Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Spring Has Sprung!





Lately, there has been lots of new life at the farm. One animal our family recently fell in love with is a little painted turtle. This reptile is the most widespread native turtle of North America. But we love him because of his incredible cuteness.





Mom found him on the side of the road during her bike ride. She stopped to pick the little guy up, and ended up biking 6 miles home with a turtle in her hand. We decided that he would be happiest in our marsh, so that's our turtle's new home.



Female Oriole


Another new creature on the farm is the Baltimore Oriole that has been visiting our hummingbird feeder and feasting on orange slices we set out.  Something unique about Orioles are their nests. They make a kind of hanging basket, so when the wind blows, their chicks don't fall.





 Our Shiitake mushroom


Recently, we purchased a mushroom log from Mushroom Mills at the Backyard Abundance Plant Sale. What is a mushroom log? A mushroom log is a log that is hand inoculated with mushroom spores. After soaking our log in water for 12 hours, we were instructed to lean it upright in a shady place, and it was supposed to fruit after about a week. Our log is producing Shiitake mushrooms.