it certainly has been a crazy winter with snowstorm upon snowstorm. it’s been pretty enjoyable: sledding, snowshoeing, fort-building, snow angles…and all those mugs of cocoa when we’re done. but the snow has also done another amazing thing: it has kept the ground from freezing! all of that fluffy white insulation has kept the earth soft and (relatively) warm. so…

…out snowshoeing with isabelle last week, cris and i came upon some open water near the end of the trail. as we stood looking in, cris saw something move.  “a tadpole!” he exclaimed. i thought he was crazy, but as i looked closer, i saw one too. then another. and another!

we went back a few days later with a pail, two nets, and grampie. after breaking a new layer of ice, we scooped up 5 tadpoles!

of course, we also took a very large scoop of their water. as it settled in our little tank, we began to see other neat creatures in our water as well.

my brother, an avid (to say the least) angler, fishing guide, biology major, and wilderness lover extraordinaire came up to help us indentify our littlest critters. it was like our own little science lesson with uncle wes.

it was amazing to see the quantity and variety of little specimens!