Chuck struck gold on a hike yesterday.

He came across this 11.4 lb. Hen of the Woods treat.

Our first meal with part of this mushroom. Chuck made a beautiful mushroom omlet for breakfast.

Meet Mr. Rooster. We heard his first cock-a-doodle-do.

Chuck is making a lot of progress with the upper condo. It looks like it will be open for business come egg laying time.

Maddy came home for Kara’s funeral. After the service, the best thing was hanging out with her friend Monty.

May you find a horse to ride in heaven.

Yes, more mushroom photos. But, I’m only going to identify those I know off the top of my head. I will let my husband identify the rest if he feels inclined. But the mushrooms are so pretty, I wanted to share.

This is a Bolete and probably a bitter one. We still haven’t found boletes good enough to eat.

Here is Chuck showing us the inside of this particular mushroom.

A beautiful Chanterelle, but a little too old to enjoy.

Here is a Giant Club Coral.

It is rather odd looking, I must say.

Here is regular coral. If anyone out there in viewing land disagrees with my identification, please feel free to add your expertise. I am pretty new at this.

Here is a Hedgehog mushroom. I do believe this one ended up on a pizza.

The underside of a Hedgehog.

Here is a Jack-o-latern. They can be confused with Chanterelles. But rather than adding a tasty treat to your meal, they will give you an evening of pain and sorrow. You won’t die, but you might think about it for awhile.

Never eat a mushroom you’re not 100% sure of.

Here is an old bolete.

And a very old bolete.

A very large and old hedgehog.

An old anamita.

This is a Woodear and I tell you it is rather creppy looking.

This is just pretty.

I thought these little guys made a cute picture.

Some pretty shelf mushrooms.

People have been asking…”where are the Duke photos?” He’s still here. He’s still the great dog you all know and love.

Duke is a big fan of laying in the sunshine and soaking up the rays.

But he also spends a lot of time being on watch just in case another one of those raccoons wants to eat a chicken.

Duke says “hi” to all his fans.

Since this is Horse Farm Diaries, I guess I should include a few horse photos. They are doing fine.

Here’s Athena trying to talk to the boys across the way.

They would rather graze in the pasture than talk back.

Hi everyone, it has been awhile. But I will try to catch up. These garden photos are already out of date, but they are still nice to look at.

I have three really nice pumpkins that will be ready for Maddy to carve by her birthday.

I’m really pleased with their shape and color. Who knows, perhaps I’ll have a newer update of the pumpkins tomorrow. These photos were taken August 26th.

All of my peppers are really doing well. These are some of my favorites, hot yellow peppers. I pickled some of these. I bet they would add some zip to a bloody mary.

Soon our world will be overtaken by winter squash. We have acorn, butternut, spaghetti and something I’m not really too sure about. But time will tell.

And I know you’ve all been wondering about the sad story of my tomatoes. I did get hundreds of cherry and grape. Those i dried. But the nice big red ones—well, we at them as fast as we could, but so many have been lost to disease. I’m guessing we got 20% yield and the earth got the rest.

I let a few of my lettuce plants go to seed. I think they’re really pretty.