First of all thanks for sharing the mushrooms with us (at least to taste visually :-) and I hope you had good luck on your spore collection. My question is about spore handling. I watched the link you posted and yes he is creepy sounding. He kept stressing sterilization. Now nature is far from a sterile environment and mushrooms grow just fine in nature. Does anyone know the importance of sterilization when spore collecting / processing ? I wondered if it was the 'type' of mushrooms he was dealing with. I can understabd it for the edible ones. For me I would want to do edible mushrooms and possibly a few non-edible. We have recently learned about using mushrooms to help decompose wood chips which we will have a bunch of soon. What I learned was that if you add mushroom spores to the chips it helps them decompose better. After seeing the cost of mushroom syringes I cringed. I would pay that for edibles but would probably buy a kit instead. I was considering walking around and collecting spores of normal mushrooms via the print method you described and using them on the wood chips or simply taking those shrooms and dropping them down on top and letting nature do the rest. If I need to take prints I really did not want to go through so much trouble for the non-edible ones. Would someone with experience in shrooming touch on my question and ideas or offer better/less expensive ways of getting shrooms to assist the decomposition of the chips ? thanks !

Also, make some holes on the SIDES of your styrofoam cups near the bottom. Holes on only the bottom prevent the water from draining out and allow the roots no aeration at all. That can kill plants. They need air as much as they need water. See the link below for a long discussion about plant roots needing air, particularly plants in containers (and that includes seedlings that you'll plant in the garden later). Here is a link that might be useful: Container soils and water in containers

Looking to start a new hobby. Embroidery. I have NEVER done this kind of hobby before. I do sew some. Need advice as to what would be a good machine to start with. Lessons? Videos? Iam very open to all suggestions. I guessI would like to spend no more than $500.00 Thank you. Karen

Well, I bought a little yarn and a yard of flannel for a baby blanket. I think I will limit future purchases to coupons or sales. Most of the store is stuff I have no use for -- vases, candles, wall hangings, dust catchers to set on a table or shelf. I have all that kind of stuff that I will ever need.