I spy with my little eye....

This is the time of year I start dreaming about morels. Well, actually, I started thinking about them and searching for them two weeks ago. The morels come out about the same time as the red buds bloom. You need to pay attention to the weather, and go out on a pre-hunt every few days when the season gets close or you may miss them. Morels are available for only a short period of time - about 1 - 1 1/2 weeks. So if you miss them, you will have to wait for a year!! The season for morels was early this year here in Oklahoma due to the unseasonably warm weather.

Searching for morels is like searching for a treasure. You have to stop, adjust your eyes to the terrain, and look closely. Hopefully you will spy the treasure.

And if you have a good day, you will have enough for a meal!

My favorite way to eat them is to simply saute them in butter with a bit of salt. My sons prefer them rolled in egg and cracker crumbs and fried.

Just cut off any ends that may be bad, rinse them well in cold water, dry them off a bit with a paper towel, and they are ready to go. I usually slice mine in half vertically before sauteing.

Okay - so the mushroom hunt was not without spying a few other Oklahoma critters! When your eyes are so focused on looking for morels, you notice things you may otherwise walk right by. This baby bird was camoflauged in the leaves around it, and I definitely would have missed it if I had not been looking for mushrooms. I believe it was a baby quail.

Not far from this baby, I spied THIS critter!!

We have lots of copperheads in our area.

...and this!

...and something a little gentler....

Weekend progress...

Well, winter came and went in 2 days. This week we will have 50 degree days again. I was gone all day Saturday, and when I came home, I discovered some progress in the jungle! My husband and son went at it with a chain saw. I am impressed with the speed things go when you have a tool like this! I have been using a long handled branch trimmer - 1 twig at a time! :-) Here is a photo of their progress. Amazing! What you don't see is the huge pile of branches and vines that were removed. We will need to rent a chipper to get rid of those - we have lots of uses for wood chips.

Winter is coming...

Well, finally, just a week before potato planting time, winter is coming to Oklahoma! Tonight we are supposed to get a hard freeze (good-bye peaches) and the schools are warning the children to watch the weather for Monday. Hopefully this will pass quickly. I insulated my garden, hoping to save the new little plants that have emerged. We shall see... Meanwhile, I noticed that the periwinkle are in bloom. What a great plant for areas where nothing else will grow!!

Day 3 - Free the Tree!

Today I worked for almost an hour just to free this oak tree. The briars were 20-30 feet long up in this tree. The two small cedars in front of it will be cut out eventually...maybe...

Signs of Spring

I have been waiting with bated breath for winter to arrive in Oklahoma this year. The mild weather has me just waiting for the other shoe to fall...When it did not come in January, I decided to put in a few cold weather crops as an experiment to see if they would survive. The peas and lettuce are up now, and tonight we are expecting a cold snap. The sad thing is that the peach trees are budding. I am afraid tonight will be the end of our peach crop. Maybe there are still some buds that are not quite out that will survive.

The lilacs are budding too.

And the bulbs are pushing up through the oak leaves...

Day 2

Okay...day 2:

I have a path cut out almost to the pasture!

Taming my wilderness...

I am an artist. My studio windows face south and east. To the south is beautiful pastureland, but to the east is almost an acre of JUNGLE!! It is made up of a few large oaks, a couple large cedars, MANY small cedars, sumac and tons of briars winding their way up and around all the other trees....oooh....almost forgot the poison ivy!! The photo to the right is the area.

I have been wanting to tame this area for several years, and have actually had people come out to give me an estimate to brush hog it. No one will touch it. They are afraid that it will have large rocks and stumps that will destroy their equipment.

My second thought was to hire several people to come in and cut it down by hand. My third thought was to get my body out there and do it myself (hopefully with the occasional help of my husband and strong sons :-)

Well...I put it off for long enough. This week I decided to just stop waiting for help and do it myself. I figured I could give 1/2 - 1 hour a day to work "casually" at it. Considering the fact that I could be classified as an antique, this is not a small undertaking. But, I figured that the sunshine, fresh air and exercise would be a good thing for me, so out I went.

My first day (about 45 minutes of work) was encouraging to me. I know it may not look like much, but it gives me hope! :-) See that bare spot? That is what I did!! Woo hoo!

My plan is to cut out all the small cedars, underbrush and briars. I want to leave all the large oaks. I am considering leaving a couple of the large cedars. I do not love cedars, but I think they may be something the birds like to nest in. I will have to do some research on that.

I am also leaving some of the old rotted oaks that have been on the ground for quite some time. I am hoping that they will encourage some mushroom growth. My neighbors have lots of morels growing among their large oak trees. I would LOVE to start finding some of them in my back yard!!