So actually it was just a 6 day fast - I had fruit on Thursday morning plus some "normal" breakfast and I plan on having dinner tonight. But this is the longest fast I've done on my own - except for my original "bigu" fast back in 2000 when I had my "enlightenment experience" that opened up the third eye - with the energy of Spring Forest qigong master Chunyi Lin
So I actually made a couple new bird recordings - of the Swainson's Thrush which is considered the "reverse Veery" and then the Veery couple returned (as they have every summer since I bought this land). And so I have a third recording of the Veery together with the Swainson's Thrush. I recorded this at night - or Shaolin style - early morning. It must have been around the time that qigong master Chunyi Lin wakes up for his qigong and tai chi - around 4:30 am. So I'll work on editing the sound - as my record still had a lot of background noise. I am still learning and experimenting with the Tascam.
So the noise I got on the Tascam was because it was too close to the AC adapter on the lithium generator!!
So I finished the first batch of logs for Soltree Shiitake Shrooms. I amazingly just finished up my first bag of mycelium sawdust spawn with the last log - I just have a little bit left that I am saving. So now I'll start the 2nd bag of sawdust spawn as I start inoculating the alder logs. I also have photos of this work but I'm not sure it's that interesting. I converted that new free tent from Craig's List into my "work station" for rainy days - and I used the SilverFire Survivor Rocket stove to melt the wax. That worked very well as only twigs are required and then it goes to ash quickly as I prepare the next log. I am working at a very slow rate but I'm not in a hurry as the focus is on forest cultivation as a whole.
So I was wondering how many of these new songbirds would stick around or migrate elsewhere. Then we got a cold - just above freezing - all night rain. Not a downpour but the next day the mosquitoes have vanished! And we only had one day of mosquitoes so far so I was very concerned for the birds. Even our local weatherperson had announced that it was because the Arctic is melting that we've had such a cold spring. But the next day the sun was out in such full blast that I actually got sun burned! And sure enough it seemed the songbirds survived. One small songbird had been making a nest mainly composed of birch paper - just ten feet from my tipi and about 7 feet high - and we eyed each other. I feared that storm had scared it away, if I had not yet. But sure enough it was back building its nest some more when the sun was out.
So then I took photos of three new spring flowers on the forest floor. I saw a couple bees so hopefully they'll find some nectar (unlike the bee I saw almost a month ago frantically looking for some flowers). Also I saw one of the tree frogs down in one of my little creeks or waterways. I hear them loudly every night but rarely seem them. I saw a few caterpillars also. One I moved off my tent - and a second was in the mouth of a chickadee - as it snatched up the caterpillar right by my tent. But I didn't see any butterflies this time.
So I have to identify those flowers that I took photos of and also study the caterpillars more with the butterfly cycles. Also the birch trees I cut have lots of black powder on the bark - from black mold. I learned how the mushroom cultivators commented on this black mold. So I will study just how serious of a problem that is going to be but my bag of spawn didn't have any black mold even though I had been "contaminating" it with my bare hands for weeks. So I think the shiitake shroom is pretty resistant as the mushroom fights off the other competitors in the forest. I know from the shiitake I grew before - they fruited out of a tree that was covered in green moss and other mushrooms also.
You basically just soak straw [LOGS] for 12-24 hours in a bath of cold water that has been treated with hydrated lime.
The lime will rapidly and dramatically increase the pH of the water, causing the mold spores, bacteria, and other contaminates in the straw to be killed off.
https://freshcapmushrooms.com/learn/lime-pasteurization/
Once drained off, the substrate has a low concentration of living contaminates, giving mushrooms the upper hand.
I haven't tested it, but I'm guessing it's a combination between the substrate pH coming back down to earth after being drained AND the mycelium's natural ability to be resilient in high pH environments.Hydrated Lime (about 6 grams per gallon of water used)
Completely immerse in the lime water solution for about 2-4 hours.
- 45 gallon drum with fresh water and add 4 cups of Calcium hydroxide (hydrated lime) or Calcium oxide (quicklime) with stirring. the American Mycological Society recommends dissolving approximately 4 cups (roughly 1 litre)
- Prepare straw as for hot water pasteurization above
- Completely immerse in the lime water solution for about 2-4 hours.
- Drain and immediately inoculate with spawn.
