Our Very Own Alligator

    On Thursday and Friday, Mom, Jessica, and Spencer spent nine hours laying black plastic and pine straw, a.k.a. pine needles, all around the front entrance to our neighborhood.  It is hot, tiring work, but we finished.  Being where we are, we don't get much traffic.  With three new houses being built, that traffic has increased somewhat but we thought something was a little fishy when cars and trucks started coming in and out, using the street as a turn around, and sometimes parking on the side of the road.  It's not summer, and there's no fireworks.  What was attracting all this attention?
   It turns out, one of the three alligators that inhabit our salt marsh was sunning itself within site of the nearby bridge and attracting lots of attention.  It was about ten feet long, rather prehistoric looking, and didn't move a muscle.  Our little maintenance crew went to see it and then Mom left Jessica and Spencer to continue working while she showed the rest of the kids the alligator.  It never moved, except to blink periodically.  Here's a picture of it:

Our beautiful, and bug filled, salt marsh.