Of Ponds and Turtles

When my husband and I first bought our 4 and 1/4 acres, before our house was set, we spent every spare moment we could on our land. Cutting grass, fishing in one of our 3 ponds, or just sitting in the shade and looking at OUR LAND, we enjoyed every moment we could here.

In that first month it became evident that our front pond had turtles. One turtle, in particular was humongous! Now in turtle, humongous = ancient and this guy had to be closing in on the 100 year mark. We promptly named him Abraham.

A month later, Hubby started the task of cleaning out the pond with a mini excavator. While the looks of the pond greatly improved, we were sad to note that Abraham seemed to have "flew the coop", so to speak. We figured that the noise had been too much and he had crawled on over to one of the other ponds or ditches in the area.

After what has seemed like an eternity, we have gotten settled into our house and are enjoying our little "farm-ette" to be. I have started buying cat food from our Dollar General (also known as the Down-East Walmart) to feed our large population of water turtles. The little shits have gotten pretty used to being fed and actually come when we call them. One that we named ET swims over to us and crawls up on the bank when he hears us. He loves tomatoes. The other day while Teen Daughter and I were feeding them she said, "Mom! What is that"? I looked over to where she was pointing and saw the LARGEST turtle head ever in the middle of the pond. As we watched he surfaced briefly and we caught a glimpse of his huge shell. "Well", I said. "It's either the Loch Ness Monster or Abraham is back".

Welcome back, Abraham. Welcome back.