Turtle Trouble aka A Tale of Two Wimps

We woke up to this critter on the street outside our house on Saturday morning.  We see them in our yard very occasionally but not often and never this big.  We're not all that near to a lake.

A huge snapping turtle!  She was at least 2 feet long, not including the tail.

We went out to investigate and then came back inside to have breakfast.  By the time we'd finished eating she must have decided that she liked us and wanted to move into our garage. She'd moved from the street to right in front of the door.

Now that is a face only a mother could love.

The feeling was not mutual. We sent the kids in the back to play while my husband and I tried to point her back in the direction of the lake.  Truth be told, we're both a little squeamish about stuff like this*.  We tried changing her direction by spraying her with the garden house.  This proved to be completely ineffective.  We tried nudging her with a rake handle but we didn't want to hurt her and she just was not wanting to go.   (Plus, honestly, we were scared of making her mad.) A Fed Ex man happened to drive by while this was going on.   Seeing our complete incompetence all the way from the road, he took pity on us and stopped.  He picked that sucker up with his bare hands, loaded it in the truck and offered to drop it in the nearest lake for us.  Thank you, mysterious, turtle lovin' Fed Ex man.  We owe you one.

Well, I had to take advantage of all the turtle excitement by checking out a snapping turtle book from the library.  I got Snapping Turtles (The Library of Turtles and Tortoises) and while we didn't read it cover to cover, it was short and concise enough that we read most of it. Our favorite fact was that common snapping turtles eat fish, bugs, frogs, turtles, birds, and plants. We also found out that snapping turtles are unable to pull their heads entirely inside their shells.

It turned into a sort of impromptu turtle day for us.  I drew some turtles on plastic caps from different beverage containers and the kids raced them across our kiddie pool using drinking straws to blow them around.

Then Drew fished for letter bottle caps with his bug net.  The target was "T" caps, of course.

The pool water was filthy.  They were jumping in and out of it all morning.

We did a paper plate turtle craft.  Drew wanted sharp claws and teeth on his turtle but we actually learned that turtles don't have teeth, not even the snapping ones (although they can bite through a human hand. eek) 

And finally, a turtle snack made from cucumber.  They each only took one bite.

*this squeamishness is in no way a reflection on my husband's manliness.  He's very manly.  Let's forget I called him a wimp, okay?

Linking to The Southern Institute, Learning Laboratory, Tuesday Tots, Gluesticks, Bear Rabbit Bear, Kid's Co-op, Honey Bee Books