The Girls Take A Trip

Our last trip to the homestead property had me involved with a lot of clean-up around the mostly demolished old farmhouse. Which meant Bella spent some time with Helena. I heard her, in the midst of pushing the wheelbarrow around the side of the house to gather scrap metal, say "Laini, wanna' go meet Sarah Turtle?" (Sarah Turtle is our lovely female turtle that is ever-so-slowly coming out of hibernation near the old railroad tracks below the house. Adam found her when she was flooded out of her hibernaculum, sitting just above the rushing water after a rain storm, waiting to dig back into her soft muddy winter home. We have since named her Sarah after the previous inhabitant of the farmhouse. She is a real beauty of a turtle, and we look forward to seeing a lot of her over the years.) I rounded the west side of the house to see the two of them, my girls, sitting together checking on the "durt-DOO" as Laini calls her. I must confess, I teared up for the second time this trip - the first was when we pulled up and the kids jumped out of the car and went running toward the creek to meet up with Adam. We are so blessed.

Bella had carried Laini down the hill to see Sarah Turtle, and I had to snap some quick photos before getting back to work. I have my priorities set straight, you know. So I walked down to find Bella holding Sarah up for Laini. "Durt-DOOOO" Laini says over and over. "Oooooo."

Then she would motion for Bella to put the turtle in her lap, and she would rub and rub her shell.

"Do you want me to put her back?" Bella would ask as Laini would start pointing to her hibernaculum and jabbering.

Then point, jabber, Bella would get her back for Laini.

I stopped the process after a couple of rounds and plenty of good pictures. We want Sarah Turtle to be as non-stressed as possible, with this new introduction of humans into her environment again. We'll be starting a journal soon of wildlife on our farm, and we want to be able to know Sarah when we see her by her tell-tale shell markings. She'll go in our journal, along with the Barred and Saw-Whet Owls, Pileated Woodpecker and Ravine and Two-Lined Salamanders, just to name a few exciting ones. Walking was the only way of distracting her from durt-DOO, so off they went.

Next stop, Daffodil Ocean.

Just the girls.