25 August: not quite off

Tuesday, 25 August 2015

We might have quit TOO many jobs, as it seems that all of a sudden we just did not have any work to do today.  That did not seem like a bad thing.  We had intended to stay home, but when I got a text from Melissa that she and Dave (Sea Star Landscape Maintenance) were working at an old job of ours, we could not resist going to have a look.

Steve’s Garden

Melissa had asked if we could come tell them where the garden beds used to end, what plants might be missing after two years of the garden going back to weeds, and so on.

The pond was low because of drought.

The recirculating waterfall has been turned off for now.

That waterfall had become completely overgrown with weeds when Mel and Dave took over the job a couple of months back.

The dry creekbed that recirculates water from the stream has also almost dried up, something I never saw in years of working there.

This had also been covered with weeds!

The dryness has given our friends the opportunity to really get in there and clear the area.  On the right side, we were able to find salvageable Japanese and Siberian Iris that they can dig and relocate to more manageable areas.

Primula vialii and Iris sibirica along the stream, way back in 2007

Below: a screen shot from my 2007 blog, showing the stream and path as it was.  Joanne was Steve’s wife, who had died of cancer the previous year and who had worked with us to create this garden.

Today: Melissa and Dave’s great progress on the streambed

Allan’s photo of a weeding session along the stream in 2013, possibly the last day we worked there.  It had gotten to be too much for us as the Long Beach and Ilwaco jobs got bigger and bigger.

looking for lost iris (Allan’s photo); They’ve been mowed (not by any of us) but we found them.

a big job well done

The reason the recirculating system is turned off is because the lake that provides the water has gotten too low for the pump.

I’ve never seen the lake this low.

the garden as it was in 2009 (from the house deck)

On the way out via the long driveway, we stopped to say hi to the horses.  We used to bring them treats, but it has been so long that they do not remember us.  Or maybe it is a new set of boarded horses.

Allan’s photo

Our day off fell by the wayside when we decided to do our work at two jobs that were on our way home, thus making the rest of the week easier.

The Red Barn and Diane’s Garden

At The Red Barn, strong winds had been hard on the barrel planters.

Diane’s roadside garden

containers in back yard

more containers

My good friend Misty gets a belly rub.

Just look at that dear face.

Ilwaco

With that little bit of work done, we drove back to Ilwaco and visited Todd at a garden where he is currently clearing out lots of brush and beautifying the landscape by tidying up sword ferns and shrubs.

beautifully pruned sword fern at Todd’s job (Allan’s photo)

Allan’s photo: I’m pretty happy with all the time off we’ve been having.

When we left there, deer were wandering the high school parking lot.

And they wandered to right outside the garden where Todd was working.  Later, he told us that they had joined him for tea.

 

At home, as I passed time puttering, I heard the shop vac outside.  When I looked, I thought Allan was vacuuming his garden.  No, he was blowing rhododendron leaves off the ground at the back of his garden.

clever clean up method

Allan’s photo: leaves smothering some delicate plants

Allan’s photo: leaves blown out onto the grass path.

The Depot Restaurant

For weeks, I have been anticipating my old friend Carol’s arrival for a three day visit to the beach.  She drove down from her hotel in Long Beach to pick me up and I treated her to a scumptious dinner at the Depot.

scallop appetizer

house salad

Steak Killian (mine); love those potatoes. Carol had Mediterranean Prawns, and my photo of that dish was a fail.

Although Allan and I do have to work tomorrow, I will see Carol again for dinner Wednesday and then all day on Thursday.

While Carol and I enjoyed ourselves at dinner, Allan watered the Ilwaco planters, because it had to be done. His photos from the watering session:

Other folks at work, seen while filling the water tank at the boatyard

After watering, he took a tour around the town.

low water level at Black Lake

at the curb

low tide at the port

a fishing pun

the marina

the south parking lot hoist

south parking lot boat ramp with Cape Disappointment Coast Guard Station across the water

south parking lot

sunset

 

 

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hot and cold

Today we went to Steve’s garden, perhaps for the last time as the official gardeners. A friend went with us to learn the garden so she could, if Steve agrees, take over the job. She is an able and avid gardener who has room for just a few hours of work a week, so unfortunately is not someone who has time to help out the many people who ask me for a good gardener to hire!

