Mushroom Hunting

We found my favorite mushrooms tucked into the redwood duff on our walk through the property this Winter Solstice. These bright yellow inedible mushies are called Witches Hat. Of course, they are my favorite. Although, I really like this brown guy growing in the middle of our dirt road.

Joey and I are new to mushroom hunting or picking so of course we consult the books and don’t eat anything that isn’t obviously safe to eat. We hiked overland, exploring parts of our 44 acres that I hadn’t seen before. I was totally lost in my own backyard. Forest bathing, breathing with trees and fog. Joey has been trekking all over the property, whereas I’ve stuck mostly to the pre-existing logging roads or a few game trails - meaning paths that bigger animals like deer, bear and cougar push through the tall grass or on the dirt that wends through the redwood, madrone, black oak and fir trees.

Today, we are deep in the forest and I lost my read on the cardinal points. I didn’t know where north was. Finally I surrender to being lost and that’s when the fun really starts and the forest spirit unveils its majesty. We mostly find fungi that intrigues us but haven’t dared to eat - except for the clearly obvious oyster mushrooms.

Just when I was getting a little freaked out about where we were and how far I was from resting, I recognized a fairy ring I had seen before. Even the Mendo loggers call the circle of redwood trees a fairy ring. You cannot deny the spirit of the redwood.
It’s just not a thing.

I gasped, “This is where the bear was denning.” In summer, we had found this fair ring old old growth redwood trees. I thought it could be a special meditation site for me until Joey noted the bear-sized impression in the duff of the hollowed-out redwood stump and the steaming pile of bear scat.

I had left the place alone until this moment.

Joey scurried up the redwood duff to the center of the ring where fifteen foot wide tree stumps gave evidence to the massive logging of of Mendocino redwood forests after the 1906 San Francisco fire. He looked around the stand of impressive trees and their remains and nodded nonchalantly, “Yup.” He waited out for my yelp and then added with a mountain man’s slow confidence, “The bear is gone.” He laughed as I audibly sighed. We both knew that bears roam and don’t always stay in the same den through the year. It had been six months since we had seen fresh bear scat.

I love getting to know this land and all of its inhabitants.

Patience, Grace and Homesteading

The chill air means its time to get the garlic into the homemade garden beds from fallen wood and the soil we emptied out of seventy-five grow pots on the hill just outside our kitchen window.  While waiting to come back to Willits, we planted out first seeds in 4-inch pots: pumpkin, artichokes and arugula and finally transplanted them in the garden bed. The pumpkin has a blossom, but I don’t think there is enough heat left in the year to make a fruit. I planted a peach pit in a shotglass full of dirt, left it in the window, and a month later, it sprouted. We planted the sprout on the corner of the hill next to the two hoop houses. I counted 612 grow pots under two shear-white canvassed garden ramadas: the future home of Arty Chokey Farm. Since artichoke plants grow wider than cannabis, we’ll make some adjustments once the operation is in full swing.

For now, the season is also right for poppies. I’ve patiently held onto the can of California poppy seeds since May. I laid down weed cloth on the spiral path (which leads to a future fire pit) that we had created with the soil from sixty grow pots that were over the leech field (where the sewer system leeches into the earth). Clearly, this is not an ideal place for food, but perhaps good for flowers – especially if we are careful about the products we send down the drain. Sustainability is close at hand here in the Hollows.

I raked and hauled ten wheelbarrows of fallen leaves of oak, madrone, and bay, plus needles of Redwood and Douglas fir from the old lumber road and placed the leaves on the spiral path. Felt funny to rake the forest floor, but there was plenty of leaves and more to come! Some day we might get a chipper so we can make our own woodchips, which will be an easier upkeep on the spiral path as the mulch composts. Joey also wants a back hoe tractor, dump trailer, quad and a few other things. I want another water storage for more pressure in a bathhouse made of strawbale with a view of the 18,000 acres of forest. We both want an outdoor woodburning oven.

I am in love with my sweet kitchen garden, with a rose geranium cutting that has blossomed huge leaves perfect for the recipe from The Wicca Herbal. The calendula is strong, but clearly not getting enough sun. I have no idea why the leaves are spotty, but there are so many helpful herbalists in Mendocino County that I’m sure I’ll get the answer. The chamomile was getting squished and so moved to a new location and is thriving next to a new basil plant and a cutting from an aloe vera that I planted with Kobe’s placenta underneath it for nourishment twenty-three years ago.

Joey cleared a mountain of poison oak and “bucked up” the dead oak tree that had fallen into the bay tree. We gathered the bay leaves and along with some rosemary, put them in a soup that was deliriously delicious. He’s terraforming the earth around the house for defensible space in case of fire, preparation for mud slides from winter rains, and potentially building a strawbale living room. The wood beams would come from the two fir trees, whom I have named Freddie and Fannie, that are leaning 40-80 feet above the house and need to be repurposed and harvested for safety. I made a throne from a manzanita bush.

I met a new friend at the farmers market, then we went to organic brewery. I celebrated the New Moon with four new Magickal women toasting with rose petal whiskey, absinthe, potluck dinner and a hot tub. We went to the pankcake breakfast at the grange, hung Connie’s Grey Wolf picture and hosted family, including brother Tony who helped install the new heater. We walked through redwood forest on the property where blue lines on trees mark the trees for logging that we’ve saved. We visited our new favorite way to spend an afternoon at Artevino Wines. The ocean took my breath away. I got a reading from the infamous Ma Sherry Glaser with the big question – how do I stay playful when the message of Bloody Day in Brawley Lake, my murder mystery dinner play, is so important to me. The book signing at Gallery Bookshop was amazing, as was the dinner afterward with the authors from the event.

The big question is always, when we will move. I say, “When I learn to operate a chain saw so I can handle fallen trees in the road.” Joey says when he retires, which could be next summer. Only time will tell. For now, we visit about a week a month. I know I’ll be running for this Mendocino Forest more often than my servant-leader of a man who can work overtime at CalTrans plowing snow if it’s a big winter. I have spent one night alone here and it’s so quiet and still, I love it. I am ready.