Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>]

> and a lot of loggers leave a serious mess in their
> wake.  one way i've gotten firewood (to sell, or use
> here at home) is by cutting the "tops" the loggers
> have left.  one place i was cutting had well over a
> hundred cord of wood *left* lying around after the
> loggers.  and a lot of that was not "tops" but whole
> logs that just didn't grade as nice lumber, so they
> got left.  ~bobby g

Another possibility for the "slash" left by logging operations: Cut it 
up enough to get most of it in contact with the ground, using a chain 
saw lubricated with "mycospored oil" rather than regular bar oil--the 
oil carries a load of mushroom spore with every cut of the saw. Your 
harvest of edible mushrooms is more dependent on the weather this way 
(than when you cultivate shiitake in logs you manage more intensively, 
for example), but you reap where you (almost) didn't sow.

Paul Stamets' Fungi Perfecti in Washington state
        http://fungi.com/
is a good source of for the myco-oils (several species and mixes available).

And Stamets' MYCELIUM RUNNING is a great guide to this and other 
creative strategies using mushrooms.

I've used myco-oil with oyster mushroom spore in some thinning of weed 
trees in my own woods, will continue doing so in the coming year. I'll 
try to remember to report if/when we get a harvest.

~Harvey in northern Va
http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Home.html