Alien Invasion
Although we are living smack-dab in the middle of Sasquatch country….
….which by the way looks oddly familiar if you grew up with Star Wars….
Notice the resemblance.
…..I think the farm has been invaded by aliens!!
Walking along the backside of the shop, I happened to appear into a deep post-hole dug out this past fall. Since Tony and I (mostly Tony) do our the majority of our own construction on different projects around the farm, things are ordered in priority based on several things…weather, (although we’ve learned, if you don’t work in the rain…you don’t work) materials, funding, and manpower (mainly the availability of our son, Will.) But anyway…back to the alien…
…..peering into the deeply dug hole, I had to stop, and look again. “Wait..what is that?”
Is this a huge bug or something??
Gathering up my courage….I looked more closely down the deep hole…
IT’S A HUGE NEWT, OR SALAMANDER OR SOMETHING!!! And what’s that thing next to it??
Let me just mention this… I grew up hunting for earthworms, tracking down gopher snakes in an attempt to hold them, collecting tadpoles (though my parents wouldn’t let me keep them, “Hi Mom” :o), slogging through the muddy muck of salt water lagoons in an attempt to find something…anything alive within the water or mud. I still do this stuff! So, to say I was a bit…well I wouldn’t say frightened, but….frightened of this big, little critter is a testament to how “creepily huge” this salamander had grown. It seemed to stare at me, watching my every move. If I moved…it moved it’s head in my direction. My attention was drawn to the other dark “thing” sitting on the other side of the hole. Was it a decaying conifer cone…or was it an egg sack?? In my head, I heard a familiar tune….”Duh, Duh, Dummmmm!!”
With a little (very little) research, I think I have narrowed down the options of amphibians to this one, the Northwestern Salamander (Ambystoma gracile). Take a look at this simple webpage http://pages.uoregon.edu/titus/herp/gracile.html It even shows a photo of the egg sack, which I now totally believe is the other item within that hole. My main concern now for our little alien is that we aren’t supposed to get more rain for another two days…I’m afraid she and her egg sack might dry out. I may add a little water to the bottom of the hole today after I check on the little alien family. We’ll see how that goes!!!
Build Me a Dream 