# Just to clarify.  Nurse logs are not garbage.



## Mrs. Krabappel (Dec 16, 2013)

Whether or not one considers them a waste  

http://www.kindofcurious.com/2010/09/life-of-nurse-log.html

http://grizzlie.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3pkota/publications/reprints/2004ecology.pdf

Not only are they arguably more alive with other biota than when they were living, they are also crucial for growing fungal free baby trees.


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## Adios Pantalones (Dec 17, 2013)

I missed the other thread until it was "ash canned", but I agree with you. Calling downed trees a "waste" only looks at what people want, not how forests work.


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## billb3 (Dec 17, 2013)

contextual lexical semantics


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## begreen (Dec 17, 2013)

Alder trees are short lived and fast to decay. They provide lots of nutrients to the successive growth. They are also nitrogen fixers. The miracle of the growth cycle is really quite marvelous and we understand only perhaps a small fraction of what is totally happening, particularly on a fungal level.


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## firebroad (Dec 17, 2013)

Wow, neat link, thanks.
Should be called Compost Trees.


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## Ehouse (Dec 17, 2013)

begreen said:


> Alder trees are short lived and fast to decay. They provide lots of nutrients to the successive growth. They are also nitrogen fixers. The miracle of the growth cycle is really quite marvelous and we understand only perhaps a small fraction of what is totally happening, particularly on a fungal level.




There's a fungus amongus!


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## begreen (Dec 17, 2013)

Lots of 'em! The largest organism on the earth is a fungus and it may well be the oldest too. 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus


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## Ehouse (Dec 17, 2013)

begreen said:


> Lots of 'em! The largest organism on the earth is a fungus and it may well be the oldest too.
> 
> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus




And it's edible (with caution).  Bet you can't eat just one!


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## BrotherBart (Dec 18, 2013)

I give my nurse logs to Nurse Ratchen. The 30-NC.


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## Mrs. Krabappel (Dec 18, 2013)

Always with the sass BB.  To the corner with you


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## firebroad (Dec 18, 2013)

Ehouse said:


> And it's edible (with caution).  Bet you can't eat just one!


Mmmm.....Shrooms.


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## Ehouse (Dec 18, 2013)

firebroad said:


> Mmmm.....Shrooms.




The eastern version (Armillaria mella or "Openky"/Perpinky") is quite tasty.


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## Ehouse (Dec 18, 2013)

I wouldn't mind being a nurse log when I go.


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## Adios Pantalones (Dec 18, 2013)

Ehouse said:


> I wouldn't mind being a nurse log when go.


I looked for a youtube version of the old folk song "compost me", but couldnt find it. It was seen as subversive or something during McCarthyism


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## Adios Pantalones (Dec 18, 2013)

billb3 said:


> contextual lexical semantics


This is neither simple lexical semantics, nor contextual semantics. It is in fact competing ideas at the foundation. Leave it there to rot as part of the ecosystem, or retrieve it and use it.


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## firefighterjake (Dec 18, 2013)

Ehouse said:


> I wouldn't mind being a nurse log when I go.


 

Not quite a nurse log . . . but you should decompose nicely here without leaching a lot of chemicals into the ground and surely would help feed some trees, plants, etc.

http://mainegreencemetery.com/category/about-cbbg/


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## firebroad (Dec 18, 2013)

firefighterjake said:


> Not quite a nurse log . . . but you should decompose nicely here without leaching a lot of chemicals into the ground and surely would help feed some trees, plants, etc.
> 
> http://mainegreencemetery.com/category/about-cbbg/


Wish one of those was close to me.


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## Ehouse (Dec 18, 2013)

firefighterjake said:


> Not quite a nurse log . . . but you should decompose nicely here without leaching a lot of chemicals into the ground and surely would help feed some trees, plants, etc.
> 
> http://mainegreencemetery.com/category/about-cbbg/




Well......there's chemicals and then there's chemicals Jake, and I'd object to being pandered to, but the thing is....not in Maine Jake, oh no, not in Maine!


