A Beautiful Fall Day and Lettuce Seed Mystery Solved

Turkey Tracks: September 22, 2020

A Beautiful Fall Day and Lettuce Seed Mystery Solved

I was outside all yesterday morning working in the yard. It was one of those beautiful fall days with a clear, brilliant blue sky and some warm sun. Outside tasks went along fast in such a pretty day.

Friends came to help me with the heavy lifting, among other falls tasks, so now the wooden snow boardwalk is down, the porch furniture stored, and everything done now except for a few stray bits after we get some hard frosts.

I dug up ALL the Lady’s Mantle in the beds—it is so invasive—and let me tell you, that was a hard job. LM forms a thick mat of roots under the soil that is something like a doormat.

AC was ecstatic to have people outside with us. He was very, very busy overseeing everything. Here he is after his lunch when all the work was done.

I ordered lettuce seeds from Fedco Seeds that I had planned to sow in the cold frame after some heavy frosts. It will start sprouting in the early spring under the cold frame cover, and I will have beautiful lettuce to eat and share as spring progresses.

I thought I had put the lettuce seed packets in the garage—and seriously wondered (in these solitary virus days) if I was going around the bend a bit since I could not find those packets anywhere.

Yesterday I found the packets way back along the counter in the garage—nowhere near where I had put them. They had been chewed into bits and the seeds eaten. Mice. Hopefully its mice since a red squirrel or a chipmunk would be an entirely different kind of disaster.

Mice traps will go up in the garage soon now. Here is why it is not a great idea to leave the garage door open, but…

I reordered the lettuce seeds this morning. And I’m so happy I’m totally sane.

This morning is cloudy and windy with Hurricane Teddy out in the Gulf of Maine. I took this picture anyway, though the red is so much more brilliant with the sun on it.

Yes, fall has arrived.