*The first Bullfrog I've ever caught. Isn't he handsome?When I was Nine I thought it would be easy to catch a frog. I wanted to catch a frog really badly. I asked my dad to finance my excursion. He bought me all the necessary equipment for frog catching; nets, tubs, buckets, frog stuff. Then dad took me and my brothers to the pond we frequented.
I tried out my new equipment at the pond but couldn't scoop up a floating turd even if I tried. I was just too uncoordinated and fat. But I was an observant fat kid and noticed that when the frogs jumped out of the water I couldn't even tell they were there...they were camouflaged! No wonder I, a fat uncoordinated kid, couldn't catch them. I would have to wait till puberty ended. Then I would be coordinated...and hopefully not fat.
Now I am officially a woman and have started to catch bullfrogs. I notice them because I've learned their tricks....
camouflage and fine jumping legs. I've caught about six. One must have weighed half a pound and screamed when I picked him up, it was a very surprising noise.
The trick to catching them is to walk very quietly along the edge of the water and then you'll notice some eyes poking out of sludge or bubbles rising to the surface of the water. Drop the net on top of the animal, put your hands on top of the animal (animal is still inside net of course), and place the animal in a container and photograph them. But always let em' go after you're done and always make sure your hands are free of soap or chemicals seeing as frog skin absorbs everything.
1. Mudd has turned into quite the little seeing eye dog. He spots animals in the grass on a regular basis and Friday was no exception. We were taking a leisurely walk in tick infested grass when I noticed the dog pawing at a patch of earth. I walked over to the area and spied a scaled tail. I tugged on it and a ridiculously long garter snake started to unwind from the grass. I grabbed the beast behind the neck and went to grab my camera for a few shots. After our photo session she was released at the same spot we found her.
2. We tried to find an arrowhead this weekend. Not successful. But the field we were in had a lot of beautiful flint chips. Pink, red, grey, black, orange...all shiny and sharp as glass. Where you find flint chips there is a chance you'll find an arrowhead. So, it was worth a shot. At least the rocks look pretty.
3. It was a froggy weekend. All my amphibious friends have come out to enjoy an early spring. We took Mudd to the pond to Frolic. that clever dog has figured out that if he walks along the edge of the pond and smashes algae...frogs will jump out. Once the frogs jump out of the algae Mudd chases them along the pond's edge. It was pretty darn cute. What wasn't cute, though? The ubiquitous TICKS!!! We headed back to the truck after our pond jaunt and checked the dog for ticks. HE HAD THREE! I began to freak out and began to check myself, I had ticks crawling up my pants! I picked them off and thought I was in the clear. Nope. We begin the drive home, I let out a huge SCREAM because there was a tick crawling up my arm. I looked at my pant legs and there were two more! The ticks crawled off the dog and onto me. Needless to say, I hopped out of the truck, screamed, and flailed about for awhile. Think the story is over?...nope. I went to bed that night and picked two more ticks off of Mudd. TERRIBLE!
