KW-41 Mushrooms and pickles
Eating one, being in another
For the first two years of the barracks, I often said that the experience of an entirely stress free life was the most surprising thing about being here. In the second year, I got the pigs. Welcome back stress. I still can’t afford to feed them, and they are really good at finding (and exploiting) the inevitable weakness in their fences. But, they are also just about the Best Thing here, and so we allow them a little turbulence.
This week, I moved them over to their winter accommodations. They do their piggie things in the fresh air of the Pig Field all summer, and then come back into brick outhouses for the winter. It’s drier and it is warmer. And they can have as much straw as they like for bedding, which then goes on the potatoes when they have filled it full of nutrients.
Assembling the fences took at least two days longer than I thought it would, but I am pretty confident that this year, it is a job well done. We will find out when it gets properly cold and dark. That is usually when they try to go off on adventures. Aided by the battery being less effective in the cold, short circuits caused by excessive ice, or simply the weight of the snow pulling the fences down.
I am pretty confident the strong metal fence posts will be sufficient to withstand whatever mother winter throws at them, and hopefully, my practical education in the matter of electric fences is complete, and I have finally made all the mistakes there are to make. This is not in any way likely.
The rest of the week, I spent still moving wood from one place to another, but enough of it has now been stacked away nicely that I can get to the Dreck on the deck. The substantial quantities of dirt, leaves, pine needles, bark, sawdust and twigs that result from a good job well done making planks and battens from trees. The good stuff gets stacked, the bad stuff is firewood, and the dirt and muck that is scraped up from underneath goes directly to improve the quantity and quality of the earth. Trees are like pigs. The only thing you waste is the squeak.
There has been, as is standard for the start of October, much animated discussion on the quality of the mushrooms to be found in the forest. Has there been enough rain, too much rain? Is the ground warm enough? Will the harvest be good enough. Well, I went up to Berlin for a day or two, and on coming back, the forest was chokka full of cars and people carrying baskets, grubbing around in the undergrowth, so I figured, yes, probably, to all the positives. And indeed it has been a fairly good mushrooming year.
A friend from here or hereabouts sent me a photo of his basket full of porcinis. Porcinis! (aka penny bun, cep, king bolete, Boletus edulis). My favourite, and usually rare around here. I went out and found a few, but I think he might have gotten the best of the pick.
The Week Ahead
Actually, almost identical to last week. Raking, pickling, and beans. The beans weren’t quite ready to be harvested last week (to be fair, I did just say I would “look at them”. I did that), but this week should be good. And it’s dry. We didn’t have a single dry day last week. Which is also not particularly helpful for raking. Downright unhelpful, in fact.
We (as in multiple persons, not the usual Pirate we (which is the same as the royal we, but intended to show inclusivity and a lack of ownership of the project.)(Did you know, that when monarchs write to each other, the use “I”, but when they write to presidents they use “we”. Interesting, eh?)) we will be working hard on the Guard House. Child #2 and long term resident #1 and may well move in there over the winter. It can be heated. This is a good winter thing. After the winter, then, the possibility of opening it up as an Airbnb. I’m not sure that anyone needs an airbnb around here, but the barracks needs an income, that’s as plain as the nose on the pirate we face. In a word, the finances are bad. And that’s enough about that.
Also
Seeds. I would like to spend some time making sure that the seeds for next year are well taken care of. Mostly, they are hanging around in paper bags in a selection of locations.
Potatoes. Need checking for rot.
Returning to the theme at the top of this newsletter, this week sees another source of stress which needs resolving. It is all official and form filling and stuff, and I am in no way looking forward to it. I’ll let you know how it goes next week. Please send good vibes.
And on that 70s hippie note, I shall sign off with the reminder that you should all be looking after each other, and the hope that you are. Go call that old friend, visit that relative, drop in on a neighbour. Tell them I say hi
Much pirate love to you all and until next time. Hopefully from the barracks 😜
Your Pirate Ben
xoxo
Post script on The Bee Sting (last week’s book of the week). The tension of the last 50 pages was resolved in the worst way possible. Do not recommend.
Good vibes for the administrative stuff. Xx
That is a wonderful photo of you picking mushrooms in the forest!