Weave, he's wonderful! What a cool frog and perfect paint job. The lily is gorgeous. Lucky, I use acrylic craft paint on nearly everything. If it is outside stuff, then I use the Krylon sealer. I do three of four coats. But a gal who has a stepping stone company told me she paints her outdoor stuff with regular exterior house paint. Says no need for any sealing, and she mostly buys from the "ooops" shelf. hugs, Karen

I know this post is old, but I wanted to inject more than I said earlier. I've learned to hardly use a deicer at all, and not a big one. It's only to let a small hole open to allow gases to come out. I believe when I had all those frogs dye, it was because I used the large deicer way too much and they probably went in and out of hibernation too often. I've learned my lesson and keep the pump running absolutely as long as I can (without it freezing), and only use the deicer to keep a small hole open. And, of course, I always have a lot of leaves and muck in the bottom for them to get comfy in.

I used to pick up my bullfrogs when they were in the pond by scooping them up from underneath. They would stay on my hand out of the water as long as I didn't move my hand around too much. They don't like me reaching for them from the front or back though as I think they see that as a threatening posture. But, if you can get close to them on the side of the pond, maybe while you are bending or crouching down, try the under the water hand slide move and see if they wil left you lift them out of the water. The more you toss food to them the more they like you. I used to feed my frogs lots of crickets and some became quite the beggers. I would keep the crickets in one of those plastic hermit crab cages and set it next to my chair between tossing them out. The frogs would all gather round and some would get impatient and come up and try to grab at them through the plastic cage. When I had six big bullfrogs they could eat 100 crickets in about 10 or 20 minutes. Some of the crickets would make their escape only to come back on their own at various times to be caught.

Hi Lisa, Frogs and toads come and go without rhyme or reason. Try not to take it personally. ;) Just keep doing what you're doing and they'll be back....if only for a short time. What kind of pond do you have? Do you have lots of cover around for them? Do you have snakes? Sometimes there's just a normal variation in nature. I, too, haven't had as many green frogs as usual, but next year will probably be better.