- One batch of lime water will treat about 20 Kg. of straw
- so 30 gallons Soak Tub 1 cup of hydrated lime for 44 pounds of log
calcium hydroxide works as a pasteurizer. Well, hydrated lime is an incredibly basic substance (in terms of pH, as in the opposite of acid) and therefore works by rapidly exposing the dormant spores and micro-organisms on the substrate to a solution which is in the range of pH 12 or 13. A soak lasting a few hours is sufficient to kill off possible contaminants through this violent change in pH.
Well, my shiitake's still browning, but Chinese shiitake farms use lime pasteurization for their production, so I'm pretty sure it'll work.
Alternatively, adding dry hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide) to your substrate before mixing in your spawn will greatly harm the growing mycelium; this is why draining the substrate after it has soaked in the highly diluted lime water is an essential step in the process.
There are a number of things you can use for this, but by far the best is hydrated lime. The exact concentration is not critical, just a big double handful in a 55 gallon drum of water. Then submerge your straw, weight it down so it does not float, and wait 12 to 24 hrs. No longer, as you do not want to develop a bunch of lime resistant organisms, between 16 and 18 hrs is perfect. After soaking, drain the excess water, bag the straw and inoculate it with your spawn.
you can estimate with volume and use about 1-1.5 cups lime per 50 gallons of water.So I sent photos to Field & Forest of the black mold on the ends of the logs - and this is the response I got:
This is an organism taking advantage of some readily available sugars and will not compete with shiitake.Thank you once again to Field and Forest for their excellent customer service. This is what I had thought at first - that the Shiitake just has to compete and that is what makes wild shiitake taste better!
And I did some sungazing - and when the sun is not too low - then I see - after I close my eyes from sun gazing - I see a beautiful blue light with a larger green light around it and then red variations around the green. So I feel the third eye being activated from this experience. I never saw those rainbow lights before from "sun gazing" before my third eye had been opened up.
So the Spring Forest qigong - I relied on the lithium generator to listen to the portable DVD player - for the Small Universe meditation that I did two to 4 hours a day. I had a lot of mushroom inoculation work since I had to carry the logs also and I also had to bail out water from all the rain - from my drain pipes I dug into the ground around the tipi. Anyway I did take Memorial Day to do a special drive up north to Lake Vermillion where my dad used to take us on vacation. It is the only Minnesota location for the Bureau of Land Management book I got free at the environmental center.
One insight in my meditation that I will share - I had bought some more "private property" signs - and I really liked this one particular sign. Then as I tied it onto the particular Tamarack tree - I got this uncanny feeling. Suddenly it felt very familiar as if I had seen this whole image before - of that particular sign on that particular tree. I shrugged off the sensation and forgot about it. Until during meditation suddenly I remembered that last fall as I was pondering the forest before I left - I had a vision of the same precise sign on the same precise tree. At the time I had the vision I wondered why I was having this. I reviewed in my mind if I had seen such a sign in such a "similar" location before? No - obviously not. So I had dismissed that vision as a strange oddity - it had just been an image that had popped into my head. I didn't give it another thought except only to wonder at the mysterious of why it had popped into my head, seemingly for no reason. Now I know why. It had been a waking precognitive vision. Good article on the native culture of this area
And ceremonies are held frequently — “a lot of healing ceremonies,” said Goodsky, who leads many of them. “There are a few healers left and herbal people,” such as Goodsky, who practices traditional herbal medicine. “A lot of non-Indian people come to get herbal medicine” as well.
Amazingly I discovered what I conclude to the house my dad was born in! He used to always say he was born "on a kitchen table in Cook, Minnesota." And my grandfather, I learned from my mom, was the Convenant minister for both the west and east side of Lake Vermilion - so he would drive to two different churches. So the Convenant church in Cook Minnesota has a house close next to it with the church sign on the house land. As is common, the church provides a house for the minister. So I conclude that is the house that my dad was born in. I found that to be an excellent Memorial Day discover as it's such a great origin story and I always wondered what this mystery house was like in Cook Minnesota where he had been born on a kitchen table!
I was wondering about the native origins of one of the Lake Vermilion bay names:
Wakemup was the anglicized name of an Ojibway chief, Way-ko-mah-wub, a signer of the
treaty or agreement in 1889, whose village was at the southwest side of
that western bay.
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