Leech Bite

I (R) was swimming in the dam on Saturday, and I felt stuff like leeches, it felt like stuff was swimming around my leg, but it was just the water. Then I came to the edge and I felt something like a leech again, except this time it felt more like a leech, because it was slimy. And then I felt down with my hand and it WAS a real leech! We were going to use the salt to get it off but as soon as I got out of the dam I flicked it off near the dam and then it squiggled as much as it could. We've never used the salt for leeches. No one else wanted to go in the dam for the rest of the day, so I wasn't allowed to go in either!

Big Spider

We've got a cockatoo named Cocky. He says a few words. Today there was a big huge spider in his cage. I don't know what kind of spider it was. It looked like a big huntsman with longer legs and less hairy, and a bigger bottom. By J. (11)

Leeches. Everything R knows about leeches.

They can stretch and be really long and thin, and they can squash up and look really fat. They like burying themselves in the mud, and they have two suckers- one at each end. There are lots in one of our dams, and you wouldn't want to get sucked by one! They have a black stripe, and two grey stripes- the black one is in the middle and the grey ones are at the sides. They are very nasty, when it was the season when the tadpoles would hatch, the leeches would suck them up really quickly. It's sucker would be near the tadpole and then if you kept watching, suddenly the tadpole would be gone! We have small and tiny ones, and really big ones. Once J got sucked by one, and he was so scared, he didn't want to swim in the dam for the rest of the day, he just sat sweating and really hot!

Nature Log- why the name?

Our 4yods has what he calls a "nature log". Each day we go for a walk around our property, and he insists on looking into his nature log. It's actually a hollow stump of an old gum tree. It has been eaten away by ants or termites. Inside his nature log are cobwebs, ants, leaves, and sometimes one of his older siblings will put something in it too! Dd 8 put in a bone from a kangaroo the other day.

Anyway, since this will be a log, or journal of our family's nature studies, I thought "Nature Log" was appropriate. Hopefully I'll get around to taking a photo of the nature log in person, and posting it here.