We started 2022 heading into our third year of the COVID-19 pandemic and got introduced to Omicron and all its siblings and children. 2022 also seemed to be the year where the effects of climate change really hit home in the PNW. For all the weirdness though we actually did quite a bit this year and spent a lot of time outdoors truffling, hiking, camping, hunting and fishing.
Last fall I started Lira in truffle hunting classes through Truffle Dog Company here in Seattle and after finishing up the Foundations class it was pretty clear she was ready to skip Intermediate and move into Pre-Advanced and Advanced. Since early December we’ve been doing training hunts with real truffles most of the time and have been going out “hunting” a few days a week though she had never really even started digging but we knew it was a horrible year for truffles. This last few weeks things have gotten a bit more interesting as she started finding spots she was very interested in and dug a few holes where we’d find nothing or just heavy mycelium.