Moss Heaven Again

I spent yesterday morning out hiking and collecting mosses. I started up the mountain and decided to go to Moss Heaven. I got a wonderful bag full of cushions and some of the best frog moss I've seen in ages! What a wonderful place I've found! I am careful not to over-collect in that area - it's the right thing to do, plus there's plenty of other areas to collect from.
On my way down the mountain I got a call on my cell that I had to be in Bedford at 11:30. It seems every time I go up there, something comes up. It turned out to be a good trip to town. As I was driving I came up with a brain storm. I am going to start terrarium classes. I think it will be so much fun! I'll do groups of 5 or more. That way even just a small group of friends can participate. I started advertising when I got home. I need to make up some flyers to put in the stores. And business cards.
I also decided to do the Christmas Fair at Mann's Choice. I'll do up as many terrariums as I can. All sizes for all kinds of folks. I can decorate them with pretty bows for gift-giving. I haven't done a fair since my Antique Dealer days. I am pumped!

Things Don't Always Turn Out as Planned!

I boxed up my orders and went to the post office. After that, I grabbed a few things at the grocery store and was about to head for home. That's when it happened....
A call from my daughter saying that she had injured her eye and needed me to take her to the medical center right away. I picked her up from work and made the 45 minute trip to the center. 4 long hours later, I was home. Thankfully, she should be ok. She has special eye drops to use that cost a whopping $97!!! They said if her eye isn't better in 1 week, then she has to go to an eye doctor for surgery. At $97, those drops better work!
I never got to do all the things I planned to do today. But life doesn't always go as planned and there's always tomorrow!
I plan on photographing some shaggy moss that I discovered. I've never seen anything like it and I'm not quite sure of the variety but it's really neat. If the pics turn out good, I'll list it this evening. If not, then I'll photograph outside tomorrow and list tomorrow sometime. These pics turn out so much better in outside light!

Pixies Found!

Success! When I first arrived at my site I was very discouraged. All I saw was oodles of frog moss with reindeer moss throughout. I walked the entire area and saw no pixies. I did gather some reindeer and put them in the car. Then I noticed lots of moss over near a stream so I walked over. It was all frog moss - some amazing mounds! Perfect circles - 1-3 inches across. And all around were pixie cups! Lots of them! Some frogs circles have pixies in there too. I am so pumped! I listed a combo piece - frog moss and cushion with pixie cups on my eileenb714 Ebay account and a piece of frog moss with lots of pixies on my pinchingpennies4now Ebay account. Right now I have to box up some orders for shipment today - I'll be listing some on Etsy later once I'm done. I'll add a great pic I took of a HUGE area of pixies later too!

Hunting Pixie Cups

No time today for a hike. Tomorrow my plan is to go hunting pixie cups. With all this rain we've had, they should be easy to spot at my usual lucky spot. I haven't been down there in ages, it seems. Pixie cups shrivel to little white specks when it is dry but when they get wet they swell up so much and are so easy to spot. Below is a picture I found on the internet. Hopefully I will be posting some of my findings tomorrow. and they will be nice and plump like these!

Moss as a Living Mulch in the Garden

I am seeing sheet moss sprouting in some areas of my shade gardens. The mosses are going crazy this year with all the rain. So I decided to try planting some in the area all under my big holly tree. I spent the day scraping and setting it under there. I surrounded it with some rocks and it looks pretty good if I do say so myself. The area under that tree was pretty ugly. Nothing would grow except for an occasional bramble. Not far from that same area is a large swathe of tree moss. It's been spreading like crazy and may eventually find a way to the rocks. I so love "no mow" areas! I may try transplanting some more tree moss to help it along now that I am laid off. I will have more time to watch and water it if needed.
I read about using sheet mosses as a living mulch instead of wood chips and I really like the idea. Wood chips are a real nuisance here - too many bugs and critters get in there and the cats make a mess of it. I'm going to get out there tomorrow and do some planning for next year.

Finally Selling my Moss on Etsy

Today I had 2 orders on Etsy! I am so excited! I added a link on the side of my blog page! 

It was absolutely gorgeous today - nice sunny day after all that nasty rain! I hiked up and gathered lots of medium and small cushion mosses. Tomorrow I plan on doing the same. Life is good!

Life is Good!

Up at 7:30 and it's raining again. UGH!
Today I will organize my "Moss Room" I have to do something with this box collection. The boxes take up half the room! I ship at least 10 boxes per day. I prefer to use recycled boxes. I am the most "green" person I know. Working on all those Green Building construction projects did that :)
I was planning on shipping mosses throughout the winter and now I am faced with the dilemma of how to ship. I prefer to ship everything green. It's so wonderful to open that zip lock bag and smell the earth. I don't think that will be possible, though. Damp moss in sub-zero temps is probably not a good thing. So I will let them dry out and have my buyers spritz to take them out of dormancy.
My sales are really growing. I am so pleased. Now that I am laid off, I will put more into the business and hopefully it will grow. Terrariums make great Christmas gifts and are a fun thing to do to beat the winter boredom.