Animal tracks, a den, and mushrooms! Come with me to finish my walk through the woods of Arkansas. It's easy to see who's out and about when there's a light skiff of snow.

It's a ramble at my parents' place -- 45 acres atop the sandstone in the Boston Mountains in north central Arkansas. The dusting of snow lets us see what animals have been busy. For the record, this walk is from January 2017. Here's the first half of my walk, in case you missed it.

This is where we started, through the Eastern Red Cedars and Shortleaf Pines. We saw so much!.

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We're starting again by the rock wall, where we left off before.

Resurrection ferns are amazing! They grow on rocks and tree trunks, like on this Eastern Red Cedar. All their water and nutrients come from the air and rain. When it's dry, they turn brown, curl up, and can lose over 90% of their water and still survive. Most other plants can't even lose 10% without dying. When it rains, they revive within hours, turning green and lush! They spread by rhizomes, so it's easy to get some to take home - you can buy them in stores, too!

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Look at that -- a mushroom! And what a special mushroom! This is Ganoderma lucidum -- the Reishi mushroom that so many people use for medicine. This one came up in the fall and is already breaking down. See the bug-eaten holes in the stalk?

Ganoderma lucidum rots deciduous trees. It's one of the 'white rots' that makes the rotten wood light, spongy, and fibrous. It's an annual mushroom, not a perennial like so many of the other bracket mushrooms. See that one from last year, on the right, laying flat like a rotten pancake?

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Look! The wild turkeys have been here! It's always fun seeing their big tracks in the woods!

Watch out for the Greenbrier vines! Two different kinds grow here. Both cause a lot of cussing from those sharp spines, but their tender young growth makes for good eating - and good revenge - in the springtime. And some kinds of tasty Hedgehog mushrooms grow in Greenbrier patches, for more good eating!

Look at that fox den! My parents see the Gray Fox around their place. This den is busy! Can you see all the tracks going in and out?

Here's a closer look at the tracks. It's hard to find a track that hasn't been stepped on again!

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Here's a pond, but what's going on with those marks on the ice?

Here's a closer look. What do you think makes those marks? I'll show you, but let's keep walking to the second pond, while you think about it.

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Check out these rabbit tracks! My dad is always happy to see these in the snow, because he catches them in oldtime homemade box traps and eats them for dinner. The ones he doesn't catch will eat his garden in the spring and summer!

And here's a little hopping bird. I can't tell what kind, but it moves different than the one we saw in the first half of the walk.

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Have you figured out what made those marks on the ice on the pond? The answer is obvious here on the second pond!

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Hahaha -- my nephew was here the week before, with his kids. It looks like they had fun trying to break the ice by throwing big rocks! Every place a rock broke through the ice, water oozed up and then froze again. But the ice was too thick in some spots on this second pond! Gotta make your own fun in the country! And can you tell where the sun does or doesn't hit the ground during the day? That's quite a sharp line where the snow is melted or not!

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Well, let's head out of the woods and back toward the house.

The moon is rising before twilight. It sure looks big and pretty through the branches of the black walnut trees!

Now we're home! We can warm up with hot tea and my mom's wild persimmon cookies. They are delicious!

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Thanks for walking with me! And thanks to @lyndsaybowes for the #walkwithme tag!

Do you like to track animals in the snow? Have you ever found mushrooms in the snow?Do you ever eat wild persimmons?

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Plant and Animal List

• Shortleaf pine - Pinus echinata
• Eastern red cedar - Juniperus virginiana
• Resurrection fern - Pleopeltis polypodioides
• Reishi mushroom - Ganoderma lucidum
• Greenbrier - Smilax spp.
• Black walnut tree - Juglans nigra
• Wild turkey - Meleagris gallopavo
• Gray fox - Urocyon cinereoargenteus
• Eastern Cottontail rabbit - Sylvilagus floridanus

Here's more info about resurrection ferns, from Cooperative Extension at North Carolina State University. And here's more about Ganoderma lucidum and using it, from a newsletter from the North American Mycological Association.

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Haphazard Homestead

foraging, gardening, nature, simple living close to the land
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