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I think you’re overthinking the map emoji tbh, it’s just a meme representation of the “good country/bad country” map that gets spit out by every single dog brained neoliberal think tank in racist conversations about the “developed” west. It’s not meant to be scrutinized.
I don’t think anyone is engaging with you bc there’s really not much to engage on
Fitbit sucks tbh
The whole thing is going to zero in the long run, in my view
It’s like TVs, eventually you get to a point where the incremental features don’t really add anything to the user experience, like when they tried to do the 3D TV thing folks were like no, we are happy with HD, thanks. Once in a while we have a breakthrough in tech like 4K but once all the manufacturers catch on all that is left to compete on is price and then it becomes a race to the bottom.
Phones might be different in that they can be wealth signalers, like jewelery, but I’m not sure how much longer consumers will keep biting. What are they going to do, add a 5th camera? To what end?
Already we see the upgrade cycle slowing, sales missing targets etc. I’m sure inflation isn’t helping either.
Imaginary girlfriend lmao
Just what exactly do these assholes think the point of life is. Also pretty rich to talk about work life balance when all of your national wealth is being siphoned off by a giant pulsating leech that is the “enlightened west”
To quote Michael Parenti India isn’t underdeveloped it’s overexploited
Exercising has really helped with this, and getting better sleep (the 2 go together I think)
Gotta platform dissenting voices. Which is why they have a communist columnist too
I liked RNAi’s post
BOSS GETS A DOLLAR
I GET A DIME
SO LET’S CUT HIS TAXES
AND PUT CHILDREN IN MINES
It’s been so rainy here everything has leaf spot, yields suck. Fruit trees probably fucked for next year too. Mushrooms doing well tho
The fast and the furious and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race
Hurricanes in California?
Bay of Pigs!
In all seriousness angry dementia Biden running around Washington screaming at everyone is a pretty funny timeline. If he wins they should turn him loose on the press
Mfw most of the bozos in the article are dead
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Background
This will be the first of probably 2 posts covering log inoculation from sawdust spawn. Log inoculation is a common technique for growing certain wood loving species such as shiitake. This is a nice activity to spend the day outdoors alone or makes a great group activity as well as there are discrete steps that lend themselves well to splitting work. An inoculation party could be a fun activity for a community garden for example, all you need is a reliably shady spot, some clean logs, and relatively inexpensive supplies to grow mushrooms for many years. You could also give away completed logs as gifts for friends.
Depending on the technique the finishing step may be different (shiitake gets log cabin like in the top pic, chestnuts, reiishi get buried etc) but the process starts the same way. Like all mushroom growing this is a probability game, you want to maximize the chances of your chosen mycelium colonizing the substrate and minimize the odds of competition, this is the same here. We will be drilling holes in healthy logs, injecting them with chestnut mushroom sawdust spawn, and sealing the wounds with edible wax.
Materials
- Clean logs
The best logs are from freshly cut trees, 3-6” in diameter and 6’ long on the high end. This is about the biggest size one can handle alone. Smaller is better for kids, or those with less lifting ability. The best time to fell trees is fall, but other seasons are fine too, I think. The main thing is to not let them sit too long, a month or so max. We are aiming for a sterile substrate, so the longer we wait the more competitors are introduced. Here I am using maple (as always) but depending on the species many hardwoods will work. The spawn supplier should be able to provide lists of compatible species.
- Sawdust spawn
This is a block of sawdust that has been inoculated with the species of your choice. This is available from retailers online. I like north spore personally but I am sure there are others. Sawdust spawn comes in 5 pound bags which should be enough to inoculate 10-15 logs depending on size. When it comes in the mail it’s important to use it right away. It can also be kept refrigerated for up to six months as it goes dormant.
- Wax
-Edible wax and something to melt it in. Emphasis on edible. Beeswax is a popular choice. I like using red cheese wax because it’s bright color lets me see what i have completed easily. Cut it into ~3cm chunks for easy melting. As a vessel here I used an old food can. Whatever you use will be covered in wax forever so disposable is best, though some people use dedicated crock pots for this. But you’d have to be doing a LOT of logs. As to quantity I bought a 5lb block from a cheese making supply store and it’s lasted me through 30 logs and will probably do more.
-A heat source. I am using a camping stove here, but a sterno, old crock pot, even a sous vide with the wax in a bag will work.
-Wax applicators. Anything absorbent will work, a small paint brush, maybe even cotton balls on sticks. The bespoke applicators are pretty cheap though and probably worth getting.
Tools
-A drill. Highly recommend going corded here. Fresh wood is wet and dense and it takes a lot of torque to drill into it efficiently. A cordless drill could be used but it would have to be pretty beefy & have lots of extra batteries.
-An inoculation tool. This is probably the only specialty tool needed, and can be bought from where you buy your spawn. It’s a spring loaded plunger attached to a brass tube designed for collecting sawdust spawn and injecting it into holes in the log. These run about $30 or so.
