It has been raining a lot and we have pools, or gigantically humongous puddles, of water all around our house. We're in talks with a man to bring in a load of rock for placement in our low areas around the house as early as this week, but for now we have standing pools. If you search awhile you'll find little frogs in the pools and mudbugs or crawfish crawling out of the mud. We also have a pool in our back pasture. Much bigger than the aforementioned puddles, but as pools around here go, not so big. Not a swimming pool, but a pool for fishing, froggigging, and watering livestock/farm animals - when we acquire some. The pool was almost dry when we arrived. We had it dug out to increase its size and depth. After several inches of rain recently it is filling up. In West Texas, pools are known as tanks. I believe up North they are referred to as ponds. Apparently there is a whole science to maintaining a pool. So far all we've learned is that we need to go out and shoot the turtles and snakes, which will also act as target practice. They kill the fish. We also know that a pool must have a gradual hill on one side, if you have livestock, so they can walk in and out of the pool. This also prevents them from just "dropping" off the side of the pool into the water. Our pool has this. I will be learning more about pools.
More pool-talk - I'm hoping to find a frog gig. Don't know if they make them anymore. When I was young we would go froggigging around pools. In the pitch dark, with flashlights, wearing wading boots that protected you from the water and snakes. Of course when we'd spot a snake head we'd shoot it. We'd bring the frogs back to the house in a tow sack, cut off the heads, skin and clean them, salt and batter them, and drop them into a hot frying pan of oil. They'd jump just a little while cooking, but they were wonderful. Talk about fresh poolfood.
(The top photo is before the rains. The bottom, after. )
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