A Hoppy Christmas!

Back in the summer I had one lonely frog living behind the Wool House.  I guess he was lonely, but maybe he was happy back there by himself.  Regardless, he hung out all through the summer and fall, eating bugs, hopping into the water collection tubs if I startled him. 

I assumed he would go burrow down in one of the gardens when it got cold and all the bugs disappeared, but it really hasn't gotten that cold and the bugs really haven't all disappeared so I wasn't completely surprised to see him scrambling around in the bottom of his tub when I startled him the other day.

He did have some leaf cover and a small clay pot in the bottom of his "pond", but if we do ever get a cold snap, those tubs will freeze solid.  Out in the ponds I believe he would just burrow deeper into the unfrozen mud at the bottom.  In a plastic tub he'd have nowhere to go.  Even though he'd chosen to be there, I felt I needed to intervene.

So, back in the summer that was December 24th, when it was going to be in the upper 60s, I decided that would be warm enough to move him without too much stress.  Miss B's mom was coming over in the afternoon so I told her to wear mud boots and that we were going to do something fun.  And then I said "You'll never guess what we are going to do!"  That was the only clue I gave her.

When she got here I again said, gleefully, that she'd never be able to guess what we were getting ready to go do.  

"I'm assuming something with the sheep."  

"Nope." 

"Are we going to go catch frogs in the pond?"

.

.

.

.

Who on earth guesses something to do with frogs?!?  In December?!?  Don't play guessing games with her ;-D.

We tried to just scoop him out with our hands, but he was too quick for us so we ended up dumping him into a bucket.

And we carried him back to the Frog Pond. This is the small pond just before you get to the big pond.  There were other frogs out moving around when we got there.  Crazy weather.

Ready for release.

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He sat motionless for a bit, but then scooted off into the deeper water.  I hope we did the right thing and he's happy back there.  And I hope he finds his way back to the Wool House in the spring.  I enjoyed his good company.

Hey, Lady!

"I'm cold blooded, not cold!  Let's save the sweater for later."

I made a frog!  And finished her sweater just in time for the temps to soar back into the 90s.  She's very cute wearing it, but being a frog, not a sheep who's used to wearing wool, Lilly wasn't too jazzed about wearing it for more than a quick snap.  I bet she'll change her mind this fall!

These sweet little frogs became IG celebrities over the summer.  The designer is Claire Garland and India Rose Crawford is the knitter and the stop motion video artist who made them super stars.  You should definitely check out her frog videos.  You too will fall in love with frogs.  I promise :-).

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I started out by dyeing a speckled froggy colored yarn using the Lamb Camp Bottle Lamb yarn.  This was something new for me and I enjoyed playing around with the best way to make color spots on top of the custom base color.

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I promptly underestimated how much yarn I'd need and ran short and had to dye more yarn.  I got it pretty close, but this is why they always say to buy enough yarn for your project so you aren't trying to find the exact same dye lot if you run out.

Since I knew they colors weren't exactly the same I decided to rip out the legs I'd already knitted so there wouldn't be a noticeable difference between them.

 

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And we all had a good time trying to decide what to call ripping out an actual knitted frog.  Is it still "frogging" (rip it, rip it ;-) or would it be unfrogging, defrogging, refrogging?  :-)

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

One day back in the early spring I found some super adorable tadpoles swimming around in one of the water tubs I keep next to the Wool House to collect rain water off the roof and rinse water from washing wool. 

All together now... "Awwwww..."

I love frogs.  I really love tadpoles.  This will be So Much Fun watching them grow up!

You are pretty cute.

Of course as the summer blazed on I had to provide some super attractive shade from the afternoon sun and, so they'd have enough to eat, I scooped up some plants from the actual Frog Pond, where they should have been living.

And after that, all I've been able to see is adult frogs staring at me from the top of the green.  Occasionally I pull some weeds back so I can see all the taddies below, but mostly I just see frog eyes.  

And as they have been so happy here, they've multiplied into all three tubs, so now I have to put buckets under the downspout of the barn to collect rain water to water my plants and gardens.  That's pretty special looking, too.

If you'd like to watch it all unfold on Instagram...

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Look! A new frog pond/pool 😀. 🐸 🐸🐸😀🐸🐸🐸

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Jun 5, 2020 at 7:46am PDT

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Good morning from Tadpole Camp 😍. 🐸🐸🐸❤️🐸🐸🐸 I scooped up some plants from the Frog Pond yesterday because I can’t imagine there’s enough algae in that rain tub to feed very many tadpoles 😬.

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Jun 6, 2020 at 5:08am PDT

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Pool filter, tadpole edition. The tadpoles are living in a rain water catch tub off the side of the Wool House. I also use these tubs to recycle rinse water when I’m washing wool. We had a storm blow through this afternoon and I didn’t want the tub to overflow and wash away the babies, but I did want to take advantage of some fresh water for them. I put some of Maisie’s angel costume tulle over the top of a drink jug and pulled out a couple gallons of old water. The tulle is to keep from sucking in taddies while filling. The rain water refilled the tub and I will use the “dirty” water to water some plants 😀. Once again, no duct tape 👍.

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Jun 10, 2020 at 2:18pm PDT

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Our little garden shed friend chatting it up with a garden friend. 🐸 ❤️🐸

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Jul 23, 2020 at 7:35pm PDT

Pro-tip:  When you hear two frogs talking like that...you're going to find a bunch of new frog eggs in the morning.  

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So much for using these tubs for soaking wool this summer. I now have tadpoles in all three 🙄.

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Jul 7, 2020 at 8:38am PDT

I haven't figured out what I'm going to do this fall.  I guess I'll scoop everyone out and release them back at the ponds.  It's been "kinda" fun, but I "kinda" hope they don't move back in next spring.

Sneaking Up On Frogs

I am loving my little frog pond.  Do you see three frogs?  You have to sneak up on them.  They're a bit jumpy hahahaha ;-D.

The Other Frog Pond

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".  

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I think I’m hearing some new frogs tonight 😍. #frogpond

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Jul 11, 2019 at 8:29pm PDT

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.