Every year at least one snapping turtle appears here on the farm and Charlotte the Bouvier tells us about it! The first year we lived here a huge 3 legged turtle turned up on the lawn. A guest spotted an even bigger one in the creek another year. Two years ago a young turtle came and laid eggs right at the edge of the bridge which leads to our farm. The next evening the nest was demolished, most likely by raccoons.

Myrtle returned for five successive days, each time trying to find the perfect spot to lay her eggs. We were careful to keep the dog away from her. Eventually Myrtle lay her eggs smack in the middle of our driveway - not a very wise location!

That first night we placed the mower wagon over the nest so that it would be safe from predators.

Myrtle was smarter than you might have guessed because she chose our home! It so happens that our daughter does research on turtles. We asked her to drive over the next day and re-bury the nest in a more convenient spot. She suggested a location near the pond in full sun, visible from our dining room windows.

Her next task was finding the exact location of the eggs. There were two small mounds of gravel with a tail mark between them. In front of that was the very hard spot where Myrtle had covered her eggs. Slowly and gently DD used her fingers to scoop the compacted gravel away.

After a few minutes, there below we could see the eggs!

Myrtle was long gone, so she was not distressed by our robbing of the cradle. DD placed the soft eggs in a container with the sandy nesting material from our driveway. She made me guess how many eggs there would be. I guessed 10. She guessed 33. It turned out that there were 42!

Charlotte and Indy were all excited and very helpful, getting their noses into everything. I was sent off to the barn to gather supplies: rocks, chicken wire, shovel, pliers and wire. DH dug the new hole. DD shaped a chicken wire cylinder and "stitched" it together with wire. She opened one end outwards, forming a cage shaped like a "top hat".

Next the eggs were gently placed in at the bottom of the hole. Soil was placed around the eggs so that it looked like a small volcano.

Then the cage was placed over it and the rocks were placed firmly on the brim of the "top hat" to hold it in place. More soil was added to replace the grass roots which we had removed. Then the whole area was filled, raked over and firmed down. A pink marker was inserted to remind us of the exact location of the nest - and rocks added so that no one would mow over the nest. DD got a bucket of water to help settle the earth. She now feels the nest will be safe because in the first week there were no attempts to dig it up.

And now we wait. It is hard to guess if the babies will make it because so much depends on weather and predators. Normally in her research DD would have inserted a temperature probe in such a nest, but she had no extras to spare. She told us what to expect from our foundlings. If it is a hot summer, hatching should happen in about two months, which means sometime in September. If it is cool, no hatching will occur at all. There was only one egg that hadn't started to develop when we re-buried them and that was likely infertile. About 1 out of 2,000 eggs reaches adulthood. About 90-95% get predated. Roughly one out of 25-30 hatchlings that successfully crawl to the water - to our pond - will make it to adulthood.

Chelone 'Hot Lips' is a late summer bloomer with handsome dark green foliage. It blooms in part shade in our moist garden. Spikes of hot pink flowers emerge from a nice shiny mound of leaves. It grows in zone 3 and higher, to a height of 24 to 30 inches. Because of the shape of the individual flowers, this plant is commonly known as TURTLEHEAD.