WHAT FOOTBALL GAME?

if you haven't figured out by now, one of my newer hobbies is picking fungus in the woods and trying to figure out if i can eat it. i gotta admit, it's been pretty fun tromping around in the woods picking stuff and trying to figure out what it is. i haven't eaten much yet, but that's mostly because the learing curve is pretty steep and also because i got enough problems with my guts already. here are just a few pics of some stuff i picked this weekend. i'll probably add the sciency-nerdy names later, if i can figure 'em out. ultimately, i'd like to get a stash of free* food out of this and it'd be pretty neat to make a few bucks off of this sometime soon. selling shrooms and hucks in the fall to support my snowboarding habit would be pretty neat. until then, it's just fun being in the mountains and away from people.

i'm told to not eat this one. it will make you sweat. not 'oh, it's hot out today' sweating, but like freaky clothes soaked, what the hell is going on type of sweating. sounds like a good one to keep around for some pranks...


according to the lady that helped me id this stuff, this one is edible for most people. wtf, does that mean? hmm, might roll the dice tomorrow. more pics later. it's pretty crazy, has velvety skin that is peeling off the cap and stalk.

tiny little orange ones. really tiny, those green things are individual pieces of moss.


some type of rusula, not sure what kind. it's got a neat red cap though.


and finally, the hummdinger of mushrooms. a very recognizable mushroom that many people probably don't realize actually exists. we're talking about the mushroom that every allman brothers, greatful dead, and (insert other hippie band name) fan has seen on album art, tie-dyed t-shirts, or black light posters. we're talking trippy alice in wonderland and super mario brothers stuff. that one mushroom that them ceramic garden gnomes are always chillin' by in some nice old lady's garden. well, at least until some fully kraeusened hippy comes and lifts it. this is the amanita muscaria and this one is still pretty young and small.

*free my ass, probably spent at least $60 in gas this weekend. meh.

TRUCKTOBER!

caught some flack for the slack on bloggings, so heeeweego past blast:

-1shot jonny chimpo slayed a 15lb coho, he semi-butchered it and brought some chunks over to be smoked. oh yeah, i bought the most un-politically correct smoker i could find AKA the "BIG CHIEF". it hasn't burned the deck down yet. stolen I-5 north sign has helped a lot with that.

(pic is pinks in the brine, not the legendary 15lb. coho)

-been gun-toting in the woods, not much in the way of freezer filling though. there was one grouse that made it to the table, well it was part of a grouse. you gots to axe snowman for the details... here some mt. raditude huntin' pics:

"cry for mommy canyon" on the way to mt. raditude.


pretty rad, even though being cold and wet sucks

cold and wet: A-1!

-hiked up to rachel lake last saturday, was totally hunter man incognito. shotgun was broken down into a mtn. bike fork bag and all blaze orange was in pack as to not freak out of the families and other people on the trail. on my way back down from the lake there was one punk grouse seriously flippin me the bird (getit?, rdrr) on the side of the trail. was so tempted to duck off assemble that MOSSBERG, don the orange and git that din din, but then that galldurn jimminy cricket conscience kicked in and i just watched it hop around on the ground eating berries and crap while a family of Russians hiked up behind it. no shooty. rachel lake, btw, is a real pretty lake and the trail will toughen ya up. i recommend it. oh, PS made some RAD huckeberry muffins that night to bring to the 5TH ANNUAL JACKEE & ANDY OCTOBERFEST PARTY that night. well it was a muffin recipe but i just put all that crap into one pan. it worked. so i guess it was muffin/cake, whatever. party was rad, top-notch dudes!

favorite lake!

dinner that got away

UGMO aka the bauwss

MT. PRETTY??

-it's shred video premiere season! i used to get pretty excited for shred vid premiere season, but it seems that the douche-baggery at the premieres has been growing exponentially in the last 5 or so seasons. maybe i'm just a 30+ surly guy now or it's all the turkeys that come out of the woodwork. anyways, let's just say that i pick my video premiere battles carefully. neverland is the best vid i've seen so far. black winter SUCKS, videograss is fun to watch but not worth my $$, airblaster is way fun but still not $$ worthy, and um well uh, yup. still hoping to put some crap together for "WEAK IN THE TWEAK" the movie yahurd? stack that cheese, buhleedat. rdrrrrrrrrrrrr.

ok, so today me and T-DOH got rad on dickerman mtn. whoa, that don't sound right. srsly, that's the name of the stupid mtn., dickerman mtn. weenus jokes abound. whatever, here's the stats: 4.6 miles each way, start at 1800' el. end at 5723 el. it's not the steepest trail in the world but it's a pretty good one. actually, no, it's a WAY RAD ONE. i've been so stuck hiking the stuff off of the I-90 corridor due to it's proximity to seattle but holy crap that stuff off of the mtn loop hwy is friggin pretty!!! i've done some hiking & backpacking up here before, but it's deff on the radar for future stuff.

snow!

don't eat this

mt. ding ding

found on today's hike: russulas, chantrelles, and a bunch o' other crap.

