Nike's vet visit

Yesterday was Nike's annual well kitty check up. He does not like to go for car rides, but fortunately he was not as vocal as last year - last year the entire way he bellowed in indignation. He is a strapping young lad weighing in at a muscular 15 pounds. His doctor gave him a clean bill of health, saying he had a good temperment - apparently his hissing and growling as he was being examined didn't faze the Dr. too much. He got his shot and did well with that, and got Greenie treats when he got back home to help soothe.

Growing mushrooms

for Jeffs birthday, I got him a mushroom growing kit. Its the regular button type mushrooms you find in every grocery store, but homegrown is so superior! Its easy to do too, basically we needed to mist the planting medium (encased in plastic inside a cardboard box) so the spores would be moist and after a few days, roll the plastic bag down so it could get air. After a week or so you could see the mycelium forming, thread like strands. Then it got even more exciting - mushrooms started growing! The first few harvests were impressive, Jeff grew so many we needed to give alot away. We couldn't keep up, and we sincerely love mushrooms. After the inital fruiting occured, we were advise dto wait a bit longer, keep misting and sure enough, we could see it happening again. Here is a picture of a huge mushroom Jeff harvested - it was a great addition sauteed in wine and served with our steaks for Valentines day. To find mushroom kits, go to Field and Forests Products, they are based in Peshtigo WI. There is a website (www.fieldforest.net) and you can order kits of all different kinds of mushrooms, button, oyster, shitake, etc. They also sell spawn if you would like to start out by inoculating wood logs. Theres tons of info in their catalog, and books etc available too. Very cool company, we plan on trying out other varieties since we are hooked!