At the entrance to the long road that leads to the home and garden is this lovely tidal stream that runs to the bottom of Willapa Bay.

to lower Willapa Bay

Upon arrival at the site, we could hardly tell there was a garden because Annuals Planting Hell has kept us away from there for over a month. Allan immediately started to weedeat along the front bed.

a wilderness

the raspberry patch, before

path and stream, before

gazebo steps, before

Help is on the way in the person of our capable gardening friend!

I have cared for this garden for a long time. Originally our client was Steve’s wife, Joanne, at a different home and garden of theirs further up the bay. (That place, when sold, was bought by Laurie, who later became a client of ours and whose garden, originally Joanne’s, was on the garden tour in 2009.)

After they moved, Joanne hired me to help her make a new garden around a pond that she and Steve had created, and we worked on the garden ideas together until she died of cancer (after a long fight during which she kept horse riding and gardening) in November 2005. So this garden always makes me remember her. Thus it is a sentimental one for me to give up.

Steve’s garden is one we would choose to never work at on a warm day. It is the hottest microclimate of any of our gardens except maybe Casa Pacifica, where I have also sweltered. Today the sun shone ominously, but we had to go because it was the only day our gardening friend was available, so we just got on with the job despite being uncomfortable. It may have gotten to all of 70 degrees! Much too hot for coastal people.

The pond and stream makes a warm day more bearable, but the recirculating pump was off today so no waterfall or running water. I would love to have turned it on but was afraid there might be a good electrical reason for it to be off so I left it alone.

The pond is artificial as is the stream; the stream runs down to a fairly good sized private lake. The upper pond was full of tadpoles today….we think of the bad native-frog-eating bull frog because I have seen some monster frogs in this pond during the summer.

big tadpoles

sunning themselves under the water

frog

not as sizeable as some; not camera shy

These frogs make a high pitched little squeak just before they jump out of the way. The really huge ones make a loud plop into the water that can be startling. In contrast, our tiny green tree frogs make a much bigger noise than their size would lead you to expect.

I’ll miss the frogs and the horsey view:

heading down to the lower pasture

Thank goodness the goats were not around today!

Over the course of the day, our friend weeded and edged the bed at the front of the pond and mulched it with horse manure (ready and available next to the barn). I revealed the Japanese iris along the stream, where I used to have a more refined streamside garden going when Joanne was alive. Nowadays I use a weedeater to make the irises show and to make sure whoever mows the lawn realize they are there! I weeded the raspberry patch and the blueberry patch that is behind the waterfall hill, and Allan weeded the backside of the pond and the path.

after

before and after together

excellent work in front of pond

front bed

beautiful!

raspberries

gazebo

path and stream

With this job done most satisfyingly, and knowing I am leaving it in good hands if Steve agrees to pass it on to my recommended gardener, our friend went home and Allan and I went to water Long Beach planters.

On the way out, the tidal stream looked like this.

First we made a quick stop at Boreas Inn to plant a few cosmos and check on the garden. I was reminded by the sight of a pile of old (non garden) debris that we had said we would haul it off this week as it is bringing down the tone of the garden. Oops. Mentally rescheduled the week.)

Boreas west side gardens…still filling in after a re-do in the spring

Then we watered Long Beach and after being hot at Steve’s garden, we were cold and windblown and, in my case anyway, kind of miserable from 6 to 8 PM.

Rugosa roses blooming in the beach approach garden.

We fertilized the planters as well, and what with carrying a weed bucket, the quick connect metal thing, a hose, and the hose end sprayer, I could not juggle my camera, as well. The sun was at that low angle that made it hard to see and the wind blew….so I got to complain about weather from hot to cold today.

the last planter

Cerinthe major purpurascens and golden marjoram

wonderful Dianthus ‘Charles Musgrave’

Fabulous news after last night’s distressing watering of the Ilwaco planters: Every sanvitalia in the Long Beach planters, even the ones on the beach approach, looked fine and cute and sunny and blooming.

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an unusual problem

The day began with a stop at the Basket Case to check out the new availability list. We pored over it page by page, although I do skip certain plants entirely. (Phormiums and Agaves. I know there is probably still an Agave fad but they do not call to me.)

perusing the list

Whatever shall we do when Fred and Nancy retire?

