Homestead Happenings, Feb. 2017

Keswick Dam dumping max water from reservoir

February was an interesting month at the place. Record rains and lots of flooding have been the norm this winter. Fortunately, we're mostly high and dry here but we've still had some weather related issues.

A tree snag came down onto one of our Toyota pickups. Evil bleeping knobcone pine are falling out of the sky at an alarming rate this year. The pine beetles are everywhere.

We've had to cut quite a few trees out of our driveway, will continue with the driveway woes below.

We've been cutting all these fallen trees up for firewood and burning it in the woodstove. Missy doesn't seem the least bit concerned by the chainsaw...

The driveway is an absolute mudpit right now, and every time it dries out enough to drive over it starts raining all over again. We've been hauling big chunks of rock from a borrow pit over to the worst mudholes and throwing them in so the vehicles don't get totally lost in mud. After several yards of rock ilthe situation is improved, but the water runoff going straight down the road in places and the washouts continue.

These pictures are from a tiny mud hole up toward the top of the driveway. This is a doable chore for me right now, because Colton can ride with me and watch from his carseat as I load up rocks and then drive to the mud and toss them in. I'm just now slowly getting more productive around the place again, I am having to figure out a new way of doing everything with a baby to consider.

Laetiporus Gilbertsonii, as far as I can tell

I found sulphur shelf mushrooms while putting rocks in the driveway!! These are far too old to be of any culinary interest, but from the substrate and what I can see of these molded over fruitbodies this is Laetiporus Gilbertsonii. This is a Western specific chicken of the wood species. They tend to grow on oak, and are a lighter color than other sulphur shelf varieties. You can learn more about these from the Bay Area Mycological Society here: http://www.bayareamushrooms.org/mushroommonth/sulphur_shelf.html