taralynna.......those are beautiful fish. They sure do look like they have some Koi in them...maybe Butterfly Koi. I have a little guy that I picked up a while back. When I got him, I thought I was buying a Koi, due to the barbells and his shape. But he was a solid golden brown, the reason why I chose it. I am always looking for the rare colors. Now I am starting to wonder what type of fish I got, because his body is becoming very fat, more so than that of a female. Seems like he is a mix of koi and goldfish maybe. But yours look skinny enough to be koi. My guess is they are Butterfly Koi, maybe with some goldfish mix. But they sure do resemble my Butterflies. Amanda

That's a scary thought. I'd probably get rid of it. I know turtles lay eggs in the sand for the most part, and most of them have oval shaped eggs (same with some snakes), that looks completely round. It could also be a lizard egg. Remember that not all eggs are fertilized though. It could be a dud. If you pick it up, and cup it in your hand in a dark room and shine a flasklight under it (don't touch or heat up the egg), you might see what is growing inside of it, or at least a dark or red spot where the embryo is.

Cool photos! I have assassin bugs, but didn't know that's what they were. The eggs are a real treasure. Hope you have a child to share them with. We are short on tortoises this year, but really long on frogs...no doubt a result of our record rainfall. Speaking of which, it's only supposed to rain twice this week. Once for three days, the other for four.

Krista, I already had had a lot of encounters with snakes in trees before I saw one up on a tomato cage and also up in a tall tomato plant, so I was sort of prepared for it---though there is no way to describe what was going through my mind when I looked at a tomato plant and saw snakes eyes staring right back at me. There is a Murphy's Law specifically for snakes and guns and it goes like this: If you carry a gun with you, you will not encounter a venomous snake, but if you leave your gun in the house, you certainly will see a snake and wish you had your gun. I've learned to call someone to come shoot it and I know my job is to not take my eyes off that snake and let it get away. (It is embarrassing if a friend comes over to shoot the huge, venomous snake you just saw and you've let the snake get away because you turned your head for only a second.) About 98% of the timber rattlers I've seen are not the black phase ones--they are the standard ones with their background color varying from tan to almost a pale yellow fading to white, and then their marking are black. Around here, folks call them "velvettails" because their rattles have a velvety black outer layer. Usually the ones I see are 3-4' long, but I've seen two that were around 5' long and one that was about 6' long. By the time they have grown to be 5-6', they are very big around and are a horrible sight. It was a black phase one that bit Duke on the bridge of his nose about 6 years ago, and to this day anything tubular and black (a water hose, for example) scares him. He also remembers the exact spot where he was bitten and for several years afterwards would walk around that area, not through it, when we were out walking and got close to that location. Carol, I'm glad that your son's dog made it. I don't know why the snakes are so bad this year, but they surely are all over the place. Kim, I love lizards and toads and we have both in the gardens, but snakes will eat them, so keep that in mind. If you have something around that snakes will eat, sooner or later the snakes will show up looking for it. Amy, That is horrible and there would have been a time when I would have thought that couldn't happen. I know better now. One of the guys who works with my husband was taking a shower one day and one came up through the drain thing in the floor of the shower. He was quick and grabbed his cell phone and took a photo of it. It was so creepy. Bon, Eventually you'll encounter a snake you will wish you hadn't seen. I am stunned at how many we are seeing this year. We see snakes all the time....in the woods, in the pastures, in the roads, etc. and have a fair number of them in the yard and garden. This year, though, we are having tons of them in the yard and garden and even have had one in the garage. This is our 16th year here and the first time we've ever seen one in the garage. Long ago one of my neighbors mentioned to me that once he had one come slithering out of his vehicle's A/C vent while he was driving up the road. To this day, I cannot look at an air conditioning vent in the car without thinking of a snake slithering out of it. I kinda wish he'd never told me that story. We used bird netting with very small squares to try to keep the snakes out of Maddie's little Peter Rabbit Garden, and it worked but not the way we intended. We thought it would keep them from entering the garden. It sort of did, but it wasn't that they reached that mesh and turned away. Oh no, that would be too simple---I think they must not have been able to see the mesh or something and they'd try to squeeze through it and would get stuck and there we would be with either a live or dead snake stuck in the bird netting. It was not a pretty sight. Dawn