Alaskan Driftwood Scavenging

Within minutes of our arrival to Pennock Island across the Narrows of Ketchikan, my eight year old nephew eagerly set out with as many compatriots as he could corral together on an expedition to scavenge driftwood for a bonfire. He is captain of his own scavenged ship, The Log.

As I understand it, The Log was obtained through salvage rights after it was found floating past my nephew's house partially submerged in water. He cajoled my brother (his dad) into helping him retrieve the boat. My brother worried it was another project that would add time to the ever growing list of projects. However, The Log is sturdy. Pulled from the water, she was righted & in action ever since. The seaworthy vessel brings freedom of discovery to an eight year old captain and his crew. The Log just may be my nephew's greatest childhood acquisition.

The Log helps make bonfires like this possible. All the wood used was harvested using The Log, gathered by an eight year old, six year old, five year old & three year old. No adult collected wood.

In between roasting hot dogs, seaweed and marshmallows, we walked down to the shoreline to observe this fine purple starfish.

Driftwood fires are smokey. The AK Posey's have adopted tools, namely goggles, for dealing with the smoke.

Thank you to Clark, Katy, our beautiful nieces and nephew for the spectacular time.

Shantyboat by Harlan Hubbard

I had not heard of Harlan or Anna Hubbard and their journey drifting down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers when our friend David loaned me Shantyboat. He's from Kentucky where the story of Shantyboat is more well known. My attention was hooked after just a few minutes of looking at Harlan Hubbard's hand drawn map at the beginning of the book that details six years aboard their homemade shantyboat.

The Hubbard's built their boat just east of Cincinnati on the Ohio River. Harlan finishes the making the boat in 1944. The river rises floating the shantyboat off the land. They moar their boat there at Brent, Ohio, before casting off down the river two years later, drifting with the current of the river during winter and harboring each spring and summer to grow food, can and restock their provisions for the following winter of drifting.

Their story captivated my imagination and shared the rewards of a simple life unfolding via an extraordinary slow journey of mindfulness. Theirs is a journey of drifting but it is not aimless or lacking intention. And while they are adrift, they nurture a rich social life building community with others who live with and near the river.

I gifted the book to Eric for his birthday and to my father for Christmas. Shantyboat is a wonderful read.

The Chicken of the Woods Matures

The Chicken of the Woods mushroom I spied last week at the base of my neighbor's eucalyptus now looks more like the typical Laetiporus sulphureus with the shelf like spores.

I think the fungus was newly formed when I saw it last week. The heads looked more like cauliflower then. See last week's photo.

Chicken of the Woods Spied Next Door

While returning home from school, I noticed a giant bright orange mushroom/fungus cluster on the trunk of a eucalyptus in my neighbor's parkway. Although I'm no mycologist, my online research leads me to believe it is a Laetiporus sulphureus or Chicken of the Woods.

Chicken of the Woods are edible, although I read warnings about Laetiporus sulphureus causing stomach upsets when harvested from the base of eucalyptus trees. I think it merits more research. I'm thinking about acquiring David Arora's All That the Rain Promises and More field guide to Western mushrooms, especially after spying the cover of the book. Who doesn't want to party with David Arora?

Arugula Ready to Bolt and Nasturtium Volunteers

As a proud arugula growing American, I found many in our garden on the cusp of bolting. I'm hoping to stave off the bolt by pinching off the nascent buds. If the greens have not gone bitter, I hope to make a large batch arugula pesto to freeze.


In another patch of our yard, the nasturtium army continues to gain ground. This hearty patch was here when we moved into our house almost seven years ago. It's like a welcome old friend that rolls into town around this time every year.

Making Acorn Flour

You can read lots of advice about making acorn flour by searching online. Kelly and Erik from Homegrown Evolution have an excellent section on it in their book, The Urban Homestead, which, if you haven't bought already you should right now. I made a few batches this time last year, before the book came out and what worked best is pretty much exactly what they describe. I wish I had the book then.

1. Collect your acorns.
Avoid anything that has a damaged shell, especially a dark hole or small circular scar on it about the diameter of a pencil lead. Those acorns have worms in them and are no good.

2. Shell the acorns.
This was the most time consuming part for me. I learned a trick for shelling acorns toward the end of last year's season: When dry, many will open themselves. I'm not sure if this is true of other types of acorns but our Live Oaks pop right open when dried out. If you wait for them to dry out, make sure that they get plenty of air, you don't want them to rot. If you have a dehydrator, you may consider speeding the process. Keeping them in the oven may work too if it has a pilot light.
3. Make acorn mush.
Put them up in a blender with some water. Don't be stingy with the water, you'll be rinsing them out several times before your flour is ready. Think acorn smoothie.

