Yesterday I was over in Graham County at Satterfield’s Briarpatch Greenhouse And Nursery. Chatter went with me and we had a wonderful time. I’ll have a video to share about the visit soon. If you’re from this area and you garden the nursery is a wonderful resource and you’ll not meet any nicer people than Pat and Betty.
The Satterfield’s grandson Quincey gave us the grand tour of the place. From the tadpoles in the creek above the new high tunnel to the shrubs in the furtherest corner of the nursery he shared his knowledge with us. I was beyond impressed with the things he’s learned in his eight years of life.
The first stop on the tour was the tadpoles. Quincey and Chatter could barely get me to leave them.
I love to see tadpoles swimming to and fro.
When I was a girl there was a pond down below Pap and Granny’s house. It’s where I learned to swim. Today the pond has been re-filled in the name of progress.
My uncle dug it out with a bulldozer. I still remember the excitement of the pond being built and seeing the big yellow machine push the dirt. It was big doings for sure.
The end of the pond nearest the creek where the water came in was always shallow. In the spring of the year it was filled with tadpoles. Us kids loved to keep track of their progress towards frog-hood and poke sticks in the water to make them scurry.
At the first sign of frog eggs Paul and I knew it was only a matter of time before the tadpoles showed up each year.
Beyond being interested in the lifecycle of frogs I never thought much about them.
As Quincey taught me the difference in toad eggs and frog eggs my mind went whirling with the memories of the tadpoles and frogs in Wilson holler.
From serving as a form of entertainment for kids to being the sound track of summer nights when the windows were flung open in the hopes of catching a stray breeze of cool air tadpoles and frogs certainly influenced my life.
Last night’s video: New Steps, Moving Seedlings, & Checking on Spring Vegetables.
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Here in my area of WV, we’ve been hearing the “peepers” for over 2 wks now…but it’s supposed to get down to 30* tonight, so I wonder if they’ll make it by finding shelter or die off 🙁 but I know they’ll return, maybe a new batch will hatch and I’ll hear them peeping soon. They turn into tree frogs where I live. If they make it past my yorkies(they try to pick them up but end up salivating ALOT cause they emit some kind of toxin), they end up climb up trees and my house. I’ve even heard them inside to gutters! Now, that’s a funny sounding frog! HAHA
What a wonderful post, Tipper! You took my imagination back to your childhood with you. Why do have to spend 3/4 of our lives as adults, and only get to spend 1/4 of it as kids? I know they say you are as old as you feel. I feel mid 20s. And people look at me and have no clue because 25 is still adulthood. But if I felt 10, and ran around with a ten year old’s enthusiasm and wonder, I would be labeled as immature. How sad. We allow the child in us to remain in our past instead it dancing with us into the future, always keeping us vibrant and soaking in the world around us. I loved that the kid from your past joined you at the creek, and you were able to relive the wonderment of nature with the mind and heart of someone not burdened with the workload of an adult for a little while. I am looking forward to this video! The nursery plants called my name! So exciting!
Donna. : )
Hi,
Here in the Blue Ridge, I haven’t seen tadpoles in the toad’s favorite mudhole yet. They are hollering really loud so we will have “babies” soon. So far the environment here in our holler has not been impacted too badly by housing. We do have a lot of timber harvesting but the lumber companies are doing a pretty good job of protecting our environment. I think they are frog and toad people too. We do have some land developers and they seem to be frog and toad people too.
Take care,
Kathy Patterson
Yes as a kid I loved to watch the tadpoles in the pond fed by the cold water spring out of the side of the hill that was in the gravel pit just below our house. There was a friend who used to every spring be wading in the swamps where tons of tadpoles were waiting to hatch he used to take some home in a big mason jar and watch them hatch and release them into the nearby pond that he had in his area.
Well, when I eat tapioca I think of Tadpoles, only tapioca now looks different something like fish eyes and glue. Caution Close your eyes while you eat. LOL Good story Tipper. I am guessing that you have two nicknames for your girls Chatter and Katie is the chatty pattie of the house. LOL I’m guessing.
Love your stories of days gone bye!
I Love the simple life stories you share! Brings back memories!❤️
i loved yesterdays vlog in the garden you have encouraged me , i do patio gardening in grow bags and large pots. i tried beans last year and got a dozen my tomatoes and peppers did well, i am branching out this year a with green onions and cilantro. i have started seeds inside if they do not make it will start all over outside. Thanks again for the encouragement . look forward to your Blog and Vlog everyday
I saw a picture of your Papaw Wade with fox horn and his dogs on the Swain County Genealogical Society’s Facebook page earlier. It includes the web address of this blog but it is fuzzy and hard to read.
