Today was oh so sunny and beautiful out, and since there’s rain forecasted for the rest of the week (I actually wrote this yesterday, and today was nice too—no rain, but rain is forecasted for the next 9 days), of course I just had to go out. :) I called a friend (mom of one of Hazel’s classmates) and asked her if there were any streams or ponds around. She told me of one, but warned me that it is full of frogs right now, so maybe I wouldn’t want to go. I told her that would be fun. So she told me the directions, and said, “Have fun with the frogs.” Jethro said to me, “In our nature book [more about that sometime later], it said you can get some frog eggs and keep them in a jar and watch the tadpoles hatch and frogs grow.” So I told him that we could bring a pail and see if we could find any.
The horses were a bonus—we parked by them and they were very friendly. (Last post Hazel was kissing a frog, now a horse—obviously she’s not very particular about who she smooches.)
We got to the pond, and there were many, MANY frogs. Jethro tried to get some, but to no avail.
Then Jethro and Hazel walked up the creek while the others of us walked beside the creek.
See what I mean about MANY frogs – these are all frog’s heads.
It’s mating season. They were everywhere. It actually kind of gives me the willies.
More playing in the creek. 
Talmage sat on the side and squawked until someone gave him a pile of rocks for him to throw in. He was a happy camper. Jethro was exactly the same when he was that age—he could throw rocks for hours and not get bored. What joys!
in the creek from Kayli Bell on Vimeo.
Some fun on a sunlit stump. 
So, remember how we were going to see if we could find any frog eggs? Well, we did. They were in big clumps that looked like this:
covering the ENTIRE POND!!! Ick.
Here’s the few we brought home in our jar. The nature book says it should take about a week for them to hatch. We’ll see if we get to the tadpole phase.
And I never thought I’d have a reptile or amphibian in my house.
10 comments:
crazy gross! I hope you get to grow some frogs though, that would be kind of fun. It sounds like the weather isn't much different here in Indiana than it is in Switzerland. We had a beautiful day on Tuesday, now just rain and clouds for a while.
SO TOTALLY COOL!!!! Where was I????(and the kids). I have been looking for frogs eggs to "grow" and I found some last year and they hatched and were tadpoles for a little, but then they died. Maybe you have to change the water more often. If you can't get back to the pond, you could leave some overnight on the counter (to let the chlorine etc) evaporate and just change part. And some will evaporate too, so you might want to mark how much there is in there now so you can fill it up to the same level.
We adopted African Dwarf Frogs after Jon's school class was done studying them so now we have two on our counter.
I am going to email the teacher who kept tadpoles successfully in her classroom two years ago and see what she did. I'll let you know.
Good luck. We hope it works out well for you. Good job guys!
Um, gross. But cool too. You'd make a great homeschool mom. ;)
Crazy! I have never seen anything like that before! Those frogs are HUGE! SO are the eggs. I can't imagine what it's like for them all to be hatching when they do. Takes on a whole new meaning for me now when I read about all the frogs running everywhere in the story of Moses and the Pharaoh!
What an awesome mom you are! I think I would have been too freaked out!! And how in the world did that cute baby Talmage turn into a blond? I remember that dark (with a hint of red) hair he had as a baby! Such cute kids!!
I want to go hunting for frogs. My kids would have loved, loved, LOVED that place. Especially the horses.
Hatching tadpoles reminds me of my developmental biology days in college. Good luck!
totally cool - I need to find a pond like that for my kids. We have a book on growing frogs too. Beautiful pictures as well.
this is megan by the way the work computer won't let me sign in.
It gave you the willies? This from the girl who used to kiss frogs at girls' camp? Sigh, my how times change.
Post a Comment