Close Encounters of the Crayfish Kind

As I was pulling a plastic bag from the little ditch alongside my woods, I gasped and then chuckled. Trapped inside was a curious crawdad who had probably gone in to investigate any vestiges of food that had been left behind. I shook it out gently and brought it to Squirrelboy, who was sitting jauntily in the wheelbarrow. He was a little nervous about the small "lobster" crawling around his feet and legs. But I let him know that it would not harm him as long as he was gentle and kind. Soon Faerygirl joined us, and the two children enjoyed playing with their new friend. It reminded me so much of my own childhood, growing up along a creek, and playing with the crawdads that lived there. This particular specimen was a real beauty, with shiny patterned brown carapace, soft-looking cartilage showing at the joints, and a perky demeanor. After a while, we let it go back to the ditch from whence it came. It is a wonder to me that we have crawdads in our woods, for while it is quite wet this time of year, in the late summer it becomes very dry.

I continued cleaning up the trash spread along the north side of our woods. It looked as if a bag of someone's trash had been dragged along the ditch, probably by neighboring dogs, raccoons, or other varmints. The water was cool as I poked bits of plastic out with sticks. This sort of litter I can handle; no one meant for it to be there. However, I am extremely disgruntled by the litterers who think wooded roadsides are the perfect place to toss their used cups and cigarette packages and beer bottles. In the woods to the north of us, I constantly find large piles of beer cans and liquor bottles. This troubles me, since I really don't want drunk kids messing around so close to where my children play. Often these cans have bullet holes in them. Along the west side of the woods, someone likes to drink coffee and throw their giant styrofoam cups into the brambles. It truly offends me that someone would be so discourteous. The least they could do is keep their trash inside the car until they get home.