Swamp Monster

Remember when I was all "we *used* to have snapping turtles, but not any longer"? All smug like that? Well no more. Because not too long thereafter, a giant effing snapping turtle showed up. That's him.

And I didn't want to like him, but he was so peaceable looking floating around out there. Even though I know that's a giant lie, and they aren't very peaceful at all. But he kind of floated and sunbathed and had fun. But *I* wanted to float and sunbathe and have fun, and not with him.

So we got a trap, so we could relocate him down to the creek. Sam was delighted - lots of disgusting baiting it with sardines, and burying it in the muck, and highly anticipated checking of the trap... and eventually we caught him. That's him again - staring at us with his beady eyes and giant claws.

Not going to lie, I was kind of surprised it worked. But I'm very happy we're no longer sunbathing together.

Grass Eating Monsters

It's getting warm again - to be honest, kind of weirdly warm for this time of year, but still it has me daydreaming of summer time. Which around here means daydreaming of swimming in the pond.

It's glorious - get hot and sweaty, gallop into pond, splash around, flake out on a float and cool off. Lather, rinse, repeat. That's summer time. Except that with ponds come all sorts of dubious things. When I was a kid this pond came equipped with giant snapping turtles. Like, GIANT snapping turtles. Those things are hideous - I'm not all that squeamish about wild life, but I give snapping turtles a wide berth.

These days the pond isn't quite so exciting - no turtles, no snakes. But last year the main aggravation was... grass. Well, probably grass and some other aquatic life, but it mainly seemed like an entire prairie's worth of grass growing up from the bottom, and brushing your legs like tentacles or trying to entrap you if you were unaware enough to swim into a giant mat of it. That's about as appealing as it sounds.

So this year we'll turn back to the giant grass eating monsters of my youth - the carp. Turns out that rather than herbicide or other noxious chemicals in your pond, you just need these enormous grass eating fish.

This one is exceptionally enormous, and not mine - but it's reminiscent of the ones we had when I was a kid. They grow to this crazy-ass giant size but they seem to be peaceable creatures, and cruise around the shore like a submarine at dusk. Slightly creepy - yes - but also way better than the grass entrapment saga of 2014.

By the way, did you know that this is how you get fish? Me neither. But I saw it when I was buying horse feed this week, and in a couple of weeks I'll be down at the feed store to enjoy Fish Day.

Spotted Dog Farm Blog