Snappin' Turtle

It is egg laying time up here for turtles. They begin to cross roads and look for the right place to lay their eggs. Often they think that our driveway is a good spot.

Usually we get the box turtle or the painted turtle, but last week, we had a snapping turtle visit. At this point, we just looked and tried to get it to snap a stick, but it wouldn't snap. So we just assumed that it might be snapper.

Look at that tail. It looks just like a dinosaur tail. Well, later that night, I found out that it was indeed a snapping turtle. I was in the basement working on a project late. Everyone else was sensibly asleep. I heard a bump bump and thought that the turtle had bumped into the wood surrounding our window well. I had just thought, "I hope that stupid turtle doesn't fall in our window well". Then I heard scrambling on the the rocks in our window well. Yes she had fallen in.

So I grabbed a handy 5 gallon bucket and went to put the turtle in it. The turtle would have nothing to do with that and snapped at me. Their necks shoot out at least 8 or so inches! I thought I would wait until morning when I would have lots of light. Then she started scrambling again and I thought she would scratch the window or the frame or dig up a lot of sand. I got on the Internet at 11 pm and found out how to move a snapper.

I got a large storage tote and a big grain shovel that we use for snow removal. I used the shovel to move her into the tote. She was not pleased and bit the shovel. But I managed to get her in and let her go near our pond in hopes that she wouldn't come back again.

When I told the children the next morning, they asked why I hadn't gotten a movie of it. When I explained that I was kinda busy with the turtle, one of them suggested that I should have put the camera on the tripod. Maybe next time.

The Shed

Our local baseball club finally got enough funds to build a new equipment shed. Since our club doesn't have a lot of money, they needed a lot of volunteers. We came in during the painting. That's another advantage of homeschooling. We could come paint during the day when the paint and the other volunteers were there.

This is the first time that I've let the children actually really paint. And they did a pretty good job for first timers.

Nathan and Stephen worked the rollers for a lot of the primer coat.

Then two days later we came back to put on the first coat of green paint. This time, Aaron and Deb took a turn with the roller. Aaron was content to roll a couple of times and give it back to me. But Deb really enjoyed it.

Maybe she takes after her mother.

Ah! One coat of green paint is done!

Happy Birthday Stephen!

In the midst of baseball, we celebrated Stephen's birthday.

He had a Bionicle cake with two fighting Bionicles.

Since we had baseball practice that evening, we had a lunch birthday. We met another family and the dads as well at a local park for hot dogs and birthday cake.

Look at that grin! He really liked his presents, especially the Bionicle transport thing. You'll have to ask him what it is.

Happy Memorial Day (a bit late)

Well, baseball finally ended this weekend with a big tournament. More on that later. So I now have a little more time near the computer to update my blog.

Memorial Day was gorgeous up here this year. Perfect weather for a picnic with friends.

But these friends live on the lake and it was only about 72 degrees. Of course that is warm enough to swim, isn't it?

Aaron didn't think so at first, but later on, most of the children were either in the water or having a water fight at the edge of the lake.