-A drill bit. This should match the diameter of the inoculation tool. There exist specialty bits for this with a stop at exactly the same depth as the inoculation tool, but a drill bit with tape as a depth gauge would work fine too just be a little slower. The important part is to match the dimensions of the inoculation tool. You could measure the depth of the tool with a piece of wire. If you do decide to get the specialty bit, filing or grinding a flat spot on the shaft is a MUST:
Again the torque from drilling into fresh logs is quite high so if you don’t do this the bit will strip and get stuck in the wood, leading to grief and frustration and slowing you down. Just file it!
-A saw (not pictured). Hand or chain. This is useful for cleaning up the ends of logs to remove mold and make it easier to wax.
-A table. Not a must but makes working much more comfortable particularly if you’re doing this alone. If you only have one you will want to set up your wax on it. If you have 2 use one for drilling and the other for wax. I wouldn’t recommend both on the same table because logs can jerk unpredictably during drilling and it can knock wax over, greatly slowing you down. You should be willing to cover this in wax, or put down some rosin paper.
In the next post I will cover the technique of inoculation. If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. Setup is the hardest part.
Being a communist and a war profiteer are incompatible
If you are doing a dna test to determine your ethnicity you are white
Also DNA tests are cops
Seizing the means of production
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https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-golfer-arrested-punching-87-year-old-man-death-car-dispute-police
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I built an 8x4 raised bed too close to the wood line and it doesn’t grow anything successfully because of shade. I had a big tree come down in a storm, and, like any good mushroom guy… if there’s an arborist around, I’m getting wood chips.
My friend was telling me about wine cap mushrooms. Apparently they are delicious, dead easy to grow, and don’t transport well so you can’t find them in stores. So knowing I had a soft maple coming down, I went ahead and ordered spawn from north spore.
The first step was to take the weedy garden bed down to bare dirt. Since I actually weeded this spring it didn’t take too long. Once that is done, I covered it with 1” of fresh wood chips. I haven’t had fresh chips in a while and had forgotten how hot they get. The pile was steaming!
According to north spore wine caps do best on a variety of substrate sizes, so after the wood chips were done I layered in some straw and mixed it:
Then crumbled the spawn and sprinkled it on top:
North Spore says a bag does 16 square feet so I’m going at 50% the recommended rate here. The conditions are pretty much ideal, it’s warm, the chips are super fresh (2 days old), I have clean straw mixed in and the bed is drip irrigated, so I like my chances.
I then covered the bed with another 2-3” layer of fresh chips, watered heavily, and added the drip line.
Finally I topped the bed off with some shade cover. It’s in full sun in the afternoon, although the spawn is buried deep and for the most part the bed is shaded, this seems like a prudent step.
Now as always fingers crossed. These things are called “garden giants” and apparently the caps can get as big as dinner plates! Look forward to sharing harvest pics next year.
If you have a dead garden bed this might be a move worth doing!
Boomer rant incoming
So it used to be there were certain situations in which it was expected to tip, most obvious being restaurants, bars, cabs, hair stylists etc. I now understand that at restaurants at least 25% is the minimum and ok, ouch but I get that.
What I am having a hard time with is like yesterday I got lunch from a fast food counter at an amusement park and the credit card machine had an option to tip. Of course I know the people working there are exploited so I hit the 15%, even though this would have in the past never been a tipping situation (are the workers even getting that money?) The scam obviously is businesses outsourcing the cost of labor to the consumer, they ask us to tip so they can continue to underpay their workers.
I have even gotten tip prompts at the fucking grocery store!
I guess there’s no point to this other than tipping sucks and should be abolished and companies should just be forced to pay a living wage
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Maple logs inoculated from sawdust in summer 2021. Red stuff is cheese wax which I used to seal the inoculation sites
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I walked into the room after 8 hours and temp had topped out at 146. I was losing a tremendous amount of heat out the top.
I covered the top of the top with cling wrap and laid beach towels over it to insulate. After a few hours I had temps up to 205-208, which I allowed to run for 6 hours. I’m feeling pretty good that I got a decent kill on pathogens with that temp.
After that I pulled the logs out in the bags to cool to 80 or so, took about 4 hours, added 2 cups of spawn per bag, sealed and shook per the article.
3-4 weeks now in the garage after which I will bury when fully inoculated. Fingers crossed. Best part is I have some spawn left over so I can go do that dying oak tree in the wooded lot next door !greensicko-laser
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Maple logs inoculated spring of ‘21 just started yielding in earnest.
Totem method here but due to a shortage of big logs I lashed together 5 smaller ones, 5” diameter or so, with twine. Seems to have worked just fine!
Chicken of the Woods, Chicken, COTW or Sulphur Shelf are one of the most conspicuous of mushrooms - and are often seen by passersby from the roadside due to its bright yellow and orange-colored clusters at the base or on the side of trees. This beautiful, well-known prize to foragers can now be grow...
Spore is sawdust spawn from north spore and air transfer bags are from Amazon. I have a big storm fall maple I cut up a couple of weeks ago that I’m going to use for substrate. The tricky part will be sterilization. I have a big ass pot that can hold a lot of logs and fits in the oven so my plan is to fill that bad boy up with vacuum sealed logs and bake them for an hour in a water bath at 300
I’m not sure how to do the bags themselves, those I can probably just pressure cook.
Also welcome to /c/mycology :)