Fish, Tadpoles, Deer Saliva and other musings

This weekend we spent some time at the land. We noticed that we had somewhere near a plague of tadpoles in the pond. I am truly not exaggerating when I say that there must have been tens of thousands of them. In the shallow end, all you could see were black swarms of tadpoles. Of course my children had no qualms about sticking their hands into the pond and pulling out tadpoles to examine.

Fortunately, frogs eat bugs. Even more fortunate, fish eat tadpoles, and for only $26the Department of Conservation will stock our pond for us. Alas, they only stock in the fall though so this season we will likely have a multitude of frogs.

As I walked through the area where I someday hope to have a house, I noticed what looked like very large bubbly droplets of spit. Initially I thought perhaps my husband or one of my children had manufactured a large mouthful of saliva, but when I realized the stuff was all over I began to contemplate what in the world could have made such a thing. Do deer spit? It's the only thing I can think of. I would post a picture but I can't find the USB cable at present. In the event it is deer saliva, I'm kind of concerned as when I searched for deer saliva I learned that it can carry a disease similar to Mad Cow Disease.

Michael took his machete and weed whacker and cleared a path through the woods so we could walk down to the creek. It would have been very relaxing and peaceful had Isabella and Jude not kept up a constant stream of random noise. Isabella prefers to communicate to me in a series of noises. It sounds like "num num num oooooOOOO". If you have ever seen the martians on Sesame Street, it's like that. At first, I ignored it. That didn't stop her, so now I talk back to her in strange noises.
Had you crept up on us in the woods you would have heard strange martian-like noises and weed whacking. I bet the neighbors can't wait for us to move in!

As if that weren't odd enough, Jude had to pee. He squats to go while Meghan is instructing him how to avoid getting pee on his pants and I am yelling from an acre away "Tell him to stand up and aim, not squat"! Meanwhile, Madeline is doubled over behind Jude in laughter and I am telling her to move so she doesn't get peed on. I also got a picture of that, but obviously am not going to post it here. :)

We were all very excited to see that we have copious amounts of honeysuckle budding, and some lily pads in the pond. If you have never pulled a lily pad out of water before, it's very cool. (If you are studying Botany, live nearby and want to check one out, let me know.) Who knew nature could be so fun?!