A turtle!

On Tuesday June 24^th we were sitting in the kitchen having a meeting with a building rep about our new barn that is supposed to go up this summer.  While we were sitting there I noticed a turtle on our back porch!  I quickly got Vincent and we went outside to look at it.  He wanted to keep it and make it a home, so I grabbed him a container and told him we could keep it until Joel and Cecilia woke up from their nap and had a chance to see the turtle.  In the meantime I turned to Facebook and my very smart friends for their opinion on what kind of turtle it was.  It turned out to be a red eared slider and most likely a female that was looking to lay her eggs. 

I convinced the kids to return her down to the golf course where she most likely came from.  They have a lot of ponds down there and tall grass and it seemed like that was the only place she could have come from.  I doubt she was living in our woods or corn fields.  The kids were not happy about releasing the turtle, but we had a family vote and we all voted to return her.  But I promised if she returned we would keep her as a pet.  The chances of her returning and making it across our pasture, up the hill thru the woods and passed the horses to our porch is very slim, but it satisfied the kids.  We drew a small smiley face on the corner of her shell so we could identify her if she were to return.