Spring fun

Today was gorgeous. It rained during the morning which cooled the temperature a bit and made for a beautiful afternoon. The kids played outside most of that time. 

Dominic came running to get me because he'd found something in a tree.

This is what he found.

 

This is Caitlin's reaction to slugs.

Love this picture of Dominic.

The kids thought it was hot enough to play in their "pool". They begged us to fill the turtle with water. It was a bit chilly, but they had so much fun.

 

Country living

A couple of days ago I looked out the window and thought I saw a piece of trash in the lawn. I intended to go pick it up once the kids were down for their naps.

About 30 minutes later Dominic started yelling that he'd seen a turtle outside. I looked out and saw my trash moving. We went out and found this huge turtle trying to make it into the woods. It was about a foot long and almost as wide. It has spikes on it's tail and a few on the back of it's shell. Our neighbor had found a snapping turtle a few years ago and it had been a bit aggressive. This little guy wasn't the least aggressive and seemed very afraid of us.

I couldn't get a good picture of his head since he wasn't very friendly. But I'm hoping some one knows what type of turtle he is.

Country living

One of the "joys" of living in the country is no leash laws. Most of my neighbors keep their pets contained by regular or invisible fences. But there is a pack of dogs that roams around tearing up trash and destroying property. A couple of months ago they charged a family member and have tried to pull my cat out of his kitty door. So we called animal control to find out what we could do and they came out this morning to set traps (large cages). She said to call if we caught anything before 4pm otherwise it would be the next morning when she came to check the traps.

Wouldn't you know that at 4:32 we caught a puppy. The trap is large enough to catch a small bear, but this dog has been howling ever since he got caught. So now we have to spend the night listening to a puppy whine and howl. Sigh! This isn't even one of the regular pack members. They have been sitting beside the cage from time to time either comforting or taunting him. I haven't figured out which. Dominic has a clear view from the window and has been enjoying the show. So I guess that's something. =)