Monday, July 27, 2020

Wild Mint Hermit Hut in the EcoEcho Mini-Forest

am pleased now to discover that they're native, have food uses, and smell nice.
So I was cooking up my third shiitake mushroom soup, harvested from my logs, and boiling on the "survivor stove" - the upward draft rocket stove. Suddenly I noticed flowers that I immediately recognized as on mint plants.

So I harvested about a dozen leaves and added to the soup - once it had cooled down enough - so the leaves would just be slightly cooked. I looked around but didn't see any more wild mint elsewhere in the mini-forest - just around the Hermit Hut!!

So I spent five nights - recovering from my strong coffee "diet." haha. After a few days then I started seeing light again while meditating and also feeling the tummo heat (the foundation for real meditation)....

Also the "lone" survivor Pine Squirrel of the Lynx eating its parents, now has a "mate." And so there should be a family soon - 

Ah so they mate in late winter - no wonder there's no young squirrels yet...

So then when I was cooking and had the solar panels recharging the lithium generator/inverter - I heard an animal noise on top of the hermit hut. I looked straight up and one of the squirrels was staring straight down at me from directly over head. Too funny!!

This morning the squirrels were telling me to leave and so I did. The frog croaking outside the tent must enjoy the water puddles left on my storage tarp....

I've seen three different frog species....this trip I saw a very tiny frog and a medium size frog. The tiny frog was hanging out on an Aspen Bolete mushroom - a real toad stool!!

The medium frog was the Wood Frog

It likes bogs - so makes sense.
Bogs, temporary forested wetlands, margins of forested lakes,
Yep swamp forest is what my land is demarcated as....
  Often the first species heard calling in the spring. Their short chuckle is a harsh racket, racket, racket. A chorus sounds like the feeding call of the mallard.
Yeah at first I was convinced these were BIRDS!! I could not believe that sound was frogs....
  ice crystals form within their hibernating bodies. A special antifreeze they produce keeps liquids from freezing inside their cells and killing them.
So do they live in trees? Cuz that's where these frogs live....
 Wood frogs are the only frogs that live north of the Arctic Circle. Adults usually live in woodlands
 Wow - cool.

https://natureformysoul.com/2013/02/ten-facts-about-wood-frogs/

That has their call - it doesn't sound quite the same.....
It is often seen near swamps (wetlands that have flooded trees and shrubs).
THIS IS IT - I blogged on this before...

Gray Tree Frog....

So they're not calling now but the other frogs are - the two other species...
  A musical, birdlike trill. The call is similar to the Cope's gray treefrog, but slower. They may call while perched in tree branches.
 Oh maybe it's the Spring Peeper...

Western Chorus Frog....

Yeah probably that one also....

 Spring Peeper in decline - vid

Yep ... I have to be careful when I walk through the forest to be sure - but they are in the trees most of the time. They seem to come down to the ground but mainly stay in the trees from what I hear....
Females are lighter-colored, while males are slightly smaller and usually have dark throats.
So maybe I have just Spring Peepers and not the Gray Tree Frog? I'll have to listen more closely...
 The species can tolerate the freezing of some of its body fluids, and undergoes hibernation under logs or behind loose bark on trees.
Wow - hibernates behind loose bark. So I've probably cut down trees - well they're probably more in the willow trees or Tamarack. I know they are in the Tamarack trees. The alder doesn't have much loose bark...
 Spring peepers are nocturnal insectivores, emerging at night to feed primarily on small invertebrates, such as beetles, ants, flies, and spiders. They do not climb high into trees, but hunt in low vegetation.
 Boreal Chorus Frogs sound like a finger run against a comb

oh well...

So sounds like Tamarck would be good for repairing the Hermit Hut - since it resists rot

So I had the new logs on the forest floor so they would stay wet - and with the new "shade cloth" then the moisture really trapped in well and so the Trichoderma was thriving on the bottom of the logs...So the Trichoderma competes with the Shiitake and the Shiitake will produce antibacterial components.

So I used the phosphoric acid spray to clean off the Trichoderma. First I tried Tamarack needles but after the rain then the Trichoderma mold grew back. So the night after the Phosphoric acid spray then no more grow back. So then I sprayed the logs with water.

So now all the logs are on pallets - and well about six I left on the floor.

But the  Shiitake has grown in well on almost all the logs - the new ones....

I had "mini" shrooms since it was hot - and I ate those for the three meals...






 








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