 |
| Boys are boys, no matter where you go...;-) |
Papa got home around seven this evening (*very* early for a Japanese Salaryman). Put his briefcase down and walked back to the bathroom to wash his hands.
I heard a loud, startled "Ehhhhh!!"
 |
| Procambarus clarkii-- the Louisiana crawfish, an invasive species. |
Three big ones (and five smaller ones in the bucket)--and although I called them Zarigani, the species endemic to Japan (Cambaroides japonica) is rapidly losing ground to the introduced "Amerikan Zarigani", as it's called.
It's considered an invasive species (as you can see;-)). *Boys*... mata asobou, ne!
I would have put those in my sink for safekeeping when I was a child. We didn't have crawdads nearby, but I was known to carry toads and snakes around for hours.
ReplyDeleteWhat's going to happen to the crawdads in the sink? Are they for eating or are they beloved pets for a few days?
Diana-- hi! Koshi brings those home, too. And the crawdads are beloved pets for a few days--he'll take them to school tomorrow:-)) He's in the "Living Things" project group in his class (along with 2 or 3 other friends). They are now keeping a turtle, a salamander, a passel of crawdads, and I know not what else!
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, I used to catch catepillars and toads and make houses for them out of kleenex boxes... so very possibly, Koshi comes by it honest;-)) (How are you feeling? Is it getting hard to sleep at night yet?)
What fun for Koshi! I saw my first salamander in the wild just this last April when I was in the San Gabriel Mountains (outside L.A.). Definitely a highlight of the trip.
ReplyDeleteI'm exhausted all the time and quite whiny about it, I might add. And sleep. Oh, sleep. I wish I could get through a whole night without waking up several times. Just par for the course, I guess. I'm sure my sleeping and energy levels will get better again, in what, five years or so? ;)
Hah! Awesome!
ReplyDeleteDo they know how the american species was introduced?
The first trimester is *exhausting*--your body is making a placenta. Using all ur vitamins, takin' all ur minerals... and then, teh tummy gets bigger and you can't sleep normally. Then the growing uterus pushes on your bladder all the time--and then there's just no sleeping through the night. Take naps when you can! Stock up on extra sleep *now*, 'cause after the baby's born, well-- there's no rest for the wicked;-)) Five years--that sounds about right. Assuming you don't have any more during that period;-)
ReplyDeleteSarah-- Not sure how it got introduced over here! American military? (no idea-- just seems convenient to blame them...)
ReplyDeleteHmmm. Generally, regarding my son all I generally find in the sink is dirt. That is, of course, if he bothered to wash at all. Most of the time it's relegated to handprints on the wall. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteWe used to catch these as a kid and they used to get quite large. I remember the time when my father was going to show us how the pinchers really didn't hurt that much so he brought a rather irate crawdad close to his hand intending to have it clamp on to a knuckle. Well, the crawdad had a different plan in mind and with the other pincher grabbed him in the webbing between thumb and finger.
I thought he was going to fall in the creak spinning around trying to get it off.
Haven't thought about that in years.
KK! Have they started the flooding? Are you still sandbagging 8 hours a day? I know your house should be ok, but so many others...
ReplyDeleteHandprints on the wall-- you will notice that I don't put up pictures of the inside of our house. There's a reason for that;-)) *sigh*
Hope remembering the crawdads made you smile--that story made me smile:-)) They can pinch pretty good, eh.
My sister never caught one of those, but every stray thing she could find ended up at our house. We had cats and rabbits and mice and even a couple of lambs, and she had jars and jars of bugs.
ReplyDeleteI remember this one cat, almost starved to death he was, little, solid white, male kitten. Completely deaf. He would sleep right over her heart, and every time she moved, he would scratch the crap out of her. She did her best to mother him but he didn't last long.
I think she got it from my dad who was guilty of bringing home at least two cats and a rabbit. Thanks for the memories. ;)
Alice-- you're very welcome! I like hearing family stories:-)) Lambs! So did my mother-- Koshi would be green with envy... Come to think of it, I had jars of bugs every summer myself (*lots* of lightening bugs). We also raised a baby screech owl who had fallen from the nest until he could fly. Someone else brought him to us--knowing, I think, that my parents would know what to do with it (also, my dad worked in the state office building and knew everybody in the Dept of Natural Resources...:-))
ReplyDeleteAmy, Everything here is about as well taken care of as it can get. We have about 50 to 100 houses flooded right now and if the weather and the dike system flawlessly cooperate for the next 2 months that may be all. We've had a bit of unexpected luck recently with no rain and no high temps melting mountain snow. But in addition, the huge flow of water down the main river channel has cleaned the channel of 60 years of accumulated sand bars far more quickly than anyone anticipated. Unbelievably fast, in fact. This has left the river a full foot lower than predicted.
ReplyDeleteThis is good but with a hilarious downside. Several neighborhoods by the river were constructed on filled in land against both the Corps of Engineers and environmental objections. The developers were able to persuade the county to allow this by massive amounts of money. (the lots alone were sold for $100,000 and above.) These lots were built in such a way to give everyone water access with both man-made lots and man-made channels for boats and there are several million dollar houses there. Now with the river bottom being considerably lower, there is already a worry that when the river returns to its normal flow the channel will be 5 feet lower putting all these million dollar homes without river access.
These are not the people I weep for.
It will be fascinating to see what my river looks like after its face lift is done.
Ah, my mother always had me keep them outside in a bucket :( She's afraid of everything that has anything to do with nature; which makes it a little bit ironic that she raised me, who has no issues at all with keeping crawdads in the sink!!!
ReplyDelete