I was catching up on videos last night and watched what must have been Saturday’s chores when you and Matt moved the roofing panels. I could hear kids playing in the soundtrack. Were they nieces and nephews?
Robert-it was my nephew’s daughters 🙂
I enjoy reading your sweet childhood memories. We have a rain barrel next to our back porch that we use to water the garden with so we don’t have to use our well water. We always turn it over to empty it before winter sets in so water won’t freeze and mess up the barrel. When the worst of winter is over we turn it open end up so it fills during the rainy spell before Spring officially sets in. Without fail when warm weather has set in the frogs come and lay their eggs on of the the water in our barrel. I have thought many times to cover the rain barrel top with some type of screen, but then I’d miss out on the beauty of watching the life cycle of the frog. The first time I saw the jelly film on top of the water I honestly didn’t know what it was. I had planned on scraping the jelly film off the water but by the time I decided to do it, all the eggs had hatched and all I saw was tad poles. I know I learned about the frog life cycling school from books, but this was real life happening right next to my back door. That first season I refused to get water out of the barrel so not to disturb the tad poles growth. It was so fascinating to watch. I saw their legs sprout, tails grow shorter and each day they looked more like little frogs. I will say, I never knew when they actually came to full growth to jump out of the barrel. One day they were almost full grown and the next they were gone. I found many in my garden while I worked in it and they always startled me, but once I see it’s one of the baby frogs, I smile and tell it to eat all the bad bugs it wants. After that first year we had to start using the rain barrel, but I always tap on the barrel to scare the tad poles so they go down to the bottom of the barrel so I can get my water out for the garden. We’ve turned our rain barrels over this year and they are already full of rain water. Now I eagerly look for the jelly film I know are frog eggs. It’s my way of knowing for sure Spring is really here!
This post brings back so many wonderful memories! I have loved tadpoles ever since I was a young girl. My brother would always be on the hunt for them as he was older and knew when to start looking. I’d get so excited seeing them that I didn’t want to leave the pond near our house. He’d just about have to drag me away. Always a fun time and good memories.
I love tadpoles too! There’s a spot up Sunburst (we always called it middle prong) y’all probably know where I’m talking about right below where the creek runs over the rd and every year there’s a bunch of tadpoles in that little shallow spot. My parents live on Lake Logan and there’s also a good shallow spot in the creek right below their house where the biggest tadpoles I’ve ever seen grow! Those suckers are huge! We captured a couple one year when my girls were little…which took forever lol…and had them in a big container with some rocks and whatnot to try to see what sort of frog they turn into but I think the neighborhood cats ended up getting both of them because they disappeared before they sprouted any legs. Feel kinda bad about that now, we should have left them alone and let nature take its course but it’s still good memories of spending time wading the creek with my girls
Cassie- Matt said he remembered that place at middle prong 🙂
Cassie,
Love your use of the word whatnot! It made no sense to my northern friends in college, long ago. I still say it.
We have a tiny store bought 2′ deep ‘pond’ in the backyard with water pouring out of a pot. Pretty to see and hear but a giant frog lived there and had billions of babies all summer. Finally removed the pond portion and made a long, gravel filled ‘stream of water that went into a hidden tank and recycled. When making the change, my daughter had to clean out the old pond and she dumped a billion tadpoles on the ground. My granddaughter began screaming and crying about killing all those babies so everyone pitched together to scoop up as many as they could and make a trip to the nearby Suwannee River to dispose of them. I’m proud that my granddaughter cares about all living things so much, and we all were glad there was a happy ending. But we now make sure the water never gets deep again as watching billions of tadpoles flopping all over was way to much to endure for even an old granny. The frog still finds the dog/cat door into the screened porch around our own pool and loves to surprise us by popping out of the skimmer from time to time. Ted poles are the cutest things ever!
I realize I have been leaving way too many comments but here I go again. I was blessed to have been raised in the country in one of the most rural areas of my county and be able to live here all of my life. There’s a creek on my land that provided me with one of the huge joys of my childhood. Catching horney head minnows, playing and cooling off in the water (not deep enough to swim) and playing and catching tad poles in the still areas of creek, something I now regret, trying to shoot and hit snake doctors with a BB gun and so many other joys. Many of the other neighborhood children would also play in this creek at a small waterfall where the road crossed the creek. Unlike now a days, no one cared about trespassing on one another’s property just as long as you were not destroying anything. I have read and own every book Havilah Babcock wrote, in one of his stories he says there should be a law against raising a boy without having a creek for him to play in. I will add this can also apply to a lot of girls too.
I have not seen the first sign of tadpole life around the creeks or ponds this year. It’s too cold for me and them to be making any noise outside just yet. Frog gigging is one of the cruelest sports I can think of. I let a cousin and my grandson’s friend go hunt them at the pond until the day I saw the spears they used to capture them.
