Step by step, inch by inch, we keep moving forward! A new employee started today so hopefully our steps are about to get a lot bigger! We just need a picker/packer now to complete our team for the summer.
While inoculations continue, one employee is moving all the 2020 logs out of the incubating area. We may get some volunteers or interns at some point to help out, but so far he seems to be enjoying the task! Quite a few logs have been moved so far... maybe this job will be done by next weekend?
The logs on the left will all get stacked up in 'crib stacks' in the area on the right.
We've got some really nice mycelium growth on the 2020 logs and we've been finding plenty of dried up mushrooms on the logs as they've been moved. This means the logs should be in pretty good shape and ready for force-fruiting when that starts - in 3-4 weeks!!
All that white stuff is mycelium, colonizing the log. Yay!
Over the weekend I convinced Jeremy to "take a break" and work on the fruiting chamber instead. The new fruiting chamber has been languishing for months as inoculations ramped up and we haven't had time to spare for it. We'd love to hire a builder/handy-person to finish the work - but we haven't been able to find anyone who isn't booked up for months! We need to get it done probably by the first week of July.
Jeremy spent much of the weekend working on piping and ducting, the sort of boring part of the job that takes a lot of time, doesn't look like much, but is super important. We have a water source coming in on the other side of the packshed. Jeremy ran piping from there, over a couple feet, then up and over the back door, all the way to the corner, then turn and along the wall to the outside of the fruiting chamber. There is another pipe or two to add and we can't really hook it up yet because we still need the water in the old fruiting chamber. So fingers crossed this will all work when we switch it over!
The new plumbing pipe is propped for now on a log, on an old Jack Daniels box. Now that's some DIY spirit!
After that was done, Jeremy spent some time planning duct work for heating and cooling and then he went out to purchase ductwork and the wall panels. It's very tantalizing to have this all just sitting here, ready to put up on the walls!
There is some electrical work and lighting to figure out first, probably more cutting holes in walls for ducting, and then putting up those panels. We've got the flooring squirreled away somewhere. Hopefully we can find some time to work on this again next Saturday...unless a handy-person suddenly becomes available!
For now, it's back to inoculating logs and moving logs!
An enemy cat! At least, that's the way Spore feels about this cat that has been hanging around the area for the last couple weeks. He's very friendly and rolls around on the porch asking for pets. We always know when he's visiting because Spore warns us with hissing and growling and *almost* meowing. Oh Spore!
