[Magdalen] Taking care of our neighbors in the yard

[Jay Weigel]

Last weekend we were rockhounding in the Danville, KY area with our rock
club. Had a wonderful time, despite the weather which was mostly awful
except for Friday afternoon. Friday morning, which was cloudy and
foggy/misty, we were geode hunting in an amazing railroad cut. The walls in
some places were over 100 feet high. One side featured a small creek
between the trackbed and the cut wall, so of course you had to cross it to
get to the good stuff. I went back and fort a number of times without
incident, which wasn't easy as railroad ballast is notoriously unstable,
but on on crossing I happened to look down and see that the rock I was just
about to place my foot on was not a rock at all, but a good sized box
turtle. At that point I lost my footing entirely and fell in the creek.
Okay, not too bad. Dignity slightly bruised, box turtle unhurt. Twenty
minutes later I was crossing the creek again, attempted to step on a
branch, completely missed it, and landed with both feet in the creek,
getting my boots full of water, although fortunately none of the crawdads
in the area decided to crawl in. I had to sit down on the bank, take off
the boots, wring out my wool socks, pour water out of the boots, and spend
the rest of the morning squelching. Incidentally, no snakes were seen on
that outing. The afternoon was spent in another deeper creek, but in knee
high rubber boots and dry socks, and I diidn't fall in.

On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 5:57 PM, Lynn Ronkainen <houstonklr at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Quite the fancy body parts! : )
>
> L
>
> website: www.ichthysdesigns.com
>
> When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I have not
> a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything You gave me."
> attributed to Erma Bombeck
> "Either Freedom for all or stop talking about Freedom at all" from a talk
> by Richard Rohr
> "The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they
> oppress." F Douglass
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Cantor03--- via Magdalen" <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
> Sent: Friday, April 28, 2017 4:19 PM
> To: <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
> Cc: <Cantor03 at aol.com>
> Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Taking care of our neighbors in the yard
>
>
>>
>> In a message dated 4/28/2017 4:58:41 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>> houstonklr at gmail.com writes:
>>
>> Lizards  and bright green frogs (hiding but
>> noisy) and my 'guard toad' (huge, I'm  telling you.... perhaps even
>> biggly>>>>>>>>>>>
>>
>>
>> The summer of 1988, we had an invasion of "Mudpuppy"
>> salamanders.  They were everywhere.  Driveways and outdoor
>> staiways were crowded with them, and they made the
>> streets dangerous.  They were all a brilliant red color, and the
>> whole salamander was rather translucent.
>>
>> After a month or so they disappeared, not to be seen again
>> this past twenty-nine years.
>>
>>
>> Necturus maculosus maculosus
>>
>>
>> Scroll down to "Eastern Mudpuppy."
>>
>>
>> http://www.paherps.com/herps/salamanders/
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> David S.
>>
>
>