Lion's Mane here we come! Probably

Folks

You may recall that I bought some products from www.fungi.com just before Christmas. One of these was a little packet of wooden dowels, which have corkscrew channels cut in them. Into these channels, Fungi.com have innoculated Lion's Mane mushroom spore.

My challenge has been to drill holes in a geet big log of Poplar, which I bought from our friendly firewood supplier, Mark Ridley from Birtley (near Hexham). I then had to tap the dowels into the holes, and seal them with beeswax - according to the instructions.

It was going to be straightforward, but I borrowed the wrong sized drill bit from my Cousin, and therefore got a bit fed up when I couldn't get the dowels into the holes. Happily, Mark was happy to swap the 8mm for a 9mm drill bit, so I got cracking again.

Also, upon re-reading the instructions, I found I'd over-specced the size, so the log I've used is probably twice the diameter required. :-s

The beeswax seal keep any bugs out from munching the evolving muchroom / mycelia, I think.

For the beeswax, I ordered some beeswax candles from eBay: although I have to say I'm not impressed with the parcel service from Royal Mail. This is the second item I've had to had re-sent by an eBay seller as RM have "lost" my goods*. :-(

I will be uploading some "before" photos, so I can compare in, say, six months.

On a related note, my Parents kindly helped Caroline dig some pig muck (from the porkers next door to us) into the flower beds at the front.

I'd put my back out lifting some garden furniture [that's a convenient excuse... - Ed.] so it fell to Dad to plant the seed potatoes kindly donated by Tom next door (ok, over the fields). Dad sprinkled some Mycogrow for Vegetables in the trench, before putting the spuds in.

* Apparently, Ian Fleming's Auric Goldfinger said that "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action." I wait with dread for the next thing to disappear in the mail, as then I'll be forced to complain, and endure the hell that is the RM's customer complaint process (judging by the description on their website).