Nancy was planting the last of the baskets…

and had rigged up a board to keep the three poodles from leaving the back greenhouse.

Walter

We bought some Sanguisorbas, of which I never have enough. And some more grasses for Andersen’s Rv Park. There will be some excellent plants of all sorts (including another new-to-us Sanguisorba) arriving Friday.

And then, at last, we went to one of those four clients whose gardens we had not yet set foot in this year. At Steve’s garden, we got an unexpected greeting.

Last time I saw them they were babies!

They had gotten quite large.

I thought of the time my friend Sheila had been knocked down by a sheep…

QUITE large.

I was actually fascinated because I like animals, but I did wonder how they would behave because when they were younger, they would jump up on Steve when he fed them.

I have been doing Steve’s garden for a long time, going way back to when he owned the house that later became Laurie’s, and way back then two little goats used to nudge and butt me while I gardened. These two large goats would pack quite a wallop if they were in a nudging mood.

They were interested in everything. Allan later realized that they had peeled all the reflective tape off the back of the trailer.

I felt sheer delight when they let me pet them. The only truly disconcerting moment was when I opened the car door to get some plants. I had decided earlier that Steve’s garden should have some (deer candy) Sanguisorbas because his garden is never bothered by deer. I did not even have the plants all the way out when there were two goats next to me, standing on their hind legs with their front feet on top of the car, leaning on me and chewing the leaves off the plants. Ok, no Sanguisorbas then. Perhaps Steve could only have a Cistus. The deer on Discovery Heights do not bother assorted Cistus at all.

The goats followed us to the garden.

Down the slope by the garden I was thrilled to see someone else had weeded the raspberry patch and the blueberry patch! There are advantages to being late to the garden job.

fenced blueberry patch..usually thick with creeping sorrel

raspberry patch

The goats followed us to the garden and showed a great interest in the raspberry canes…and our lunchbox.

I think they could have figured out how to open it.

Allan planted the Cistus and we got down to weeding (befores and afters coming up, of course). Meanwhile, the goats wandered through the garden chowing down…on daylilies, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, a Buddliea…

They stood on hind legs, broke long branches off the variegated Buddleia (time to prune it anyway!), ate a few leaves from each, and moved on…soon discovering the new Cistus. Allan barely rescued it as they greedily began to consume it, so back in the car it went. It can live at Discovery Heights or Marilyn’s among the deer. I am not sure what we can plant to fill in empty spaces in Steve’s garden, because the only thing that seemed to be goat-proof were narcissi and (boring) rhododendron.

At lunchtime, Steve came home and put the goats away in their indoor-outdoor pen. (I told him I would have put them away myself if they had had sharp horns.) Allan pointed out to me later that (aside from my joy in petting them!), it was a good thing they were out, or we would have planted a bunch of nice new plants with no idea that they would soon be eaten.

And now, some garden photos. I have been doing this particular garden since creating it for Joanne. While I will always think of her there, and miss her gardening presence, I have finally segued into calling it Steve’s garden instead of Joanne’s garden.

Due to our late-season arrival the garden had gone all blurry with weeds.

before, looking south

before, looking west

before, looking north

before, the path by the stream

This garden has a wonderful layout with an upper pond with waterfall, created by Steve and Joanne and a backhoe, and then a long stream that runs under a bridge down to a small natural lake.

the streamside path after Allan’s weeding

On the other side from the path we have Siberian and Japanese irises in a planting inspired by a lovely photo in a book called The Stream Garden.

iris bed is on other side…very hard to keep the swamp grass out!

looking upstream

weeded pond bed at head of stream

The front bed was made by leveling the mound of soil left from digging out the pond.

Five and a half hours later…

across the pond; driftwood marks the waterfall

reflected iris

I wonder if there will be any flowers at all this year with those goats?

We still need to get back, do some edging, and weed the backside of the garden….and am not sure when that will be.

