The Beginning of Mycologeek: A Journey from Mushroom Contamination to Automation

Let’s go back to late 2019, right before the world knew about the pandemic. At the time, I was trying to grow mushrooms in our basement. Every jar I inoculated ended up contaminated across a few attempts. I think it was lipstick mold, but either way, it was frustrating. I had grown mushrooms successfully in my old apartment, so I kept obsessing over what I might be doing wrong. What was once a really enjoyable hobby had become a source of disappointment!

That’s when it hit me: growing mushrooms involves a lot of manual steps, and each one of those steps introduces opportunities for contamination. What if I could automate the whole process? Maybe then I’d avoid contamination altogether and it really sounds like fun.

I began to think about some kind of mushroom-growing robot, which eventually expanded into the idea of building an incrementally automated lab for mushrooms and plants. While the goal is to create a robot that grows mushrooms, the scope of the project is much broader, giving me endless things to learn along the way.

Building the First Version of My Website

With the idea in mind, I decided to document the project. I didn’t really know where to start, so I grabbed a boilerplate HTML and found a couple of CSS templates that I liked. I knew a little of both from my teenage years on Geocities. This became the first version of my website. My wife, who has a good eye for design, helped me out by creating the landing page, and it really brought the site to life. The goal was simple: have a place to document everything I was doing with this project.

-- One note about Geocities and writing HTML as a teen (almost 30 years ago). Some things really never leave you and opportunities to use HTML showed up in my life a handful of times. It was worth it!

Around this time, I learned about responsive design. Initially, my website looked terrible on mobile devices. I had no idea how to fix it, so I did what anyone would do—I Googled, “how to make my website look good on iPhone and PC.” After a lot of trial and error, I managed to figure most of it out. Sure, some things still look funky on certain devices, but I can live with it for now.

In the beginning, the website was pretty basic. I created pages that I could update whenever I was bored, uploading pictures or new content. I tend to have a short attention span when it comes to building my website, so I often bounce from idea to idea. But it was a start, and it gave me a place to track the progress of this mushroom-growing robot project.

And that's when I found Tiktok

Tiktok became a huge distraction for me and I wasted a lot of time while this project stagnated.

Automating the Website

At first, I hosted the site in S3. Then, I learned about GitHub Actions, which helped automate the deployment of my site to mycologeek.com using CI/CD. This was a game-changer. The process of automating my website's deployment felt satisfying and gave me a deeper sense of control over my workflow. It wasn't just about the mushrooms anymore; I was building the tools that would help me build the project.

Inspiration from Home Robotics Projects

Throughout this process, I found myself watching a lot of home robot projects on YouTube. These projects gave me inspiration for my own automated lab idea. There’s something incredible about seeing how others approach building robots and engineering solutions from scratch. It made me realize that my project, while ambitious, was totally achievable if I kept taking incremental steps toward my goal. However, I watched more Youtube that I should have as well.

Building for the Enjoyment of Learning

In truth, this project has become less about the final result and more about enjoying the process of learning to code, engineer, and tinker. Python, AWS, and analytics are all part of my work life, and those same tools are driving my side project. Sure, I may never find the time to dive deep into JavaScript, simply because I don’t use it at work. But that’s okay. As long as I can keep learning and applying what I already know, I’ll always have something to work with that expands my knowledge.

I’m optimistic that I’ll get Artemis Labs built and that the Mycologeek robot will be up and running eventually, but I’m not setting a hard deadline for myself. I’ve got a vision and the motivation to take the next steps, and for now, that’s enough.