MO SHOES

i jogged my liver pretty hard this weekend AKA shut tha club down x2 and a packer game, yahurd? today was payback tuffguy megaman exercise day. 4.8 miles in 40 minutes! (yes, i drove the route afterwards to get the stats) pretty sure it's a new moon record. mid-route i heard some drunk dude exclaim "holy shit, was that the KARATE KID?!" Ralph Maccio-Yo! my bandana tonight was orange though.



i got some identification help with my mushrooms today. i'm pretty stoked that i nailed the genus of both specimens. turns out one is a Boletus mirabilis (aka admirable bolete) and the other might be a Russula xerampelina (aka shrip russula). both are considered choice edibles! the Boletus mirabilis is supposed to have a distinct lemony flavor and the Russula xerampelina is supposed to have a nutty flavor. might try the Boletus mirabilis tonight. gonna do some more reading on the Russula and set up a spore print tonight.


-Boletus mirabilis (growing on a dead chunk of hemlock)-



-Russula xerampelina??-


even after you correctly identify a mushroom as a safe one to eat you have eat a small amount and wait a few days to see if you have any alergic reactions. some people have negative reactions to the common wild mushrooms such as chantrelles. hopefully my tummy agrees with the Boletus i picked.

UPDATE: well i sliced up the Bolete mirabilis and it turns out the worms had already eaten some of my mushroom. i sauteed it up anyways and chewed on a few of the less worm holed pieces and spit 'em out. it tasted pretty damn good and there was a pretty distinct lemon taste! guess i'll have to find some more.

DON'T DOUBT THE CLOUT

switched up the routine this week. spent some time foraging instead of fishing. 3 trips to the mountains produced about 3 gallons of huckleberries and blueberries. picked some mushrooms too, one bolete and a few russelas (i think). might bring 'em in for some id'ing by a master tomorrow. if the species of russela i found are a a go (i.e. edible), i'll probably do some more hippie trips to the mountains this week. there's a lot of free food out thar and i'ma gonna find it.

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rad b-day party for hurricane marge last night. not usually a fan of belltown, but when you fill shorty's with a bunch of friends that 'hood is a lot more tolerable. gonna stay away from unlicensed cabbies for a while.

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didja know that if you leave 3 fish carcasses in the yardwaste bin during a week of 80 degree temps it turns into a gooey pile of maggots? it does. the smell isn't exactly pleasant. neigbors and roomates ain't too stoked with me right now. rdrr.

XMAS

it rained this morning. real monsoon-like rain, not the typicall light drizzle 'ooh ooh, it rains everday in seattle' sissy rain. given the crappy conditions, i figured this would thin out the fishing crowds. it did, just me and one other dude at lincoln park. too bad it was low tide and no schools were coming through. fished for an hour and a half and got skunked. got back to the truck and realized that some jacka$$ got an early christmas. that POS broke into my truck and made off with my ipod & radio transmitter and my snowboarding backpack. backpack was full of good stuff like: dutch harbor rain jacket, headlamp, xtools floating pliers, filet knife, compass, gloves, flashing red bike light, stringer, sunglasses, beef jerky, TP, licorice, and MY FAVORITE ORANGE HAT, etc. grrr. normally i bring my backpack with me, but it was raining so damn hard that i didn't want everything getting wet. never again.

LUCKILY, i recently took a bunch of stuff out of my backpack so that turkey DIDN'T get my camera, binoculars, first ait kit, 'survival' kit.

$500 deductible on renters insurance, so it may not even be worthwhile claiming this. dammit.

screwdriver key (sick pinstripes still intact)

in better news, after getting skunked 3 times in a row i finally got a food dehydrator off of craig's list. it's not a very good one. acutally, it's pretty much just a hair dryer that sits on some plastic racks. no temp settings, no timer, and it's kinda loud. it even came with one semi-dehydrated earwig in it. crap, at $10 i think i may have been ripped of. meh. looking forward to dehydrating some huckleberries. 'tis the season hippies.

here are some pictures that weren't stolen today:

ele-oh-ele. c'mon frumpy, don't be bummy cuz you got no chest mane.

soon 'nuf

LOCALS ONLY

nuts to this, off to the sloop.

OMG, HAT TRICK

I AM SUPERHERO

P.S. please find me that kid's shirt in my size. thx.

CARZ & BURGLARZ

yesterday a friend got his car stolen. today i found it. I AM AWESOME.