Mushroom Hunt

Up at the regular time this Sunday morning to get ready for 7:30 departure for the mountains above Indian Valley and a mushroom hunt. J could not be talked into this outdoor adventure and the heat today was a real turnoff for her. See half of the take in the picture. The club met for a hunt. Twelve hunted on Saturday and managed to get one rig stuck on FS road 217. Five rigs were in a caravan and so they were able to rescue the high centered vehicle. R and I showed up in Cambridge at Mrs. G's for breakfast with the club president and her husband (G and M) and the membership officer who drove over from Challis. She says she loves the outings. All had gone home except these three. G and M wanted R and I to find some morels so they stayed and took us to some good sites and showed us how to find the morels. We are so very greatful for G and M to do this. M was marking all the sites with his GPS. Morels at this time are really small. See the nickels in the picture to get an idea. G says it is because the season is early and the spring has been so dry that the morels get an inch or so big and then dry up. I was looking for those 2-4 inches morels and was not finding anything until G showed us how to get on our hands and knees in the burns (pretty messy hunting) and really look for these small morels. Many times we had to brush away 2-4 inches of dry pine needles that had fallen during the winter from trees that had been killed by the fire, but not burned up. When we brushed the needles aside often we could smell the morel, but still really had to look hard. When we found one we usually found two to as many as a dozen in the same area. I was thinking that a bird dog could be trained to sniff out these morels. I really think that if I had trained Teddy, our first Brittany, that he would have had a great time pointing morels, especially if there was a treat forthcoming.

A word of caution to those who go hunting morels. They are poisonous until thoroughly cooked, so be advised. Drying intensifies their flavor and they can then be frozen and rehydrated later, even much later. See our website--http://www.simykos.org/

I am hoping for a good rain this week, then I will be back on the hunt. G thought there would be a lot of good size mushrooms right after a good soaking rain. Pray for rain!!!

Papa Coyote should be grading tests right now, but I am procrastinating. This will be the last full set of tests I ever grade and the nostalgia, well, I am not feeling any of that. I am tired of grading tests and creating and typing tests and preparing lessons, etc. Been there for a long, long time and done that. Bring on the fish, elk, a fine book, morels, grandkids, oh yeah, and that Margarita while we sit on the deck enjoying the sounds of the pond or in the back patio enjoying the shade of the oaks and the sounds of the fountain. Ah, but life is fine.

FHS won the State Baseball Tournament. We sat in 94 degrees in Ontario, Oregon. (imagine an Idaho state baseball tournament in Oregon, but we really don't think much about the state line around here except when it comes to a break on our sales tax. Oregon does not have one and Idaho has a 6 percent tax.) The score was six to one--FHS over Bear Lake High School. A boy that I spent two summers working with his pitching and hitting when he was in the sixth and seventh grades pitched a win in game one of the tournament, hit a two run home run in the championship game and pitched the last two innings of the championship game. He had an outstanding tournament which made him and his family very happy. I was happy to be part of that success. He is a junior as were the other two main pitchers on the team.

Well, Papa Coyote has got to go wash off some of the ashes and dirt that I managed to accumulate on myself. I am a bit of a mess, but am looking forward to that chicken roasted with morels for dinner tomorrow night. Anybody wish to come over for dinner? You are welcomed!!!


Yeeeeeeooooooooooow, Papa Coyote is dragging tail over the hill.