1-19-2012- snow visited us again , but we are still under last years amount for same time last year. and below average i would say for sure for this winter. have hardly had any. the cold does do some good as it reduces the amount of insect pests we will have in the coming year. to warm a spring allows for early breeding , and as such will extend the season for the next year.  the heaving due to frost damage is also a beneficial use of cold temperatures to loosen soil structure from repeated freeze thaw cycles. this also reduces the compaction of the soil allowing for air and in particular water to move more freely. 


      second pic is a big old snapping turtle that decided that my fresh plowed field was as good a place as any to lay her eggs. was close to the pond where she came from. i went back to where she was laying eggs but didnt find any . guess i either scared her, or it wasnt the right place. 
    dad once asked me to go along with him over to check the turtle traps. well we are over there in this little green jon boat on this pond next to our farm and and daad has these traps on the pond tied to plastic gallon milk jugs. actually the trap was more a heavy fishing line attached to a steel leader and a huge hook , and usually on this hook he hung a stanky piece of dead meat and then would toss in the water and it would bob around the bottom of the pond till a turtle would latch on to it. that turtle above was big and to put it in perspective its shell from fron to back is probably about 16 inches long. well the one dad and myself were about to get was 24 inches long to almost 30, and its head compared to this one was twice the size and a huge mouth. 

       not knowing how big it was dad starts hauling the line up and pulling down the side of the boat till the water was about to rush over the side swamping us and then i had to scoot over to compensate for the weight to keep the boat from going under . we knew we had a big one. when i saw its head come up thought no way is that thing coming the boat with us. we had him up along side of the boat and i asked dad how he was going to do it . he grabs the dip net and proceeds to wrangle its head and about half its body into the net. he says reach over and grab a hind leg and drag him into the boat. these are old moldy green turtles and i really didn't want to grab him and should have ran when dad said he needed help. anyhow i reached down and was able to grab the shell and flopped him into center of the boat and he was pissed. snapping at the net encircling his head dad says get to shore quick. and it wasn't quick enough for me. from then on if dad went anywhere close to the side of the house where the pond was i made myself scarce.