And I couldn’t resist one last cartoon for the day…

From Chan Lowe in the South Florida Sun Sentinel:

… and that about sums up the whole lousy situation.

Send this cartoon to your Senators and Representatives and to anyone else in a position to do something about this pathetic situation.

An afternoon of Mushroom Innoculation…

Elly and I attended a great afternoon affair at Laurie and Bob’s five acre farm on Engel-Moler Road. And what was the purpose of this get together that drew a couple of dozen conservationists, Sustainable Shepherdstowners, and your average local mushroom enthusiast? Why, to innoculate oak logs with mushroom spores so that they can be put in the dark to grow and develop edible shitake mushrooms for the Fall.

The process is fairly simple, but requires a lot of muscle effort and concentration. The logs that have been cut and stacked which will be used for the innoculation are put, one at a time, across a couple of sawhorses. Then holes are drilled all around each log at approximately four inch intervals.

Once the holes are drilled, small pegs with the preset mushroom fungus in them are pounded into each hole with a hammer or a rubber mallet.

After the pegs are malleted into the logs, each one is covered with a coat of melted wax which is brushed onto the top of the peg. At the lower left corner of the close-up photo you can see the splotch of wax on top of the peg. In the upper right of the picture is an exposed peg that hasn’t been waxed.

Finally, the finished logs are stacked. They will be covered with a fabric sheet to keep the light out and the logs will be kept damp.

We followed up the afternoon activities with snacks and conversations and a mini-concert of bagpipes and drums. Lots of fun and learned a lot about growing mushrooms.

Related Articles

• MYcelium… (damedefleur.wordpress.com)
• Shitake mushroom workshop (sustainablegrub.wordpress.com)
• Growing Oyster Mushrooms, and a Recipe for Vegetarian Terrine (Video) (treehugger.com)

Cartoon(s) of the Week – Budget Questions

Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

What if a proposed budget was created from fear?

– and –

Pat Bagley in the Salt Lake Tribune:

… and what if the proposed budget was accomplished on the backs of the middle class?

– and –

R.J. Matson in the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

… and what if the Republicans really BELIEVED their budget was balanced?

– and –

Jim Morin in the Miami Herald:

…then think about how wonderful our culture will be.

Related Articles

• How to Solve the Budget Deficit Crisis Without Really Trying (usnews.com)
• POLITICS: Government shutdown looms as Republicans refuse to compromise on conservative policy riders (conservationreport.com)
• Clock Is Ticking With Government Shutdown Likely (usnews.com)
• Matt Holliday will return to the Cardinals’ lineup Sunday (hardballtalk.nbcsports.com)

Roger Ebert on “The One Percenters…”

Here are a couple of fragments from a very good article on our current economic state by, of all people, Roger Ebert, film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. I’ve picked a couple of comments, but click on the link below to read the whole thing,

clipped from blogs.suntimes.com Day after day I read stories that make me angry. Wanton consumption is glorified. Corruption is rewarded. Ordinary people see their real income dropping, their houses sold out from under them, their pensions plundered, their unions legislated against, their health care still under attack. Yes, people in Wisconsin and Ohio have risen up to protest these realities, but why has there not been more outrage? The most visible centers of these crimes against the population are Wall Street and the financial industry in general. Although there are still many honest bankers, some seem to regard banking and trading as a license to steal. Outrageous acts are committed and go unpunished. I have the quaint idea that wealth should be obtained by legal and conventional means–by working, in other words–and not through the manipulation of financial scams.   What puzzles me is why there isn’t more indignation.

Related Articles

• Roger Ebert “Happy” Despite Cancer Battle That Stole His Voice (popcrunch.com)
• roger ebert’s journal: a quintessence of dust (toomanytribbles.blogspot.com)