The Circle of Life

One of the things I love about our home are the toads that come back every year. Lately I've noticed these two...they are inseparable. Maybe they will create a new crop of toads :)

Chillin

We've got three young squirrels that live in one of our pecan trees in the back yard. Rather than fighting with them, I gave them a section of the wild garden bed to create wallows in so they can keep cool. They took over our fern too.

First Toad

It's started warming up enough to begin clearing some of the leaves out of the beds. I lifted up an overturned pot in one of the shady beds and found what looks like Jim Jimminy (Jason's toad) hanging out under there. Last year we didn't see any toads till mid April, but I wasn't digging around quite as much.

New Momma

I finished planting our vegetable-herb-flower garden yesterday evening...three hours before it started hailing. I was sitting inside trying to talk myself out of being one of those gardeners who runs out to cover everything up. I felt a little twisted up. I had a taste of the dark side of gardening...the truly obsessive side that wants to keep all the tender little babies unscathed.

After it was over, I went outside (to take the pot cover off the ONE plant I new would not make it) to check out the damage. It wasn't bad. On my way back inside, I noticed a toad taking a dip in our little pond!

This morning, Jason called us all outside to look at this beautiful (and very cold) moth.

Hopefully it will have flown away when I get home.

New Plot

I've been watching how the sun settles on the backyard garden plot and realized that we needed a sunnier spot for the vegetables...the current bed will now be mostly for herbs and wildflowers. Next to the workshop is a wild rosebush and a stand of bearded irises that have probably been there as long as I've been alive. They are becoming the centerpieces for the new vegetable garden. I dug up a shovel full of dirt to see how fertile it was and four worms fell out!

I'm about to head back out to make the last push...I've been tilling it (mostly by crumbling the shovel full with my hands) with much care for the THOUSANDS of earthworms that are living there. I've been told that this plot has been a vegetable garden in the past.

My one new piece of wisdom about all of this is: when putting on sunscreen, cover EVERYTHING... not just what can be easily reached.

Childish Things

We bought a beautiful 16 inch wide ceramic bowl at our local home improvement store over the weekend after Tillie and I made the tiny toad wading pool in the front garden. I was able to spend the morning creating our backyard toad pool. My inner six year old is LOVING this. I used to make toad condos with pools and moss beds when I was a lassie and I see Tillie doing the same thing at six. I love that this particular flavor of strangeness is not necessarily genetic :)

The evenings this week will be hovering in the sixties so we should start seeing the toads coming out...and taking a dip.

The Little Things We Do

It's almost time for the toads to come out of their burrows! I went to visit the Wildscaper Lady at K&K Nursery and she gave me some great insight into keeping the toads happy (as well as MANY OTHER WONDERFUL THINGS). Unfortunately we are not ready to create a full-on habitat where the toads can lay eggs and what not...so I made a little wading pool so they can at least take a dip. Tillie did some decorating. She's excited too.

Kitty T.V.

The window that looks out into our backyard is our cat's favorite hangout spot...because of all the birds. Jason recently picked up an Oklahoma bird field guide which stays on the dining room table near the window so we can look up all the birds that frequent the bird feeder that we liberated from the curb in front of someone's house last fall.

At one point I identified eight different bird species hanging out all at the same time: European Starlings, Common Grackles, Mourning Doves, Dark-Eyed Junkos, a Downy Woodpecker and a Red-Bellied Woodpecker, a House Finch, House Sparrows and Cardinals. There must have been over forty birds out there!

We just bought some suet for the woodpeckers and added a new type of seed mixture to keep everyone happy (including the cat).

Big Snow

We've had a REAL winter here in Oklahoma...during this last snow we all decided to take an evening walk to the park a few blocks from our house. Jesse and Tillie spotted this unusual work of art and got a real kick out of it.

Christmas

A blizzard put a wrench in Christmas Eve plans. Fortunately Jason's mom came into town the previous day...we hunkered down and made the best of it.



It hasn't snowed like this since I was a kid.

This may be the last year we put out cookies for Santa...until we have a new batch of young ones.

Settling in

As of today we've been in our home for six months. We are all settling in nicely.

Halloween

When I was a kid, my favorite part of Halloween was helping make my costume. Jesse and Tillie weren't sure what to think when I let them know that we'd be continuing this tradition...they were accustomed to 'buying off the rack'. After it was all said and done, however, they were converted to the custom costume way.

Our Nighttime Visitor

Jason, the kids and I enjoy spending some time outside after dark...our budding garden is a whole different world when the sun goes down. Last night I saw a camel cricket eating one of the many tiny mushrooms that pop up in the plot and we are getting a sense of the territories of each of the toads...now there are four. Their names are: Black Jack, Jackson Robot, Jim Jimminy and Ramona Mona. This frog (Jim Jimminy) spends his evenings near the garden in front of the grate that goes underneath the house. It seems to be working for him...he's getting plump.

Click here to see a gallery of frogs native to Oklahoma.

A New Order

We put the crown molding up in the living room at last. Everything (save for one box of randomness) has its place in the kitchen. All the books are unpacked and are finding their nooks. Most of the clothes are either bagged up to donate or resting in their proper places. The workshop is beginning to reveal itself now that the boxes are thinning out.

So, while Jason and I were tending to all these things, Jesse and Tillie thought they would do some decorating of there own...by covering no less than fifty feet of sidewalk, from the workshop door in the back yard and up to the front of the house. We took them out for ice cream for a job well done.

Our first drop-in guest...literally

One of the tasks that Jason has been working on is thoroughly washing all the windows...he must have washed them so well that this bird didn't notice any obstruction. He (the bird) hit the bathroom window while I was in brushing my teeth. When I made it out, I swear I could see stars swirling over this poor bird's head...which made it easy prey for the gang of prowling cats in the neighborhood. So, he hung out with me until his senses returned...then flew away.

Click here to go to the Oklahoma bird field guide to see pictures and hear calls of birds in various parts of Oklahoma (and the country).