Hello, crawdaddy-o. |
I was walking the pasture fenceline a month ago to cut back the brush and to make sure the fence was still in working order when I kept coming across funny little holes in the ground. Initially, they looked like mice or vole tunnels, but by the mud piled around the entrance, it was obvious that whoever was living in them was digging deep enough that they were getting access to water and bringing it to the surface.
With a little pondering and some research, we figured out what was down the dark little tunnels:
Crawdads.
Oh, Henry! |
I have some fond memories of catching crawdads out of Table Rock Lake in the Ozarks, but I’d never seen crawdads that made their own little puddle deep in the ground to live in. Of course, Jack is never one to leave things alone, especially if it’s something he can eat…for free. He took the kids out back and dug up a few of the holes. The girls excitedly watched while Henry helped by eating mud. Eww! An hour later, they came back with one very startled crawdad who found a new home in our aquaponics tank with the fish.
If an hour of digging around in the pasture wasn’t fun enough, Jack decided we should go out on a late-night crawdad hunt. He raided our lunch meat drawer and we had one of our nontraditional date nights, trying to get crawdads to take the bait without any luck.
Boo! |
But we did scare the horses. That’s always fun.
So far, we’ve got a single serving of gumbo growing in the tank. The rest of the crawdads better watch out…Jack’s got his eye on you!