Cattails and pond grass were taking over areas of the pond so I donned my waders to do a little weed pulling. As I approached the pond on the west side I noticed several little leopard frogs about the size of my thumb hopping out of my way. That indicated a new crop of frogs which could have only come from the frogs we collected as tadpoles from Wildcat Bluff last year. It seemed only about six of the tads progressed to the frog stage and of those only one survived the winter, or so I thought. We weren’t able to get anymore tadpoles out at the Bluff this year so I figured we were back to square one. I also thought it would take a couple of years for the frogs from last year to reach breeding maturity. Not so, apparently. Later I went to the east side of the pond and discovered little frogs everywhere, a biblical plague of frogs. Joyce and I are quite pleased. We should now have our sustaining population of leopard frogs for the first time in half a century. No self-respecting pond can be without frogs. Continue reading “Frogs”
Frogs
by rakeeter 
We enjoyed our 10th (+/-?) annual trip to Red River, at least this we did. There were the usual activities; fishing, hiking, swimming, movies and ice cream. We did not bother the fish, though not for lack of trying. The ladies were disappointed at not getting a single nibble but that’s the way it goes sometimes. They gave it a pretty good effort and, when that failed, they took it out on the swimming pool. Vivian did her best but finally had to bail on the hike along the nature trail that winds around and up and down the side of the mountains along the river. It’s a bit much for a five-year old. Kaylee didn’t go because her tummy was unsettled but Sophia and Rebecca stuck it out and now can lay claim to having conquered the infamous Red River nature trail. 
There was a nice little shower of rain last night, accompanied by some gentle grumbling thunder. We registered .34 in our nifty new special super-accurate rain gauge recommended by 
We have enjoyed several days of calm and quiet. The wind, what there was which wasn’t much, has been out of the northeast cancelling out the highway noise. Wish it were that way most of the time. We could use some of that rain other parts of the state have been getting. I say some because we don’t need no stinkin’ deluges around here.