Grapes and baby turtles

I was so tired last night I forgot two important events of the weekend. Ripping out the cucumbers and zucchini was the last activity of Saturday. First, we had to deal with the grapes. I took a break from my grading to help Terry take off the bird net. He picked the grapes and brought them to the house. After lunch, I hosed the grapes off and started removing the good ones from the stems, discarding any that were too ripe, not ripe enough, or full of bugs. I have to say the picnic bug population was WAY down this year. Last year, there were millions. Also unlike last year, we had a manageable number of grapes. When Terry finished picking, he sat with me to remove stems and sort.

Hilda was just putting the last jars of plums in the canner when the first two trays of cleaned grapes were done. “What can I do now?” she asked.

“Maybe you can cook down the grapes,” I suggested. “You can do it while you watch the plums.”

Dad helped with the straining and squeezing. They got 7 quarts done that afternoon. We had two more trays of grapes in the spare refrigerator, along with a tray of plums and some raspberries. Very full.

Hilda and Dad finished up the juice on Sunday afternoon, making another 7 quarts. Much less work than the 45 quarts we put up last year. We won’t be short-there are still quite a few jars from the 2016 vintage.

My weekend began with a trip to Elgin to go shopping with Jane. I got to her house about 12:30, and we had our usual conversation of what do you want to do about lunch, I don’t care, what do you want to do about lunch. Jane had a coupon for Boston Market, and we decided to split a turkey sandwich. We were about to get in Jane’s car when she looked down the driveway and said, “Is that a baby turtle?”

It was a baby turtle! Soon we saw a second one. 

Two baby snapping turtles in Jane's driveway

The first one was very lively and kept trying to run under my car. The second was more sluggish, maybe from being out in the hot, dry sun too long.

Backstory: In June, when we still got rain, Jane spotted this snapper in her flower bed looking for a place to lay eggs. The turtle ultimately decided it was not a good spot, but the presence of baby turtles suggests that she found someplace in the neighborhood that was suitable.

The beginning of the story: A snapping turtle trying out nesting sites in Jane's flower bed on June 14

I took the two baby turtles down to the creek to release them. When I got there, I had a problem. The flood back in July had left steep banks down to the water. I was not dressed for standing in water. I was afraid if I released the babies on land, they would fall down the cliff and land upside down on the narrow strip of land next to the creek. Turtles can’t breathe upside down (I’ve always heard), and I wasn’t sure they could right themselves. I felt the best course of action was to toss them gently into the water. Turtle #1 popped right up to the surface and swam with enthusiasm to the shore, seeking a shadowing spot to hide. Turtle #2 disappeared for a few minutes. I finally spotted it on the bottom. It perked up shortly and began walking underwater to the shore. Soon it apparently ran out of air and came to the surface.

Meanwhile, Jane had gotten a box from her garage and was scouring the neighborhood for nest mates. She found one in Lee’s yard and another in Lenore’s driveway. I joined the hunt, spotting one in the road in front of the house formerly known as Jane’s parents’. 

Three baby snapping turtles  in a box

I took the box and headed back for the spot where I released the first two. “It’s shorter if you go between Lenore’s and Steve’s houses. They won’t mind.”

It may have been closer, but it was really steep. The only way I could get anywhere near the water was to take my life in my hands and clamber down some rocks in front of a culvert. The water was faster there. I saw one turtle make it to the side and one float downstream. I lost track of the third one.

The emergency turtle rescue had put us off schedule for the afternoon. Seeing no more turtles, we went to lunch and on to our shopping. When we got back, there were six more baby turtles, but three of them had been run over in the road. We collected the remaining three, and I took them to the creek where I had taken the first two (much less treacherous for me!). They swam here and there, taking refuge in the roots at the edge of the water. It was sad that we were not able to rescue them all, but they should not have been playing in the street. We couldn’t spend all afternoon waiting for them to make and appearance.