While I sorted out the billing, Allan took some photos of the lake from points that I never take time to walk to while working.

by the gazebo, looking south

the stream bridge

When Joanne was alive, she had taught horse riding and had developed a bridle trail all around the large acreage.

from the trail, looking northeast

Every now and then something jumps in the lake but we have never seen what it is!

and back across the very wet meadow toward the garden

The garden looks very small compared to the vastness of the property, but feels very large while we are weeding it. I am going to wait and see what happens with the goats before I worry about how the garden will survive their interest.

Tomorrow I hope to make the wake up call to another private garden. Or, should it rain, I will happily read back entries in Tootlepedal’s Blog. I had time today only for the most recent entry (excellent as always).

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prequel: four jobs of 2006

I wrote about some of these gardens in my 2007 blog, but since I the photos were actually taken in 2006, I will reprise them here.

Suzanne’s Garden

We did not do regular maintenance on the Sahalee garden that Robert and I had created for Suzanne, but she called me in a couple of times a year to weed.  On one of those days in 2006, Allan took these photos:

gate

path

by the porch

along the path

with glass ball

Joanne’s garden

Below:  Joanne ‘s garden in full bloom in summer. She died of cancer in the fall….and now we maintain the garden in her memory.

Joanne’s garden

Linda’s garden

Later in the summer, we were hired by Linda L. to put in a garden at her beach house in Seaview.

Linda’s house

First we made a tiny little pocket garden, all white, with ingredients she already had, in memory of her very special and beloved cat, Whitey. This was sort of a get to know you project, because her real idea was much bigger.

Whitey’s garden

Her dear husband had died several months before, and she wanted a healing and memorial garden on the west side of their beach house.

before:  Allan starting the garden

Here’s the garden from her deck; we chose mostly plants with blue flowers because that had been her husband’s favourite colour:

after

the garden from above in late summer

Because he had liked fishing, we made a river rock dry pond with fish.  You can’t see the fish very well; they were mounted on stakes.

dry creek pool

Linda got a fish bench for the garden.

fish bench

We made a little rock area in the garden, the idea being that anyone who visited could place a little round rock on the bigger rock in memory. They had both loved frogs so Linda added lots of frogs.

frog and the little rocks

Linda herself took this photo of her cat in the garden:

Up on a dune on the path to the beach they had an old boat; their guests had believed the story that it had washed way in from the ocean. I do love planting up a boat…

garden boat

Linda has since moved away (and her life is happy again) and the house is now a vacation rental, but we have the memories.

Marilyn’s Garden

Another meaningful garden project was to create a garden at this new house near Surfside, for Depot Restaurant owner Nancy Gorshe’s mother, Marilyn. It was a blank slate except for the little entry sidewalk.

before

beginning

Marilyn wanted a lawn, so we delegated that, and we made a generous walking path around the house that would be friendly to any friends who used a walker or wheelchair.

garden with path

Below: Marilyn’s garden with the lawn seeded and the gravel path rolled and some new plants already in.

progress

Below: the entry from the driveway to Marilyn’s path.

entry

We put round rocks along the house to make that strip of non-garden advocated by my garden guru Ann Lovejoy.

rocks along house

This garden turned out very well and it is scheduled to be on the Peninsula garden tour in July of this year.

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prequel: work, winter into spring 2005

Allan moved in on his birthday, January 2nd, and went into sort of a state of shock about living in such a small space and also about how COLD my house can be in winter.  (No matter how we tried, we never got it above 50 on a cold day.)  His arrival unfortunately was followed by a cold snap which did not help.

Normally I would have taken more of January off but I wanted to impress him with the gardening business so that he would not feel he had quit his other job for nought but love.  (He had spent years assembling bicycles for Fred Meyer stores, but due to the incursion of cheap Wal-mart bikes, the job had been in a disturbing decline.)  So we started back to work early in the month. Our first job, while both of us had bad colds, was to spead yards and yard of horse manure all over Laurie’s garden beds by the bay. Sophie went with us one day. Below: Allan on his first day as a professional gardener.

introduction to gardening

mulch on Laurie’s winter garden

Below: Laurie’s garden in winter, being well mulched by manure, and plagued by moles, with the barn in the background and to the right, Allan having a brief lunch break at the car. It was so cold that we would warm our hands up on the car engine after we arrived at work.  What an initiation!

lunch time

Our next big project was to gather ferns in the woods at Discovery Heights for replanting in the gardens there.

fern gathering

dragging ferns

planting ferns along the middle garden at Discovery Heights

We operated out of Allan’s small Saturn with a utility trailer hauled behind. Between working, we went back and forth to Tacoma several times in the spring moving Allan’s stuff down. One memorable late stormy night, we turned back at the Willapa curves by a tree over the road and had to go back through Naselle and along the river route. After the trauma of trying to turn to car and trailer in the dark with possible traffic coming up behind (and no cell phone signal, of course), we decided to rent a U Haul for the rest of his stuff.

