Home School?
At a gardening center this past week, I was talking to someone about all we have been doing in our square foot gardens. She asked me if we home schooled. I was confused about how to answer. Well, yes, we do. We also send them to school. Still not sure how to answer that seemingly simple question.
Strawberries!
Last night, I asked Evan to cut some strawberries up for our dessert. He came into the kitchen and asked whether instead of just strawberries, could he make a fruit salad? Sure. Also, he asked, couldĀ he use the blender to blend up some strawberries to make a sauce? Sure! We thought the finished product was delicious as well as beautiful. Nice job, Evan!
Gardening Kit
Evan’s Aunt Katie got him a very cool gardening kit for this past Christmas. Evan recently got into it andĀ has the window in Ben’s and my room covered with containers full of sprouting seeds. We love spring!
Frogs!
About a week ago, Nana and Papaw came for a visit and we walked along a new greenway trail together near the boys’ school. The temps were great and there were lots of other people out walking on the trail. And while we walked we could hear some frog sounds, and excitedly I said to Evan, “are those frogs?” “Yeah, Dad, and they’re NOT spring peepers, either. Those are wood frogs.”
During this week, we began to notice we could hear frogs at the window close to the boys’ bedtime. It sounded far away, like the frogs were down past the woods somewhere near the little creek we call “salamander creek.” I asked Evan, and when he listened he said he was sure what kind of frogs they were.
On Saturday, close to bedtime, I took the boys on an adventure. We got on our boots and jackets and I packed my digital recorder. I recorded our walk down to the creek, across the creek and up the hill and then through the briers to where we could hear the frogs the loudest. We stood there for about 8 minutes taking turns holding the microphone. Below is the recording of the frogs. We are trying to identify the species and are not sure about it yet. From other recordings we’ve listened to, it sounds the most like the Western Chorus Frog but we don’t believe they live around here.
We listed through these two CDs without finding a match:
The Frogs and Toads of North Carolina, Michael Dorcas
The Calls of Frogs and Toads, Lang Elliott
If you listen closely, just about exactly in the middle of the recording, you can hear a very excited Grayson enjoying the moment.
If you have ideas about what kind of frog this is, let us know!








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