So we now had 100 bolts stacked next to our garage. These were all hardwood and about 40 inches long and between 4 – 6 inches in diameter. This is all based on one person being able to move them around. After dinner on April 3, Ron got his grinder out looking to get set up for the next day. He is taking Friday off and has brothers John and Don coming over to take the first crack at the inoculation process. Jo is not scheduled to work so she is part of the work crew too. As this is one of our projects, we have our usual and expected first glitch. The blankety blank shaft was the wrong size and the adaptor did not fit. He checked internet to see if he could find a fix. No such luck. So off to Lowes with bits and adaptor in hand to find solution. No surprise, he came home with another grinder. Cha Ching and Ron has a new toy.
Being Ron, (I do tend to say that a lot) he does an enormous amount of research on any project. Youtube videos are his favorite learning tool. In one video, the guy had used a spring pole and rope to hang his grinder from. That meant he did not have to put it down and pick it up every time. As Ron wants to find a better, faster, well actually easier way to do things. He used bungie cords to hold / suspend the grinder and to ease the weight and repetition of drilling 40 – 50 holes per mushroom bolt.

He was right, this rig up did make it easier on him. And when he shared with other mushroom growers, they thought it was brilliant.
Being no fool, I did not take the day off and escaped bright and early the next morning for work. I had no idea what the plan was or what I would come home to find.

He spent a lot of time thinking out the procedure but not so much on the end result. It was still April and weather not warm enough to be totally outside. He doesn’t yet have a generator (anybody got a spare 2 grand so he can buy his dream one) so he had to have access to power and they set up in our garage. He shoved everything out of his way and set up two long work tables. They are another example of his wheeling and dealing. Bought them from Woodstock Rome and have put them to use many times over the years.Now a garage is not by nature neat and tidy and ours is no exception. But this project left a huge mess. Wood chips were flying everywhere. I expect we will be finding them for years to come. When I got home, I jumped into the fray with my camera first and then with the actual work. We finally did the last bolt about 6 pm with a huge sigh of relief. The four of them were totally wiped. Hugs all around and Don and John headed home.
First half was done, but now we needed to get the other 100 bolts home. On Easter Sunday Ron and I headed north to pick them up, again we had to make two trips but it was a nice day. Much warmer than the last time. We were on our own this time when it came to the inoculation process. That meant getting it done over several days.

Ron rigged up a lighting system for us using bamboo poles and more bungie cords. Made it much easier to see what we were doing. We had a good system going and by Friday night we had them all done. Just in time as Josi and Ryan were going to bring a 4 wheeler and help us get the bolts out to the farm on Saturday.

We started out with one load on our trailer and then using Ron’s new wagon to haul about 5 bolts at a time across the field and into the woods with the wheeler. Ryan decided we would make quicker work of it if he drove to our house and loaded up his pickup and then down the path to where we entered the woods. Boy, was he right. By 11 am we were done and heading home. Sadly the wagon was already a bit worse for wear. Ron not sure that it was going to hold up.
to be continued …. again