Morel Hunting

Posted on May 21, 2019 by TJ

I’ve posted that I have eggs to sell in some of the local buy/sell groups at Facebook and I’ve picked up a few customers. I like doing it this way because the people can let me know through chat that they want eggs and when they will pick them up. One guy returned on Saturday for a couple dozen. He is a repeat customer. The first thing he asked when EJ and I met him at the door was, “Have you found any morels?” Hunting for morel mushrooms is a big thing here in the Spring and “Have you found any morels?” is a frequent question.

EJ had wanted to hunt for morels in our forest for several weeks, and we finally did so on Sunday. It was a rainy day, sometimes raining so hard that I found erosion fissures in the driveway the next day. The mud in the chicken yard sucked at my boots when I walked through it to care for the chickens. However, there was a period between storms in the afternoon when the sun shone, and we went walking through the forest then.

The weather turned chilly a week or so ago–we’ve had overnight frost and freeze warnings–so that I kept the house windows closed and turned the heat back on. The dampness didn’t help so I wore my warm jacket as we started off on our morel hunt. It was also humid and it wasn’t long before the exercise warmed me up and I carried my jacket instead. We didn’t find any morels, but we enjoyed the walk through the forest, which grows greener every day. Soon there will be a wall of green and we won’t be able to see very far into the forest.

This morning the sun is shining so I’ve been hanging the clothes on the clothesline. It’s a bit chilly so I wore my jacket, but the temps are supposed to rise to the low 60s today. The National Weather Service predicts that the temperatures will climb high every day, reaching the mid-70s by the end of the week. Although doing laundry isn’t usually high on the list of “Fun Things To Do,” it really is a pleasant task. As I pin the wet clothes to the line, I enjoy the quiet beauty of my surrounds, the beautiful birds singing, and the chickens’ contented clucking and crowing.