Ben and some guys went to practice softball the other night.
The softball field is close to a lake.
A Minnesota lake, with lots of good cat-tails all along the edge.
Maddie came running, "Mom! Come see what we found!"
I followed her.
One of the boys had a stick and was keeping
this critter from heading back into the lake.
So, I bent next to it.
The other mom who was with us sort of shreiked,
"You aren't going to pick that thing up?!?"
I did. And gave it to her boy.
He was half afraid of it, but pretty proud of himself, too.
"Is it a crab?" he asked.
"No," I told him. "It's a crayfish. But it is a crustacean.
Just like a crab. They both have shells, and pincers and live in the water."
The kids showed the crustacean to the dads.
They freaked the other mom out with it a few more times.
And had fun saying "crustacean."
Then they let it go home.
Hello from Southeastern Montana!
I am Elizabeth Patten. I spent the first 34 years of my life in Minnesota. In 2015, I moved with my husband and two children to the western-most part of South Dakota and then into Montana. Now, I live, work, write, play, and breathe under the big, big Montana sky. I began this blog in September of 2008 to make note of the sunshine that can (almost) always be found.