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[paxamicus AT earthlink.net]

Our pond is a haven for those things. Every spring those tiny  
dinosaurs crawl all over the place, using the two streams and the pond  
as roads.  Some of them were a foot across. We (and by that I mean  
Roy) relocated some of them a little bit further down river, because I  
was worried about the dogs and the kids.  I did not know this place  
was turtle central when we bought it and it is the one instance in  
which I share your distaste for fences, because we put some in along a  
stream bed and they were forever getting stuck so we'd have to move  
them anyway. Those fences will come out when we leave.  I have a  
different kind of fence planned for NY.

There is a downed tree half in and half out of our pond. The baby  
turtles crawl up it in the spring and sunbath in it. I've seen a dozen  
of them at a time sunning themselves. Between the herons and the  
turtles, our pond is Jurassic Park Jr.

I think you are meant to keep turtles in clean water for a while, like  
lobsters, to flush them. I'm still wondering about the raccoon, though.









> >
>
> Having books not necessary is a luxury. I indulge myself. I have a
> wild game cookbook. It is in the Phoenix house kitchen. No wild game
> there except scorpions. It is a lovely book. I've never used it for
> cooking anything but it is a lovely book. I once saw a big snapping
> turtle walking across the west field. I went out and picked it up.
> Nasty, slimy, stinky thing full of remnants of its many years of
> plowing through mud and detritus. I put it into the bed of the pickup
> truck and went into the house to see if the book would tell me how to
> clean the thing to be suitable for cooking. My first thought was a
> fire hose. When I went back outside the turtle was gone and I could
> not find it. Either turtles are faster than I have been told or I am a
> slower reader than I thought.
> _______________________________________________