Below: Another spring project: creating some garden beds along the fences at Garnette S’s Seaview garden. I mucked out the stalls from Bennie, the carriage horse, who lived right next door, to improve the soil in the new beds.

Seaview project

Most of the during and after photos of the project are gone but the creation of long beds along this fence, and inside and outside of the other long fence length, took about a week. This was another of those gardens that I created but don’t maintain….

Seaview project

Below:  Narcissi (planted very late in 2004) in the middle garden at Discovery Heights.  Before long, a big gate would go in almost at the end of the garden.  After cleaning a couple of houses in the late 70s in the gated, exclusive Broadmoor neighbourhood of Seattle, I had sworn I would never work in a gated neighbourhood again, but I could not resist this garden.  Later, the gate made sense to me because until it went in, drivers went speeding up and down the curves of this hill for fun.

Narcissi at Discovery Heights

At this time, I don’t think anyone lived at Discovery Heights yet, and the Coastal Ridge townhouses were just being built.

Discovery Heights lower garden with baby plants and narcissi

Below:  J9’s dog Sophie on one of the days that Allan and I dogsat her by taking her to work with us. I accidentally made her look like a bad dog by asking her to sit for the photos….on top of the flowers.

my good friend Sophie

Meanwhile, in other spring gardens…

tulips at the Shelburne

Joanne’s garden all cleaned up for spring

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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prequel: work 2004, part one

Very early in 2004 I was waiting for the bus near my mother’s house when Robert drove by and gave me a ride home. He told me he had been working at Jessie’s fish plant and it had given him an appreciation for how much better it had been working with me.  Having been legally divorced since November seemed to have reduced a lot of drama.  We agreed we would try working together on some projects.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

The first  was to make a new central area inside the fenced garden at Klipsan Beach Cottages.  We replaced a simple round bed with the urn in the middle with a much more formal look.  Denny had been given some big pavers; the columnar yews were Mary’s idea.  Here it is later in the early summer of 2004.

new Klipsan Beach Cottages courtyard

species tulip at KBC

KBC courtyard in summer

KBC’s new cat, Tommy, in the catmint.

The Boreas Inn

Robert and I also tackled a blank space on the west lawn at the Boreas B&B. Our working arrangement was good for our dog Bertie, because Robert would take him for a run on the beach at the end of the day, then leave the dog with me while he went “home” to my mom’s house, where he was still living. I was still hoping he would eventually be able to take Bertie altogether as Bertie was rather pining for him; I was not as much fun.

Boreas before

Boreas after

Above: The rock bed we made at the Boreas Inn.

The plan was that Robert soon be would working with Andy fulltime doing carpentry, so our co-gardening was to be a short-lived thing. We turned most of the rest of the garden bed creation at the Boreas over to another gardening couple, because I was going to have a hard enough time just keeping my regular gardens cared for on my own.   (I ended up taking the job back and in later years fighting with the landscape fabric that they had used under the beds!)

Seanest

Tulips on the Seanest trellis

I partnered up for part of the summer with another gardening business, The Elves Did It.  Being new to their own business, they did not have a full schedule of work, so worked with me part time, and I passed on to them some extra jobs that I did not want to keep.

Carol of the Elves watering at Seanest

the driftwood temple at Seanest

Meanwhile, my old friend J9 (Jeannine), whom I had known since Sou’wester days, had a hankering to move to the beach, so we made a symbiotic arrangement; she arrived in May, got her business license, started looking for work as an occupational therapist, restaurant server and party helper but also did some weeding for me.  She was not a gardener, but learned four basic weeds (creeping buttercup, creeping sorrel, grass, dandelion!) and was invaluable…and drove me around!