4. Rinse out the tannins.
Acorns contain tannic acid which is bitter, and not good for your kidneys (or iron absorption) . The good news is that it is water soluble and easy to remove. Drape a cotton dishcloth over a deep bowl, pour in your mush and rinse the it with warm water. Wring out the mush by bringing the corners of the towel together and twisting. Taste the mush, if bitter, repeat. I have heard that you don't need to make mush before rinsing the tannins out. I tried this method and my acorns were still bitter after several weeks of changing the water every day. I also tried using boiling water to rinse the mush but warm water from the tap seemed to be the best balance between water usage, gas usage and time - at least for me.

The waste water is good for plants.

5. Dry out the mush.
Next spread the mush out on a cookie sheet and either leave it in the sun on a hot dry day, put it in your dehydrator, or put it in your oven after you baking some cookies or something and let the residual heat do the job. Stir the mush occasionally to speed the process. If it clumps up and looks like ground beef it is probably going well.


Once the flour is dried out it may be a little coarse. You can put it in a cleaned out coffee grinder to get a finer texture. A good food processor also works and I am pretty sure they make attachable gadgets for mixers that really mill the flour if you get completely obsessed.

Our favorite use is acorn pancakes. Just mix the acorn flour 1/2 and 1/2 with wheat or other flour from your favorite recipe. I love the acorn flavor - slightly nutty, very hearty. If you make your own, let us know how it went.

Acorns are Dropping

Last year I made acorn flour for the first time. We didn't get much flour from the two Coastal Live Oaks in our yard but it was fun to make and now that I think I have the process down it should be easier.

Last year it was the smaller of the two trees which was the big producer. This year it appears to be the larger one. Most of the acorns I am finding on the ground have been cast there by our pesky, dog-tormenting squirrels. They take a nibble and drop the rest, but some acorns fall intact.

I'll post more about what I learned as soon as I can scrounge up the pictures and write a few coherent paragraphs about it.

California Cherry

A few native California Cherry trees that were growing here when we bought our house. This year two of them produced an abundance of fruit - beautiful black cherries.

The only problem with them is that they are mostly pit and what there is of the flesh is a combination of sweet and bitter that isn't really worth the effort .

On the positive side, they are beautiful and some birds seem to like them.

When in doubt... Eat It?

Well, probably not a good rule of thumb (see disclaimer below) but it turns out that the strange egg-like fungus that appeared in our yard a while back (which I mistook for a face sucking hatchling) is actually the aptly named Giant Puff Ball.

Much thanks to Ramshackle reader Hubert (a.k.a. ThuggyBear) for the identification. He says they are delicious if eaten before they begin to turn brown. Americanmushrooms.com lists it as one of America's best and safest wild mushrooms.

Here is the Wikipedia entry for the giant puffball

Ahh, from prey to predator - next time I'll pounce.

DISCLAIMER: You have to be out of your freaking mind to eat anything that you are not absolutely sure is safe to eat. Ramshackle Solid and it's contributors take no responsibility whatsoever for anything anyone chooses to put in their mouth. Happy Hunting.

Devil's Egg?

After reading a recent post on Dinosaurs and Robots about the rare and exotic "Devil's Cigar" mushroom, I remembered the appearance of this, probably not rare or exotic, fungus growing in our own yard a little over two years ago.


I noticed it when I bent down to pick up what I thought was a river rock. Just before touching it I realized that it was plant rather than mineral. About two or three days later it exploded sending wispy smoke-like trails of spores out to colonize the neighborhood.


I took these pictures from a safe distance for fear that a face-sucking hatchling would send me into the history books as the first human casualty of an alien invasion. I was probably overreacting.

Mystery Grain

When this grass sprouted, I didn't pull it right away because I could tell it was a little different than what I usually see sprouting up each winter. I thought it might be a native "canyon prince" blue rye volunteer from one of our plants up the hill. When our neighbor mentioned that she was putting out seed for the birds, I realized that some of the bird seed must have set.


Now I am curious exactly what it is. I think I have convinced myself that it is common wheat (also known as bread wheat). If anyone has an idea about what it might be we'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to post a comment or email us at ramshakcle.solid@yahoo.com.