and so are our shiitake mushroom logs.
We left THF today with just over 4 pounds of beautiful looking shiitakes. And Ron expects to pick about 15 more pounds over the next couple of days. Not one of the logs we had on our A frames was lost. There was some debris up against the set closest to the creek but the rest of area was just wet. Seriously wet with lots of thick mud. But such a relief. We are still in business.
Not all the news was good though. We have lost some of the logs we prepped this year. Cannot tell for sure just how many. It was just over two months ago when we got them all set up on the pallets for what we thought was safe keeping. I never did get around to taking photos to document just how many and where exactly they were.
The two end pallets were washed away from this spot. That is 50 logs right there. And one of the totem experiments is gone too. It just wasn’t strong enough to stand up the force of the water.
On the other side of the path, we are missing at least one more pallet. Maybe more. Such a waste of the work involved in getting the logs ready for shiitake growing.
By the time I took this pictures I had already had my adventure for the day. The creek was down quite a bit but still running high and fast. Ron and Jo headed across while I stopped to take their picture. That turned out to be a mistake. I have never liked walking through muddy water. Not being able to see the rocks I am stepping on makes me uneasy. This time was worse and I took a step, lost my balance and down I went. Jo headed back toward me as I struggled to get to my feet and I went down again. Soaked through and through and with my waders full of water. I had also wacked my right knee pretty good. Going to be adding to my bruise collection. Ron had the nerve to be annoyed at me, as though I had been careless on purpose. After all, he told me not to fall. I staggered across the creek, up the bank and sat down on our stacked logs. Jo helped me get the boots off. They went off to check on the mushrooms while I gathered myself and took more pictures.
The power of water is just overwhelming. I walked out to the south end of the farm to check on things. The water had obviously been there, but most had drained off. No damage to be found except for branches down and debris about the place. I went back to the mushroom area and Ron suggested I go the other way to look for logs. On the way I discovered that our great heavy plastic sled was also gone. Someone is going to happy when they find that.
I found a pallet and some of our logs. 13 in total are now stacked on the pallet waiting for us to recover them. Of course no way we can use the 4 wheeler and trailer to get them. Too many trees and bushes to even try getting through. It will be a hand carry job. I really wanted to keep going down stream
looking for more logs, but even our waders were not going to be enough to deal with the deeper, stronger water. Ron meet up with me and that was that. It was time to head home. I really needed a shower and change of clothes.
Our disaster wasn’t as big a hit as we feared. We have taken some losses but the tent held strong, we found all of our hand tools and most of the odds and ends we had stashed on a pallet, covered by a tarp were still there. We even found the two metal chickens Ron bought. Obviously we will have to make some changes. Maybe GPS tracking for our logs. Or just a big chain to keep them from floating away.
If anyone out there living along Sconondoa creek finds logs with funny looking holes drilled in them – they belong to THF. We would really appreciate it if you bring them back.