J9 at Seanest with a tall foxglove

Starting Joanne’s new garden

Joanne had been a client of mine when she owned the house that was now Laurie’s  on the bay.  Joanne and Steve had moved to a big farm on the lower end of the bay and she hired me back to help make a garden there, around a big pond and waterfall that she and Steve had created.

J9 at Joanne’s

Carol of the Elves, J9 and I put in quite a day later that year making a garden in front of the pond where that mound of grassy dirt is, above.   We “caber-tossed” the log in front all the way down from a woodpile up by the house.

Joanne’s new garden

Laurie’s Garden

At Joanne’s former garden, now Laurie’s garden, the curving flower border had all sorts of interesting plants, mostly from Joy Creek Nursery, each of which got rapt attention from Laurie.  She noticed and appreciated every detail.

Laurie’s sunny border

Sanguisorba canadensis

Penstemon and feverfew

Cleome and feverfew

China Beach Retreat

I still took weekly care of The Shelburne Inn garden and their sister vacation rental, The China Beach Retreat.  I had extended around the corner with the China Beach flower garden, after RAM Landscaping had backhoed out a huge tough stand of red hot poker.  That old shake shack stands where later the Audubon Cottage would be built.

China Beach garden

The Shelburne Inn

late Spring at the Shelburne

Shelburne poppy

The Anchorage Cottages

Imagine my dismay when I showed up at The Anchorage Cottages one day and found that in cleaning the patio, some toxic substance or possibly round up had been sprayed all along the edge of the courtyard garden. It did not recover for the rest of the summer and in fact, pretty much all the plants along the edge died.

a little tragedy

 Whatever it was made the new plants along the edge do rather poorly the next year, as well.  Moral:  be very careful with chemicals around a garden!

Andersen’s RV Park

‘Patty’s Plum’

‘Patty’s Plum’ poppy at Andersen’s RV Park…a plant that Lorna, Andersen’s owner, had purchased at Heronswood.

And more

This may be the year that I did not work at Wiegardt Gallery because Eric decided to have his sons do the job.  Long Beach will get it own entry, as it was my biggest and most photographed job.  A few private gardens where I just pruned and weeded ordinary beds filled in the time.

By now I had a regular round of clients: Shelburne, China Beach, Andersen’s RV Park, Sea Nest, Laurie’s, The Anchorage Cottages, Long Beach….which meant working 13 to 14 days in a row, taking a day off, then starting another long stretch. I was absolutely determined to get out of debt and was living a life so frugal that I didn’t even buy plants for my own garden.

 

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flashback: July 2009 in Joanne’s garden

I love it when we go to Joanne’s memorial garden and the horses come to the fence near where we park expecting a treat.  The pastures are extensive so it’s especially friendly when they trot up from way down the road.

“The treats will be mine, all mine.” (22 July)

After a bit, they get back to their own business.

salt lick

We park by the combination house and barn (house on top, barn underneath) and from there survey the condition of the garden.  This one gets a monthly visit so there’s always much to do.

looking down to the garden

(Above) Straight ahead, the garden-surrounded pond.  Waterfall comes out by the piece of driftwood. To the right, the raspberry patch.  Allan, tired at the end of a full day, returns to the car.  To the left (out of the picture) a stream runs past the gazebo and into the small natural lake.

the pond, 22 July

north end of pond garden, 22 July

It’s odd that deer don’t browse this garden.  The daylilies are never chomped.  There are dogs around most of the time but they are not let loose at night to keep the deer away…

In July of 2009 we visited twice, not just once…We must have been backed up on the weeding!

27 July, the pond

27 July, back of pond garden

27 July, daylilies reflected in the pond

The frogs in the pond and small lake are enormous and I think must be the dreaded bullfrog (invasive in the Pacific Northwest).  The smaller frogs make a high pitched sudden cheep when they jump into the water.  Having one of the big fogs suddenly leap and splash from next to one’s feet can be startling.

This guy keeps watch from a perch next to the water and perhaps referees territory squabbles between the little and big frogs.

sentinal frog

Back when Joanne was alive, she had a sweet old black labrador named Cassie who was expert at catching the smaller pond frogs and carrying them off into the pasture.  We called her “the frog-eatin’ dog” and she might have bothered more little frogs than the bullfrogs do.

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