WTF. . . Snapping Turtle?

I came home from work today and noticed something rustling in my back yard. I could tell it wasn't a rabbit, or a cat, and I wondered what in the world was back there INSIDE my fence.

Turns out it was this dude. . .

Luckily for me Velocibadgergirl and I had yoga class tonight, and I knew she would be able to help me rescue the snapping turtle!

It was HUGE! So I got my snow shovel out (which ironically hasn't yet been used to shovel snow), and with Velocibadgergirl's help we scooped him up into a storage tub she conveniently had in her car.

We drove him to a nearby park with a lake and released him!

I wish I'd taken video of him once Velocibadgergirl flopped him out of the tub, because he tumbled hilariously sideways and into the water.

It was very dramatic!

But he is fine and safe and no longer in my back yard. YAY!

And thanks again, Velocibadgergirl for your help! :D

beautiful blendings

7:50am

"Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life." ~John Muir

1:10pm

Morel Hunting

On Sunday I went out looking for morel mushrooms with my boyfriend, and my brother and his girlfriend.

We didn't find any morels, but we did find some other neat things out in the woods!

Population =Tire

I can imagine all sorts of awesome things that could live in this hole...

Tiny Shroomies

Nest

A dove has made her nest in my decorative, pretend birds nest.

I love how it looks like the little fake birdies are tending to her or something. Maybe they're pissed off that she stole their nest? It will be rediculously adorable when there are eggs and baby birdies though. It'll look like they've got a fake mom and dad, hehe.

Roasted Garlic and Asparagus Quiche

It is finally spring! Asparagus is in season, and I am obsessed with roasted garlic right now, so I wanted to create a quiche to incorporate both.

Oven roasted garlic has an almost sweet flavor. Very different from fresh garlic!

Mmmm, asparagus!

Evilducky's Roasted Garlic and Asparagus Quiche-

Ingredients:

One unbaked pie crust (use your favorite recipe! Mine is whole wheat pastry flour and butter)

2/3 bunch fresh asparagus

3 tbs olive oil

1 1/2 heads garlic

1 handful of grape tomatoes or one small tomato

4 eggs

1/4 cup half & half

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 cup grated Swiss or Gruyere cheese

Directions-

Preheat oven to 400°. Wash asparagus and trim bottom 1/4 of each stalk. Lay asparagus in a baking dish and coat with 2 tbs olive oil. Cut top 1/4 off of the garlic heads. Drizzle them with the remaining olive oil and wrap them in foil together. Place the asparagus and the garlic in the oven. Take the asparagus out after 20 minutes and let cool. Take the garlic out after 40 minutes and also let cool. Once cool remove garlic cloves from their papery shells and mash with a fork. Chop most of the asparagus into half inch long chunks, but leave a few whole to decorate the top of your quiche. Turn oven down to 350°.

Beat the eggs with the half & half and sour cream. Add the smooshed up garlic, the chunks of asparagus, and salt and mix well. Fill your pie shell with this mixture, and top with the shredded cheese. Add a few slices of tomato and reserved asparagus spears to the top and bake for 40-45 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Shiitake Adventure

I must admit, I cannot take credit for this awesome idea. It was all my boyfriend's doing! :)

After that bad ice storm we had, there were many fallen branches laying around town, including my back yard. So my boyfriend suggested that we take some of them and try to grow some shiitake mushrooms for us to eat! So he ordered us some shiitake spawn plugs from this place.

Last weekend we plugged the logs...

The first step was to drill LOTS of holes to fill with the spawn plugs. It was good that our wood was all nice and fresh, and that it fell during the winter, because the wood has a higher protein content in winter and the mushrooms will like it!

The plugs are small dowels cut from branches already full of shiitake mycelium. If mushrooms were plants (which they aren't) the mycelium would be the body of the plant, and the mushrooms themselves would be the flowers or fruit. These little plugs will (hopefully) allow the mycelium to spread to the rest of the log. Eventually, if the mycelium are happy enough, they'll go "bom-chicka-wah-wah!" and the result will be mushrooms!

After drilling the holes and inserting the spawn, the holes are covered with wax to seal them in.

Then we arranged the logs in the shady spot on the side of my garage, on top of some nice chunks of wood Velocibadgergirl gave me!

And now? We wait! It could be 6 or 9 months before we see any mushroom action, but I will definitely post photos if anything interesting happens! I'm super excited! I bet I'm the only girl on my block with a mushroom garden in her backyard! :D