I DO have tadpoles! They are small and spend alot of time hiding under all the lilypads, but they are there. I'm pretty sure they're wood frog tadpoles. So exciting!

This brings me to answer the question my cousin Ashlee asked me, and probably many of you are wondering - "Why exactly do you want frogs in the pond? Just to have more animals around?" Good question, Ashlee.

Well, I guess the general reason is that I do love animals. I get immense enjoyment from my dog, my cat, my chickens and guineas. I'm easily entertained, and I've spent countless hours engaged in the sport of chicken watching. Even without tadpoles, I find my little pond mesmerizing and will sit beside it watching the honeybees come to drink. (Maybe this is what happens when you don't have TV.) It makes me happy to find snakes in the compost pile or hear a family of coyotes yipping at the moon. I have a degree in wildlife sciences, and although I don't currently use it for any gainful employment purposes, I love living amongst a thriving wildlife population (despite the occasional conflict in interests, but I'd love it if the local tick population wasn't quite so thriving [make that any blood sucking, disease transmitting critter, and squash bugs too because I just don't like them] .)

The slightly more specific reason is that the farm I've worked on for seven years now has a beautiful, terraced rock garden, and in the middle is a little pond. It is always FULL of leopard frogs of all life stages, and lots of lily pads and flowers. I've always loved it and wanted to have one of my own, and now I do! Complete with tadpoles. :)