O.T.R.

Some of you know that my husband is a teacher/naturalist.
So when he came to me a few weeks ago and said, "Hear that?  That's a Gray Tree Frog," I took it as fact.
(He is right about almost everything.)

He pointed out that the frog call was near the pool.
We've had a lack of rain this spring.
It wasn't long until he and Micah found the frog stuck to the side of the pool.

A pool that had not been prepared for summer.
Which means that the black tarp was still over the top and had collected what rainwater had fallen.
It was a perfect...should we say...pond?

Juli and Micah's code name for our activity?
Operation Tadpole Rescue.

My dad jumped in the very chilly water to walk the tarp over without dumping the pond into the fairly clean pool.

Mom and I used the skimming net to gather group after group of tadpoles.
And did you know...in the UK, this would be called a "cloud" of tadpoles?  And in Australia, it would be referred to as a "school"?  Here in the U.S., apparently we refer to a group of frog tadpoles as an "army".
So be it.
We rounded up the army of tadpoles.

As in a true army, there were many, many members.
More than a hundred.
Many hundreds.

It caused quite a bit of excitement among the younger members in the family.
We all need some excitement now and then.

It was decided that Todd would take the vast majority of the tadpoles to the Upper Lake at Lutherlyn.
(So if you're there for campfire this summer and hear a cacophony of tree frogs, we may have had something to do with that...)

It was also decided that we couldn't let this opportunity for summer learning just pass us by.
So Juli's old hexagon fish tank was turned into a temporary home for approximately 10-15 members of the army.
They are sitting on the table, and there have been arguments about whose turn it is to sit near the tadpoles.

Has an army of tadpoles ever felt more love?