What’s in the Woods?

I just posted the blog on Chili Rellenos a few minutes ago. I actually wrote the text on both blogs and had everything ready to post a week ago, but did not get time. So here are two in one day.

From my bedroom window, I saw some mushrooms that looked interesting, so I took the camera with me to investigate. When I first saw them from the window, I thought they might be some kind of morel mushroom that we frequently see this time of year in the woods. As I got closer, this is what I saw.
Even closer yet, I could see they were not morels.

I looked in our Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms. The closest I could find was “Shaggy Mane” which was listed as “choice”. There were enough differences (like the cap on top) that I was not going to try them out. There were also some similarities to “Scaly Inky Cap” which was listed as edible with caution. Regardless of what kind of mushroom these actually were, I decided to go with the caution philosophy and only take photos.

While in the yard with the camera, I thought I should check out the growing sink hole. A couple of years ago, a new large hole opened up in the front sink hole. It had steep sides and was pretty deep with lots of mud in the bottom. We recently had lots of rain. We had about 5 inches in one day, so I was wondering how the muddy sink hole was, because the scouts are coming to our house to play capture the flag in the woods at night on Wednesday evening, and I did not want it to eat any scouts. This is what it looks like now.

The diameter has increased from erosion and filled in the bottom so it is not as deep as it was a few months ago. Rocky used to go nuts when Joseph would go down in the hole, which made it more fun.

I think I need to mark it off with some caution tape and glow sticks for Wednesday night so we don’t lose any scouts in the dark.