It's Raining Crawfish and Turkeys

This morning it rained.  It rained HARD and the hard rain was accompanied by lots of lightening and thunder.  Now, all over this place are patches of freshly tilled soil and there are also a couple of "pond starters."  When the rain ended and we were able to venture outside, I was pleased to see that our two ponds were already doing as intended... catching runoff water, helping (I hope) to eventually allow us to be able to control this wetland farm.

New Pond Holding Water

While we were making  "the rounds," inspecting the state of our weekend toils, Joe noticed we had a new visitor.  Sure enough, there, hanging out in a puddle, not yet even having made it to the pond, was a crayfish.  I had to laugh.  This is the first one I've seen here, but when I checked on-line, Wikipedia assured me that these little critters, "are also mostly found in brooks and streams where there is fresh water running, and which have shelter against predators."  Well, there you have it.  Our yard is nothing more than a brook or stream... no wonder we are always under water!

Puddle Crawfish

During my Internet education on Crayfish (I don't care, I'll continue to call them "crawfish,") I discovered that the odd mud "chimney" looking thing we saw in the community trench, er, community "stream," is actually a crawfish burrow.  Live and learn, I suppose.  We did just happen to take a photo of this burrow this weekend when we spied it.  We thought it must be a frog creation... silly us.

Crawfish Burrow

At any rate, after a sufficient photo op with the crawfish, Joe relocated him to the pond, the very muddy pond from whose floor he had, yesterday, successfully extricated the tractor.  Of that I am quite thankful, for had the tractor remained mired in that mud overnight, I'm afraid she would have been drowned after this morning's deluge.

We also managed to catch a glimpse of the local turkey lodge on one of their rare group outings.  It is not unusual for us the see one or two of these guys every now and then, but this group was a turkey hunter's dream... I did get a couple of shots (the photo kind) from the deck, but when I tried to get a little closer, I spooked them and they all took to the trees.  Those are some big birds, but they can make a pretty hasty getaway.

Seven Turkeys

There were more, but these were all I managed to photo

The last two... "brave" ones

While there was still a little light this evening, I managed to get the first lot of asparagus planted.  I will need to exercise incredible patience while I await the success of this trial crop... as I understand it, if all goes "swimmingly," I should be cutting and eating asparagus bright and early in the summer of 2013.... I can hardly wait!

Planting Asparagus

Tomorrow, hopefully, we will get a break from the rain and will be able to start the tree planting.  I have seriously lost count of how many we have to plant.  I know for sure the number is greater than 40.....  Meanwhile, I guess the crawfish will be enjoying the "digs," (pun intended).