Two days ago I took Spencer out on the trails and found various gifts of mushrooms; a blossom of chicken-of-the-woods, an outcropping of oyster mushrooms and a village of orange chanterelles. I had not brought my basket or my saddle bags so what else could I do? Of course, when I got home, I had to go out again, this time on Jasper, with my mushroom basket on my back. Jasper, being a good hand shorter than Spencer, is easier to get on and off of anyway, so I hopped on him bareback and headed back out again.
Yesterday I headed out again on foot with my puppy Elka. I went out back of our house and bushwacked, finding another good crop of chicken-of-the-woods just inside the treeline.
Then I made it to our familiar trail up Poverty Mountain. As I walked I found two small cinnabar chanterelles and then noticed something I’d not seen before. How could it be that I have traveled this trail probably hundreds of times but never saw this narrow but well-worn path heading along the ridge? It was like one of those dreams in which you discover your house has all kinds of rooms you never knew about. Who made this path? Who has kept it worn?
I saw not boot, hoof or tire tracks. And what an exquisite trail, wide enough for a horse with soft ground, meandering through a variety of terrain. I spent several hours then bushwacking again through gurgly, mossy, frog and butterfly-filled swamp, looking fruitlessly for black trumpets. But they hid themselves from me this time.
Still there are enough mushrooms to crown our Sunday market at Cushman.
Zoe has washed up so many beautiful vegetables for the market today.
Now the real news! Ducklings. I drove out to the Farm on a Rock in Conway. What an incredible place. He has birds of many many breeds; guinea hens, turkeys, chickens, geese and ducks. He also has so many kinds of rabbits, goats and pigs. His farm is situated on a rocky hill, so perfect for goats. I came home with these twelve to keep our one lone harlequin duck (sad story) company. We don’t know what breeds they are though you can see what looks like a Peking Duck there on the right. We’ll see them come into their own colors as they mature. They have just about doubled in size in the few days we’ve had them.
We now have 32, yes Thirty Two! Animals. 3 dogs, 3 goats, 2 horses, 11 chickens and 13 ducks.
love the quack at the end of the video. 🙂