Poot says it's Spring

Our pool turtles have emerged from brumation, the reptile version of hibernation. It's a sure sign of spring — or at least a temporary spring — at the Wood Backyard.

We've let our pool (really, a "cement pond") go native. When I had back surgery a few years ago, it was a while before I was able to go back into the water. It was longer still until I was physically able to clean it, and we couldn't afford a regular pool service.

Once we found out what happened, though, we decided to keep it that way.

First, to keep down the mosquitos, we stocked it with mosquito fish that I bought from Amazon (is there anything you can't buy from Amazon?). We started with 25 fish, and they rapidly blossomed into thousands.

It wasn't long before we had toads, frogs, snakes and turtles making their home. We named the first turtle "Poot", short for pool turtle. The next was "PJ", for Poot, Jr., and the third was just "Baby Turtle".

We strongly suspect Poot is the female, PJ the male, and who knows what the baby is. We've got a ramp built for both escape and sunning, and they spend most of their time on it. Poot also tends to wander off into the woods behind the fence for a few weeks once or twice a year.

We also get egrets and herons, usually juveniles coming to hone their skills and get an easy meal.

I love having nature in my backyard.

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