Wildlife Near Us!

Sister F., one of our Church Service Missionaries, called today and asked if we would like some rhubarb and garden lettuce.  YES!!! Of course we would!

A little while later she and Elder F. showed up with lots of fresh leaf lettuce and rhubarb for crisp. I can hardly wait to make that crisp.  (We had missionary council tonight so it was not tonight...). We did NOT wait on the lettuce.

It is always a good idea to wash produce, whether from your own garden, or from the store.  I was about halfway through the washing when, EEK!!!  What was this?!!!  I thought it was a giant beetle and dropped the leaf into the sink.  I could not stand not knowing so I picked up the leaf carefully and checked again.  It was a big fat garden snail in its shell!

After a moment I noticed the snail was vacating his premises. Oh, man.  That was icky.  I opened the cupboard under the sink and shook the snail off into the waste basket, began to breathe easier, and continued with the rest of the lettuce.

EEK, EEK!!!!  There was ANOTHER ONE!  Great big fat guy.  I told Dear One it was time to take out the trash.  He reminded me that he is always the one who does that...well, I was not interested in doing it myself.  What if the snails climbed out onto my hands or arms or something?

Well, he came over to look. In the meantime I had tried to drop the second snail into the wastebasket. He slid off the leaf onto the floor!  That was it.  Dear One had arrived on the scene by this time and was flabbergasted at the size of the guys.  He had thought they were those little tiny snails you often find around Vermont gardens.  Nope!  These guys were huge.

Thankfully Dear One was able to pick up the snail, drop him (or her) into the wastebasket, collect the rest of the trash, and head for the dumpster.  They will probably have a great time in the dumpster and might possibly get out. I could not bear to hurt them.  I just did not want them in our house.

You might think this would put me off the lettuce, and sometimes it might have, but not tonight.  That lettuce was so good.  I prepared a bowl for Dear One to eat with sugar sprinkled on it, a tradition in his home, though not my home.  For myself, I took many leaves, folded them in half, put a dab of mayo on some nice whole wheat bread and had a sandwich.  There is nothing like fresh tender garden leaf lettuce.  Thank you, Elder and Sister F.!