Yeh, Peep-Show, I'll bet that those white phallic things that grow in my lawn are also false morels. I'm hoping to meet someone who can show me the ins and outs of mushroom hunting in north Idaho. It got rather crazy busy at harvest time, and now I have a lot of catching up to do on this thread. I so agree with all the posts on walking just for the sake of walking. My yard is big enough--and on a slope--that just walking up and dragging up the cart and tools to garden satisfy my need to exercise. That, and running over to the chicken coop to tend to the girls. I pulled all the tomato plants this week and put them in the garage; had hoped to hang them but ran out of time before leaving home for a week, so we'll see what becomes of them. I didn't get the hoops up, so my extended-season stuff may not pan out this year. We'll see. Anyway, I'm happy to have gotten all the experience I did in this new climate, and it went pretty well considering I didn't know what I was doing. The potatoes are still out there, with temperatures getting into the 30s at night. I think I have to bring them in when I get back home. Over the summer I just layered straw over them when the leaves grew up, so it will be interesting to see what has happened in there. I know the Yukon Golds produced some good things; waiting to see what happened with the Russets. I've loaded the garden with straw and pine needles. Soil was way alkaline, and I hope that helps. My experiment with beets and carrots didn't go well, as I didn't fork that section of the dirt. With the straw on there, should I pull it back in spring and dig the soil to loosen it for root crops, or will it take care of itself? I hate disturbing the mycorrhizae and earthworms.