We were heading to Kinder yesterday to meet the family for the Resurrection Sunday meal when something made me stop in my tracks on the driveway. Tricia asked what I was doing as I got out of the car. Look what was in the driveway in the middle of the yard.
A snapping turtle! We recently had 4 inches of rain and the surrounding rice fields and crawfish ponds are good environments for the turtles. I guess this one was out moving around and decided to come visit. Turtle soup? We didn't have time. I picked him up by the tail to move him into a big bucket. He was heavy and fat!
When I was farming in Oberlin, we would catch a bunch of them when we were water leveling rice fields. They were easy to spot, swimming in the muddy water. We'd get out of the tractor with our boots and wade out and catch them. I kept the ones that were big enough and would bring them back to the tractor where they would ride with me in the cab until lunch. You might not know it, but turtles stink! As they get bigger, they let out a musk smell that is atrocious! You want to stay far away from that, trust me.
My Dad would bring the turtles we caught to his cousin, named Blanc. Blanc would clean the turtles and make a turtle gravy over rice. We'd go over when we knocked off for lunch and eat a big turtle feast. While not entirely appetizing to look down in the pot and see turtle claws, turtle meat itself is delicious!
This afternoon when I got in from work, I decided to go ahead and let this snapping turtle go. I picked him up and walked him down to the ditch and set him free.
I kept my distance from his opened mouth. That beak he has is sharp and his jaws are powerful. I bet he could snap off a finger, but I'm not going to test out that theory. Old-timers say that once they clamp down, they won't let go until thunder rolls. I'm not going to test the validity of that either. This turtle wasn't all that big. If I catch a bigger one, then we'd probably eat him.
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