For the last maybe 12 years now (?) I've had a small swimming pool in the orchard. I may have mentioned before how much I hate summer? Yeah... Well, the pool really helped...until the last two years.
As the orchard grew and the trees got taller, the pool became more and more shaded. Shaded to the point that the pool didn't heat up enough during the day to be comfortable enough to jump in at will. Sure, you could 'woman up' and get in and then it did cool you down, but it wasn't always easy to talk myself into it.
At the end of the summer last year I decided the pool dream was officially over. Even a solar cover didn't help enough to justify the work and expense of a pool that I only used for a couple super hot days here and there. I'd turn it over to the frogs.
Fast forward to the brutally hot summer we are having this year. In an effort to stay out of the papers...and prison...I decided I'd try one last pool. If I switched the deeper pool for a shallower pool, there'd be less water to heat up each day. Maybe that would work?
In the meantime, the old pool was now full of tadpoles. It wasn't their fault that I'd changed my mind. I toyed with scooping them out and taking them out to the farm ponds, but I love my yard frogs. Maybe I could create a little habitat for them and they could safely stay?
All of our sheep (except Ewen McTeagle...who knows...) seem to prefer to drink from a galvanized tank, so I had an extra 50 gallon water Rubbermaid tank with shade cover stored at the barn. I hauled it down, added some sand and pond/pool water, some leaves and tree limbs and then scooped out and relocated as many tadpoles and water bugs as I could.
I have thoroughly enjoyed sitting out there watching them and listening to them as I go to sleep at night. I cover them up during the heat of the day, because yes, a short tank will heat up much faster than a deep tank ;-).
I forgot to uncover them last night, but remembered as I was listening to them calling. I walked out in the bright moonlight to set the top aside and everyone got very quiet. I hoped they'd eventually start back up, but..."crickets".
I'd recorded a short video just a few minutes earlier, so I played it back to them and soon all was back well (and loud :-) in frog land and I drifted off to sleep.
8 comments:
They just wanted to hear themselves sing ;)
Sheep, dogs, cats, chickens, other birds (hi Peep and Mrs Peep!)(hi Hummers!), frogs, butterflies, horse - you have a thriving Eden!
I hear frogs in the early spring, when our ditches out here in the country are full of water, but once they dry up, the frog song goes away. It seems like such a short "season" for them, but I suppose they either move onto a pond nearby or they go into dormancy. I am not sure...
So does thecrazysheeplady have her own pool again???
Our frogs thin out as the summer wears on, but I love if we get a summer rain, they all come back around :-).
Yes, I have a new pool. A shallower pool that does warm up enough. Sometimes too warm. That's how hot it's been :-(.
What a good story!
A double win for you! To be serenaded by your frog friends in the evening and to have a pool to cool off. I hope the weather simmers down for you soon!
I love your love of nature and your caring sweetness!
My first thought was "The Crazy Sheep Lady doesn't have enough to do", lol!
Great story! We have quite a peeper chorus here in the spring when it warms up.
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