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Saturday, April 2, 2016

A Frog's tale

     When I was a kid my aunt and uncle owned a ranch near Hemet, California. It was a bit of a drive, about two hours, from our house. In the summer my parents would go out on a weekend, leave my brother and I and come back for us the next weekend. We loved it. Not only did we have our three cousins to play with, but also the whole ranch to roam. 

Me at the ranch, about 1950

     We never could roam too far as we were on foot. We were always in hearing of the car horn. My aunt would honk it, 3 shorts and a long, to let us know it was time to come back to the house. One summer we discovered some tadpoles in an old cistern. So we got some containers and collected a bunch.

tadpole (stock photo)

     My mother and father were fine with us bringing them home. They felt it would be a good learning experience to watch them develop into frogs.


     We placed them in a large fish bowl in our kitchen and dutifully fed them. We watched as they developed, getting bigger and growing legs. When the front legs started to develop my mother said we needed to find a place to release them. We knew that we couldn't keep them, there were probably 10 -15 or so. Besides wild things are better in the wild. Time got away from us and one morning my brother and I woke to our Mother screaming. We ran into the kitchen. Our Mom was frantically trying to catch little frogs hopping all over the place. We both started helping her scoop up frogs. It took us a bit but we managed to get them back into the fish bowl, covered so they couldn't jump back out. Needless to say that day they went to the pond area my mother had located, and were released to hop to their hearts content.

     The following photos are of a frog that lived in our backyard pond for awhile in 2007.  We've had frogs come and go over the years but this is the only one that let me take it's photo.





A thought to ponder: "The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is                                            important to the quality of life of humans."  Jim Fowler



Participating in: Grand SocialShare the JoySeasons,Amaze Me MondayOur World TuesdayAround the WorldShare Your Cup

15 comments:

  1. Your story almost sounds one from a story book! I love your story of the tadpole:) you would be a great teacher. For a while we had friends living in Hemet, and it was also 2 hrs. from our house. They had a doggie-obedience business.
    thank you so much for sharing this with Seasons! Appreciate your creativeness, and have a happy week!

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  2. They are interesting little things and I love to see them but don't get the chance very often.

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  3. I love this story of the frogs! Really reminded me of my own childhood and catching tadpoles! Thanks for the smile.

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  4. I come to say hallo and to invite you! Great blog! great and wonderful post!
    Herzlich Pippa
    with
    http://bistropippa.blogspot.de/

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  5. interesting photo story

    Have a good week

    much love...

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  6. I like the picture and especially those vintage cars. Enjoyed your story.

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  7. This was so fun to read. Loved seeing your childhood photo and reading your memories of that time. Frogs have always been a special critter to me so I loved seeing your frog shots.

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  8. In elementary school, my best friend's family had property near Hemet in Sage. It was a true homestead property and they dry farmed hay. Linda got to have a horse and I was so jealous. We would drive from Compton in their old Woody station wagon that had a hole in the floor on the driver's size. I remember being amazed to see the road zip by at such a fast speed. Linda and I got to roam a lot, especially riding double on the horse. We had a "playhouse" at a large jumble of rocks. We had to keep our eyes and ears open for rattlesnakes, but never had too much trouble. This was in about 1959. Thanks for sparking the good memories. - Margy

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  9. Great quote and completely true

    Mollyxxx

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  10. I love this series of the tadpole to frog!

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  11. Thanks for sharing with SYC - an enjoyable read!

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  12. Love this childhood story! The picture of you on the farm is priceless. Loved staying with our Aunts and Uncles as a child as well. I can just see those frogs jumping all over. Hilarious! Thanks for sharing your fun story with SYC.
    hugs,
    Jann

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  13. What a wonderful childhood story! The picture of you is wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing at #sharethejoy (Michelle at The Joy Chaser and The Essex Barn)

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