Love your new stairway going down the bank and to the basement! You might try planting some Lily of the Valley, a few Peonies dotted at the back along the foundation wall, and then fill-in here and there with some Daffodils (transpllants from your already established large clumps),,, the Lily of the Valley will spread and fill the entire bed holding the slope well, and talk about a sweet spring smell that will fill the yard (and your house)!! Thanks for sharing your garden tour, like you I am so happy Spring has sprung!
I love the stories and memories of your well lived life, Tipper! You’re a joyful soul and even the little thrills of life (like tadpoles) really make you happy! When you describe your childhood, it sounds exactly like the childhood EVERY child deserves filled with love, play and wonderful examples of loving family! And soon enough your daughters will keep your family traditions coming right along! Oh how blessed you are and how blessed we are to have you in our lives, Tipper. Thank you sincerely and from my heart for all you do to awaken and invigorate my soul and memories. Somehow thanks isn’t enough. I will keep you all in my prayers as well.
Amen!
Thank-you. Tipper’s life is so much like my life. Frogs and Toads scare the day lights out of me but I love to hear them. Kathy Patterson
LOVE THESE MEMORIES, and I have many of my own with tadpoles in the shallow creek near our place. Wow. An awesome way to start the day. Thanks!
Loved your video with all the newly growing goodies. I have an area like yours next to the steps facing north. Nothing would grow there, and everytime it rained it would splash red dirt up on the foundation. I finally just put gravel along there. It drains much better, no mess and no critters, yay!
I’ve loved tadpoles since I was a kid. I spotted several egg masses in my pond and yesterday I noticed the tadpoles have hatched out. It looks like I’ll have a lot of frogs soon.
The Blue Herron showing up in my pond lets me know the tadpoles are present.
I have not been out looking for tadpoles so I can not say if there are any out and around yet. Like most boys, I did catch them and put some in a jar or play with frogs when I was young. It may still be a little too cold, temps predicted to be in the 30’s tonight. You mentioned progress, yesterday I went on a trip of about 25 miles and was not surprised but stunned at the number of places I saw being cleared for housing developments. I had some business to do with my wife’s aunt and while with her we talked about this and her sharecropper Daddy, my wife’s granddaddy. I along with other youngsters at church considered him to be an extra granddaddy and dearly loved him. He was a gentle giant for us, about 6 foot 5 and 260lbs of solid worked hardened muscle that always had a kind word for us and set a good example for us to follow in our own lives. The 35 acres of land he cotton farmed with mules mostly by himself is part of 350 acres now being turned into a 350 home housing development. These developments are killing and destroying more wildlife than people hunting will ever destroy but yet many of the ones buying and living in these homes hate people that hunt. No truer words ever spoken than the song Tipper told us about a few weeks ago, Tall Weeds and Rust.
Good morning Mrs Tipper. My cousin and I were on a country road one evening that was filled with frogs crossing in Limestone,Tennessee.
We were so surprised and worried we would run them over! Have you heard of this phenomenon? Do you know why? Blessings to all!
Betty-I would guess they all reached frog-hood at the same time and were on the move 🙂
Thanks for the reply Mrs. Tipper!
I always figured frogs stayed put where they were born..
Seems like there were hundreds of them hoppin everywhere!
My cousin was driving and screaming. I was drying my hair out the window after milkin. We sure had a tale to tell when we got to the skating rink! Bless y’all
More memories were awakened with this wonderful narrative. We moved up the road 2 miles where we had a big ditch in front of our house, my twin sister Ruby and I loved it! We would go watch the tadpoles, the sunfish etc . play. We learned how to make fishing poles out of tree limbs and caught blue gill and cat fish, they were rarely big enough to eat so we would release them. We spent hours down there, winter time we would ice skate. We didn’t have skates we just ran and slid! lol!! What a life! We were just 6 when we moved there. God bless you and yours❤❤
Always an interesting blog. Watching you attending your garden is always enlightening as I learn something each time you tour. God Bless
I share your love for tadpoles, and sometimes maturity leaves behind some of our favorite pastimes. We used to catch them, and later my granddaughter helped me have a renewed interest. In hindsight, I wish I had just admired them and left them alone. One of my most vivid memories was sitting on a bank with some cousins on Pinnacle Creek after a rain, and there were little frogs everywhere. Children sometimes make up their own reality, and my cousin Kenna said, “it’s rainin’ frogs.” Of course, I guess this was just an abundance of newly hatched frogs, but it left an impression. I am glad you take the time to enjoy the simple things of nature, because it makes for a rewarding life. I will be looking forward to the video.