Monthly Archives: January 2024

Here in Portland we’ve been iced in for days. The frog tank outside, though thickly insulated, looks like a giant block of ice now. Here’s a little movie from last spring as a reminder of why anyone would want to do all this. It’s eighteen seconds long. It’ll melt your heart. Actually I don’t know it’s possible to post a video on this blog. I’ll check to see if it’s working and if it’s not I’ll have to figure it out and get back to you.

Here’s what it looked like last night when I got through with it. Lit by lantern from below.

First I removed the original white tarp. The iron grate lid was frozen on and I didn’t dare try to pry it off. (Aquariums — you’re not supposed to torque them in any way. That’s how they spring leaks.) So then I poured boiled water down through the grate, into the middle of the ice surface. It landed first on the plastic jug, which was frozen into the middle of the surface, and spilled down around it from there. I was careful not to pour it near the glass, but some drops that were bouncing off the jug probably did land on it. I did hear a pop or two, which makes me nervous — I hope that was the ice breaking and not the glass, or one of the silicone seams.

Anyway, this melted a fairly large area in the middle of the surface. I lost my nerve at about the same time I ran out of hot water. Heroic Linda brought out our recently retired bedspread. We put the white tarp back on first, and then the purple cloth one. Now there are several layers of material over the tank.

It’s been well below freezing all day. Right now we’re getting a heavy dose of sleet, which they’re calling an ice storm. Snow is predicted for several hours during the night. They say we’ll be encased in ice by early morning.

I’m still not sure exactly where frogs hibernate, but it can’t be underwater! I’ve read that they burrow under leaves and mud. But I don’t know how any frogs can live through this this kind of cold — how could their tissues not freeze to solid ice, and burst? But… presumably they know what to do. It snows and freezes copiously all winter up on Mt. Hood, and every spring Frog Lake is full of frogs again.

Well, here’s what it looked like today:

I can’t really tell how thick the layer of ice is, because of that snow layer on top. The snow layer is only at one end of it though, obviously because I left it uncovered.

I took this picture through the open end, showing the ice beyond it — bare, not snow-covered. It looks….. thick. Thick enough for frogs to safely ice skate on, if they did that. The empty plastic jug I put in there to absorb the pressure of the ice freezing? It doesn’t look squished at all, at least from this angle. So now I’m really worried that instead of the ice squishing the jug, it is slowly breaking the glass. To top it off (literally), tonight there’s supposed to be an “ice storm” which will leave a 3/4-inch layer of ice over everything. This is freaky weather and no one is prepared for it — that’s my big fat excuse for letting this happen. Now that there’s a solid layer of ice across the top, the ice below it will continue to freeze and having nowhere to expand to, will burst the tank open.

I can’t stand it. I’m going out there. It’s ten to nine. Why didn’t I do this earlier? I thought of it, but… it was too cold. Now it’s colder. I don’t care. I’m going out there with hot water and melt it carefully from the center out. Then I’ll remove the ice. That way, at least the ice forming will have to start all over.

It’s 21 degrees and dark. Am I flipping crazy?

Hi Everyone. Thanks so much for attending my presentation a couple of weeks ago on “Creating Habitat for the Pacific Tree Frog in Your Garden.” The post on Friends of Backyard Habitats got 597 likes and dozens of comments. Mind blown! I’ll definitely be doing it again in the early spring.

Meanwhile, in case you missed it, there’s this blogger I know of: Me. I will be dribbling out all the information right here — and by dribbling, I mean gradually, bit by bit, so that you can take it in over time for better digestion. In addition, you can send in your questions. I strive to keep my posts brief, frequent, and witty. One pithy tip per post, so that you don’t feel overloaded. 

Here’s today’s:

I have so much to catch you up on. In case you haven’t noticed, we just had a snowstorm. Since I knew it was coming, I took the water level in my frog tank down to about a fourth and wrapped the whole tank in a tarp — hoping to protect it from freezing. 

I left one end open because every spring when I’m taking out most of the muck, I find a new froggie under the water, in that same corner. I don’t think they hibernate underwater, but apparently they come for a swim now and then. I didn’t want to accidentally trap someone in there for weeks till I take this tarp off.

It never gets this cold here in Portland Oregon, especially for this long. But now it has. In the last couple of days we’ve seen 16 degrees F. I’m not going out there. But from my window I can clearly see a layer of ice at the water’s surface. It’ll be a miracle if the tank doesn’t incur a leak or crack from the force of the expanding ice. 

What MIGHT save it is that I put an empty gallon jug in there. I did this last time it froze and it worked. The empty bottle, capped, gets squished in as ice forms — thereby giving the ice something to do besides expand outward and crack the glass of the tank, or bust the silicone seams at the corners. My own idea. I felt like a genius. This time it’s a lot colder. If it doesn’t work, I’ll feel like a dope.