Awwww no reson to be scared of most of the quakes. The little ones are fun. First comes the part that surpises you- the part where all the shaking happens suddenly. What you have to do is look and see which direction your stuff is sliding and get ready for the rolling part of the quake. I get in the doorway and orient myself in the direction the shaking just happened. Then you can ride the wave as the earth rolls under you. Thank goodness for the last quake because it fixed my door that was out of wack from the previous one. Hey, at least we don't have a regular season for them! If any of you haven't tried surfing a quake, you should because it's fun and takes the stress of it when you wake up at 3 am and the bed's shaking. My friend at work always woke up right before they hit and was sitting in the bathroom every time! The last one we had, I noticed the kitty looking around strangely and a few seconds later, the quake went by. We are on pretty firm groud here at the base of the santa ana mtn. chain so I feel pretty safe. I would like some rain so lets go turtles!

The turtles we most often see crossing the road here are red earred sliders, and usually it is females going to lay eggs. Also, due to the drought, and many are in roadside ditches, which are drying up and they are moving to find water. We see a lot of common snapping turtles too...but never any alligator snappers, which tend to live in deeper water, such as rivers.

Brian, that is a wonderful site on box turtles, I did see them there. There is a photo together of a 6 month ond a year old and a two year old. Three of these guys are a year old and the third could be and just has't got the yellow coloring yet since I had him inside this past month. Hard to believe they are so old for their size. I am planning on releasing them very soon. I hurt their habitant by pulling out weeds in the area I found them. I did have wild blackberries and was trying to get rid them too. It's hard to get rid of that so at least it is coming back, I already did have a tomato plant and some parsely and my blackberry plants there. I've added several strawberry plants, another tomato plant (as I have found they love them). I'm reading on the site about foods they like and would like any suggestions for plant life they eat. I am going to dig out some holes for them, add more leaf matter and some logs for shelter and a shallow body of water ( will keep it clean). Any other suggestions would be appreciated. I think tomorrow mornning will be their day. Dirtgirl, I think you are right. The musk turtle/stinkpot seems to describe them well. I found them in my garden pond and am sure I must have seen an adult once. Actually only the head of it, and it was very different than my sliders. She came to my pond on her and must have liked it. I found these two guys in one of my bog areas. I guess I will have to put up the 'leaf' net early this year so I can privide them protection. Thanks everyone for helping me to understand by your info and sites you sent me to. Education is the way to understanding. For these two types of turtles anyway I see they really need to grow up in their own enviroment. The yellow sliders though did great and are living happily in my pond. It only took a couple of months to get them to the size they could have a chance at life on their own.

Yellowbelly Slider, Trachemys scripta scripta Also, your "Garter Snake" is actually a thin Yellow Rat Snake, Elaphe obsoleta quadrivittata.