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## Ehouse (Dec 18, 2013)

firebroad said:


> Wish one of those was close to me.



This past Summer we buried a dear friend, a tall tree of a Czech, an artist who waved his arms when he talked, with emotion for a wind.  His family dug the Shallow on a low hill in the sun, behind the house, laid him down, and covered over.  Rest Mila.

You can keep your dignity if you choose.


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## Adios Pantalones (Dec 18, 2013)

Ehouse said:


> This past Summer we buried a dear friend, a tall tree of a Czech, an artist who waved his arms when he talked, with emotion for a wind.  His family dug the Shallow on a low hill in the sun, behind the house, laid him down, and covered over.  Rest Mila.
> 
> You can keep your dignity if you choose.


There are so many annoying laws about this


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## Ehouse (Dec 18, 2013)

There's always the pelagic option;   Taking one more slow roll and one more deep lungful of God's air and plunging for the Deep as the sea goes Red and the Whites and Blues close in, to give oneself as seed bed to the myriad bottomers.

Sorry, I forgot no political posts til the Can (of worms) opens up, I've nearly completed a bottle of cheap (relatively) Tawny Port.


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## Ehouse (Dec 18, 2013)

Adios Pantalones said:


> There are so many annoying laws about this




Yes, but they were able to skirt (or ignore) them.


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## Cynnergy (Dec 19, 2013)

I know they say that drowning is a peaceful death, but the ocean is sooooo cold around here.  A bit morbid, sorry.  I am feeling a bit melancholy tonight after working on a food security report - one of my survey responses was just so tragic.  Hard to imagine struggles like that in a little place like this.


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## Ehouse (Dec 19, 2013)

Ehouse said:


> Well......there's chemicals and then there's chemicals Jake, and I'd object to being pandered to, but the thing is....not in Maine Jake, oh no, not in Maine!




Actually, I like Maine a lot, but please,  anywheres exceptin" the "Haynesville Woods"!


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## Ehouse (Dec 19, 2013)

Adios Pantalones said:


> There are so many annoying laws about this




You're not supposed to pee off your back porch either.


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## Ehouse (Dec 19, 2013)

Cynnergy said:


> I know they say that drowning is a peaceful death, but the ocean is sooooo cold around here.  A bit morbid, sorry.  I am feeling a bit melancholy tonight after working on a food security report - one of my survey responses was just so tragic.  Hard to imagine struggles like that in a little place like this.




Yeah, the Benthic Zone is creepy.  I wasn't trying to be moribund, just having a little fun with the OP.  A nice dappled glade above a rill with some wild Apple and mixed hardwood would be nice!


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## Adios Pantalones (Dec 19, 2013)

Ehouse said:


> You're not supposed to pee off your back porch either.


They could put me away for a looong time


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## yooperdave (Dec 20, 2013)

I cut some maple chunks this past summer that my son had asked for to  bore some holes into the chunks and plant shitake plugs(?) into.  I don't think he'll start until spring, not sure on that since I'm really not a mushroom fanatic.  I guess they could be considered nurse chunks?

Hey Cynnergy-I also have heard that drowning is a peaceful death and have always wondered....just how would anyone know???  Can't imagine anytime a person is struggling to breathe being peacful.

Nice pics in the link, K


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## Ehouse (Dec 20, 2013)

yooperdave said:


> I cut some maple chunks this past summer that my son had asked for to  bore some holes into the chunks and plant shitake plugs(?) into.  I don't think he'll start until spring, not sure on that since I'm really not a mushroom fanatic.  I guess they could be considered nurse chunks?
> 
> Hey Cynnergy-I also have heard that drowning is a peaceful death and have always wondered....just how would anyone know???  Can't imagine anytime a person is struggling to breathe being peacful.
> 
> Nice pics in the link, K




I always wonder about this.  When the log starts producing, how do you know you're getting Shitakes?  Your nurse log could foster a number of 'shrooms, some of them dangerous.


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