WATFORD CITY, N.D. — I know nobody’s wondering, but the frog crop at the ranch is hopping these days. A thunderstorm every day will do that to this landscape.

From the window of our kitchen, I can see the stock dam, and when that window’s open in the evening, the croaks those little frogs are croaking fill the air with the sound of sweet summer nostalgia.

Needless to say, the little girls in this place are thrilled about this development in the frog department, because finally there is something in that stock dam to catch (because, no matter how they tried to imagine and finagle it this spring, there are still no fish there).

There is a sort of art to catching frogs that I tried to master myself growing up out here next to the creek. You must be quiet and quick and confident, and none

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