in the late 60's about the top cock fighting rooster named RoHo that all the other roosters were afraid to fight.  Well, my RoHo isn't living up to his name.  My dog Artie chased him off about an acre the first night he was let out from the coop and he spent that night somewhere in the woods in pouring rain.  The next morning I found him with the help of Artie, but boy was he a mess.  Artie had pulled out some of his down and his tail feathers were already missing due to being pecked off from other more dominant roos in his previous home.  I'm working with Artie not to chase him and she is getting much better.  We'll work it out... if he would just stop running Artie wouldn't be interested in chasing!  She doesn't want to hurt him thank goodness... she just thinks he is the best toy ever. 

Poor RoHo!

Overall, it's been a great week.  Lots of work getting done but wanted to focus on the more fun aspects of the week.  It's 26 degrees right now and gonna be cold going up to that barn!  Be well, everyone.