Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Growing Frogs

A year or two ago Grace and I had the pleasure of raising tadpoles into frogs... It all started one day when I returned to work from my lunch break to find a freezer bag half full of pond water and little squirmy tadpoles sitting on my desk. My boss Lisa had brought them in for Gracie and I, they have a pond full every year.  
Our set up was simple and the process was super cool.  We had a total of 8 tadpoles and they all grew  into frogs and eventually were released into our backyard, I was foolishly hoping they would take care of our mosquito problem caused by the neighbors rank "pond" but that didn't exactly workout.  
We created a tank for the little dudes from an old, plastic apple juice jug that we cut in half.  At the time we also had an aquatic turtle, a Red-Eared Slider named Monsieur Stripe, so we had on hand water purifier and food.  They changed so much day by day, it wasn't too long before they were young frogs and we had to move them outside.  They were in a small water trough in the backyard for less than two days before all our babies were off on their own into the wide world.











Saturday, May 11, 2013

A Few of my Favorite Things...



These are some random pictures of some of my most favorite things...
Camping
The Chimney Tops
John, having fun
HULA HOOPIN'
Lazy lake days




Dragonflies
Just a walkin' in the MC woods
Blue skies are good for the soul

....So are silly dogs...
fat dog in a little sweater
Smoky
Smiling faces are contagious
Master Caden
This picture makes me smile
Shredding with Gracie

Hiking with my husband

Friends!

Mommy & Gracie Go Shredding!

One of my goals is to become fully capable guiding our shredder myself.  I have learned a lot from John about reading the water and controlling a boat, he is a great teacher. We decided to test my abilities a few months ago, Gracie and I in the shredder and John in his creek boat paddled down the Little River to the Y.  We had a blast!! Here are some pictures from our day...

Fishing


When grace was around three or four years old I started taking her fishing.  With crickets or worms for bait we would drive to the farm and fish from canoes.  Never catching much didn't bother us...  She enjoyed the process and I enjoyed witnessing her patience.  Holding the fishing pole with a deadly tight grip and a determined stare she would sit as still as she could for as long as she could.
Over the years our fishing trips have gotten a little more involved as Gracie has gotten older.  This past fall we put some solid time in on Watts Bar Lake looking for Striper... Gracie's uncle Jeff is a Mad Fisherman, he was our guide in our search for "the big one"  See evidence below:

Gracie's 20lb Striper