I write fiction, non-fiction, verbiage for all our websites, and have been publishing my fan fiction on my various sites for many years. https://paulacas.com
I am a Spiritual Medium and use Tarot cards as one my primary tools in doing readings. For 30 plus years have been doing readings in settings from my living room to truck stops. I tell you what Spirit wants you know for your betterment, not what you think you need to know.
I’ve worked on computers since before there was such a creature as Windows.
A Mountain Maryland native, but have spent years spent living in Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Arizona. My husband, Oro Cas, and I spent 10 years driving tractor-trailer across the 48 contiguous states.
Oro Cas and I produced and hosted Internet Radio shows on BlogTalk Radio, video productions on KDCL Media and Oro Expeditions YouTube Channels.
Years ago, I didn’t know anything about morel mushrooms. I didn’t know what they looked like. I didn’t know how they tasted. I didn’t even know they existed.
Then one day I attended a mushroom program with a local club. Experts in the club introduced me to morels. “Here’s what morels look like,” they said. “You’ll find them all over this park.”
“Great,” I thought to myself. “I now know everything I need to know.”
Except I still hardly knew anything.
Sure, I quickly learned how to identify morels, and I heard a few things about looking in certain areas: “Look for elms, apples, and poplars. Morels really like sweet soil.”
But where would I find elms, apples, and poplars? What the heck is sweet soil?
It soon dawned on me that knowledge of mushrooms wasn’t enough. If I really wanted to improve my skills, I needed to learn tree identification. I needed to learn ecology. I needed to learn geology.
And so I learned as much as I could. Slowly but consistently, I developed a wider set of skills. Eventually, I became a better mushroom hunter.
Today, I interact with wild landscapes a bit differently than I did back then. I now look for connections. I look for relationships. I look at the bigger picture.
All this to say, if you want to find morels this year, I strongly encourage you to learn the connections that bind morels to their ecosystems. In a brand new video, I discuss how to approach morel mushroom hunting through a more holistic lens.
Speaking of learning, consider enrolling in Foraging Wild Mushrooms to improve your foraging skills.
I created this 4-season online course to help you become a successful mushroom hunter. Included in this course are instructional videos on mushroom ecology, mushroom biology, common edible mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms, poisonous mushrooms, cooking techniques, and medicine-making.
To find good medicine, look in a forest. In a forest, you’ll encounter plants that have the ability to heal human ailments.
Many years ago, I learned about the medicinal properties of a particular woody plant. This woody plant, when applied to my face as an extract, improved my poor complexion.
Over the years, I’ve been able to maintain a decent complexion thanks to this plant (and thanks to significant lifestyle changes). While I no longer rely on this plant to heal my physical ailment, I do rely on it to address an existential problem.
Plaguing the human species, this problem can be solved if we know where to look.
I’d also like to mention that I’ll be part of the Wild Ones Western PA Chapter’s annual symposium on March 26, where I’ll be joining a panel discussion focused on strengthening communities and native habitats.
Humans try to avoid these four conditions. Old trees embrace them.
This is why I advocate taking long walks in the woods. In wooded ecosystems, we sometimes discover the ragged splendor of old trees.
On a recent walk in a hardwood forest, I rediscovered a tree I had first encountered many months ago. Rough, weathered, worn, and warped, it’s one of the most remarkable trees I have ever seen.
If you want to find morel mushrooms this year, here’s a tip: don’t wait until spring to begin your hunt.
This might sound like unconventional advice. After all, current temperatures are too cold for morels. Wood frogs haven’t even bred yet. Spring is still another 50 days away.
All these things are true. But this next statement is also true: you can drastically improve your future chances of finding morels by doing a few things right now.
In a brand-new video, I discuss several tactics we can implement immediately. I also share my predictions for the upcoming season. Will the mushrooms be plentiful this year? Will they be scarce?
At least that’s what some people say. If it’s true, then sadness would have to be a butterfly-less world.
Fortunately, you and I will probably never experience such a world. The planet currently hosts over 17,000 butterfly species. The United States alone has over 700 butterfly species. Most of these species are doing okay, but some are at risk of extinction. The Karner blue and San Bruno elfin, among others, are endangered in the United States.
And then there’s the monarch butterfly — an iconic species known for its epic migration. Monarch populations, according to several credible sources, are declining. To halt the decline, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recently proposed to list the monarch as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Interestingly, this proposal is receiving criticism. Some people think that monarchs don’t need our help. Some researchers even claim there isn’t strong evidence of widespread declines.
Who are we to believe? Are monarch butterflies really in trouble? If so, why are populations declining? Is more intervention a good thing? Should we really be raising monarchs at home? And how does organized crime tie into all this?
Paths I Walk 
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