[Magdalen] Taking care of our neighbors in the yard

[Juli Tarsney]

Great stories.

I'm not super-brave about snakes but I have no patience with people
who are automatically horrified by them. Some are obviously gorgeous,
for one thing, but that's not even the point - the non-gorgeous ones
have every right to exist and sometimes need our help.

One of my favorite photos of my daughter from when she was little has
her holding a cute snake she found as we walked when we were visiting
my brother in Half Moon Bay, CA.


On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 8:34 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
>>>
>>
>>