Crawdad Bonding

            Three of our five grandchildren are here for a visit.  One is a helper at Vacation Bible School, the others, attendees.  After their morning of fun and learning at church, we head off for picnics or lunch at Auntie Shannon’s before going on various expeditions.

             Our most exciting adventure was capturing crawdads at Spring Lake.  We failed to catch them the first day because we couldn’t find a way through the blackberry-choked banks to get to the creek.  So the next day, we headed around to the other side of the lake, armed with branches, string, pieces of bacon and a bucket.  I sprawled over a boulder with a pole and bacon bait, enticing those critters out of the dark shadows while the grandchildren took turns holding the net in position.  Yowza!! One crawdad was six inches long, red pinchers snapping when he found himself in a net.  We captured ten in various sizes.  We also captured minnows and clams.  At the end of the day, we set them free. 

             Yesterday, we headed out to Doran Beach.  The children were like sandpipers, running back and forth with the waves, pausing to pick up sea shells, feathery sea weed, rocks, bits of drift wood, tiny sand dollars.  We dug holes and let the waves bring in tiny creatures.  We dug for sand crabs.  We buried ourselves hip deep in sand.

             Today we’re heading for a local creek where turtles bask on logs and rocks, and a there’s a pond with ducks and geese. 

             I came in the other day, sun-burned, hair wild, and dirty, and Rick said, “Is Granny having fun?”  Too tired to speak, I just grinned.