Tickling Tadpoles

This is the first entry to my blog site, which my savvy computer-enthusiast sister "F" helped me set up. She tells me the stories I live with my husband and four, soon to be five in a couple of weeks, children and outdoor farm animals are worth sharing with the public. Every time I talk to her on the phone, I have a new crazy, funny, sad or dramatic story to tell her about what's happening "on the farm." Even life with just the kids is crazy enough. I saw a pillow saying, "Experience wildlife. Have children." Such is true, and it's even wilder in our wild, country, tropical woodsy north-east Florida setting.

So, here's the first story, which is still unfolding as I write. My sister "F" and the kids are all out on a mission to save hundreds, if not thousands, of tadpoles in our home-made in-ground kiddy pool. From all the heavy rainfall associated with "Fickle Fay" Tropical Storm from last week, our pool flooded over and became a heavenly haven for the frogs and toads in our area, I'm sure, especially from our neighbor's ponds. Why they would choose our pool over the huge ponds beats me, but they sure have given us a fun, educational homeschool project. What more satisfying feeling than doing something actively to change the world? Frogs are mysteriously disappearing from the face of the earth and no one really knows why. Funny, when I drive home sometimes at night and see all the frogs jumping across the road and imagine how many I must be squashing, I think I know why they're disappearing.

At first, we were going to be hauling buckets of tadpole-filled water to the pond, which would have made dozens of long trecks in the hot, humid air. But then, we got smart and started using all the strainers from our kitchen to filter the tadpoles out and just take one bucket full of tadpoles and just a little water. How wonderful God gave us minds to come up with ideas to make our lives easier.

One discovery the troopers made (which really tickled their fancy) is that if they put their feet in the water, the tadpoles would come up and "suck" on them. My daughter "S" said that after a while, they weren't interested in sucking anymore, probably because they'd already eaten all the grime off. When my sister "F" put her feet in for the first time, they were all over them. I guess tadpoles can provide a good indicator if you've scrubbed your feet well enough in the tub or not! This would be a good Mommy thing to do: OK, kids, let's see if you really washed yourself off well enough-let's take the "tadpole test!"

So, I guess we're doing our good deed for the earth today. Maybe thanks to our meager efforts, frogs and toads will survive a little while longer and bring more music to future little ears at night. That's all for now! Hope you were a little "tickled" by this story!