My friend, Eileen, has graciously allowed me to post her story about the turtle in her back pasture. I was unable to copy the pictures, but the story is still rather amazing.

Mother Turtle  
Holly, our miniature pinscher, and I hadn’t gone for a walk lately, but I didn’t want to take time to drive her into town to go for a walk. I decided to take her for a quick walk in the pasture behind the house.
  
We walked around the dried up pond in the pasture, and Holly got excited as we climbed the embankment west of the house. There was an 8”-10” red ear slider turtle sitting there. Holly wanted to attack it, but I realized it was probably laying eggs.

I dragged Holly in the house, against her will and came back with my camera. The turtle was so intent on her task, she ignored me and my camera.

I noticed the turtle was digging in moist soil, but the ground is very dry, due to lack of rain. She must have carried the water in her body and released it to moisten the soil.

I watched as she completed digging a hole, about an inch across and as deep as she could reach, about four to five inches. She reached her back right foot into the hole and brought up a handful of dirt, about a teaspoonful. Then she stretched her left foot into the hole and brought up another handful of dirt. She continued patiently digging until the hole was deep enough, when she could dig no deeper.
She laid a grape tomato sized egg and pushed it to the bottom of the hole. After a few seconds, she laid another egg. I watched her lay about 5 eggs and then cover them with soil she’d dug out of the hole.

I marked the site with a broken brick. The eggs should hatch in 60-90 days.

The more I see of God’s creation, the more I’m in awe of His work and attention to detail.