foraging ~

I went foraging yesterday with my daughter  ... looking for the elusive and delectable morel mushroom.

 We found a few ... but not enough!

All together we spotted around a dozen of these gems of woods.  Yum :)

BUT ... there were tons of these buggers ~ the Beef Steak aka. False Morels.  Some people claim they are edible; but they have too high of a toxicity level for me to try them.  They say you can eat them but the toxin in them stays in your body and then all of a sudden ... one bite and you can be a goner.  Nope... not going to eat these:

 They really smelled good ... and there were so many ... so tempting; but nope! NO! No! NO!!! Don't eat the False Morels!

I also had a forager in the yard munching on clover.  Mr. or Mrs.  don't know the sex because I couldn't see under the tail ... Snow Shoe Hare ... all decked out in it's summer colors of brown. In the winter months it's pure white like the snow.

During the night ... more foragers :

A raccoon  and a flying squirrel ~

The biggest forager though of the neighborhood was a big black bear ... sorry no photo.  It was over at my Mom's place (a couple forties over to the east).  It ripped the screen off her house door! Poor Momma was a bit frazzled over the whole incident.

She heard something during the night and called out to my brother who lives with her.  She thought someone was breaking into the house.  My brother came out into the living room and when he turned on the lights he saw the bear on the other side of the door.  He hollared at it and it took off and went around the house to the kitchen door.  My brother then scared it off from there.  I guess he must of smelled the hamburgers that they had for supper and was wanting one.

Ahh... the joys and thrills of living in the woods!

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel