Turtle Hunt

 So Walter, the turtle, has been missing.   It's been about a week since we last saw him lumbering through the grass.  I just figured he'd come out of hiding one of these days.  He can't get out of the yard...I don't think he can get out of the yard.  I hope he can't get out of the yard!

As the days came and went with no sign of Walter I started to get worried.   Surely he must be getting hungry...probably not.  He in a turtle "garden of Eden".    Maybe lonely...probably not...he's a turtle.
Anyway I just wanted to know he was okay.

I decided he was probably just under one of the over-grown bushes...so I'd just do a quick prune job around the base of the bushes and find my turtle.

I pruned and cleaned out five years worth of dead leaves  out from under four bushes...no turtle.
So I decided to just thin out the Ivy... just a little bit.

Now our ivy has grown surprisingly well for being planted in Vegas.  It's turned into a massive tangle vines and impenetrable branches.  By now I'm getting really nervous...what if Walter is caught in a tangle of branches and vines,  starving and suffering a slow and miserable death.   With those thoughts I tear into my beautiful ivy with my pruners  and no mercy.  I'm pulling it up as fast as I can, clipping as I go... searching for my poor suffering turtle.

I rip out 2/3 of my ivy in search of Walter...and there is no turtle.

( but I did find several Easter eggs from years gone by.)  

 I go through the scraggly vines that are left again...no turtle.

WHERE IS MY TURTLE!

I'm now in hour 3 of my 45-minute project.  I scan the yard again looking for any vegetation left that could hide a turtle.  There at the base of the birdhouses by bush #2 is a small patch of ivy that I kind of skipped over in my hurry to get to the thicker growth where I was sure Walter was hiding.
Going back to this spot I clip out a few lengths of ivy.  THERE IS Walter!   Burrowed in a pile of leaves.

I feel like a mother that has just been united with a lost child in a department store.

I reward Walter with a fresh tomato and a strawberry...his favorites.

Now I  face the impossible task of packing all those vines in to two garbage cans.
...and convincing Karl that the ivy really did  need to be cleaned out...and that it will grow back :)

So goes my Tuesday.
Now...where are my pruners?  I can't find them anywhere.