Crazy Mushrooms

I got home from work the other day and noticed this HUGE mushroom growing wildly by the blackberries.  I thought to myself where did this thing come from??  I went on inside the house changed my clothes, plopped my hair up into a pony tail, grabbed a glove and headed back outside.

After now having any rain for so long I almost forgot about the insane mushrooms we sometimes have pop up in the summer.  We finally have started getting some rain again and like magic these things start springing up from nowhere.  I generally catch then when they are relatively small, but they grow quickly.

I pick them, placing them in a bucket then dump the bucket over the hill where hopefully the spores will not find their way back into my yard.  I used to pick mushrooms for a living.  Interesting job I will say.  It was underground in old limestone mines that were converted into the mushrooms mines.  These mushrooms are nothing like the ones I used to pick for a living!

I wandered all around the yard and picked these crazy things and a few other run of the mill toadstools and mushrooms.  Then I seen it again......the huge looming crazy mushroom.  I snuck up on it so as not to scare it away.  I plunked down the 5 gallon bucket next to it and had to take a picture  - this thing is big.

Then I picked it and took another picture of it in my hand.  All this thing needs is eyes and a mouth and it could be a new species of rodent.

I have no idea what kind of wild mushrooms these are, but I know if left alone the tops turn black and open up for the spores to escape.  If you hit one with the tractor or lawn mower you can't breath for 15 minutes from the black cloud of spores that explodes from them.  That is why I try to keep them picked before they break open or can get hit from the mower or tractor.  These things are downright crazy and something out of Alice and Wonderland.