A Frogpond Friday

First Tomatoes

I now hold in my hand my certificate stating that I'm a Teacher Consultant for the California Writing Project.  I'm happy I stuck with it and faced my demons -- I look forward to bringing what I've learned into my classroom.

When I got home this afternoon, I lay down for a little while and Bruce went outside to water the orchard garden.  About 20 minutes later I got a message from him saying that he smelled smoke and would I check the Cal-Fire website to see if their was a fire nearby.  I did this and then went outside to tell him that no fires were reported in the area.  As I was heading back to the house, Corny began banging on the gate of his pen with his big hoof, demanding to be fed.  When I went to the barn to get a flake of hay, I heard a loud buzzing coming from one corner.  I rushed out again, yelling, "Snake! Snake!" to Bruce.  He came hurrying up and found my little rattlesnake friend.

He caught it in the snake tongs and lowered it in a lard bucket.  This as one angry snake -- his tail rattled and shook non-stop.  Bruce took it up to the same stone wall that he deposited the small snake we found in the garden about a month ago. I stayed home this time, but he told me that this snake coiled up on a rock on the wall and furiously shook his tail the whole time.  When Bruce left, the snake was still rattling.

Later, I found both geese at the front door, poised to come right on inside.

All of this happened in the first two hours I was home:  just another summer day at Frogpond.