I undid a bunch of hard work today, and almost cried. Let me share:
About four months ago, there was a great feature in Faith &Family Magazine about how to construct your own toad habitat. Toads are great to have hanging around gardens, because they eat slugs and other pesky critters that destroy your crop. All you need to do is partially bury a terracotta pot that's turned on it's side, fill it with dirt and grass or leaves, and make sure there is water nearby.
It sounded like a great project that Thomas would really love, so i tore out the article and pasted it in the May section of my planner so that i'd have instructions in hand when the right season came to undertake such projects.
May came, and with it, the construction of our very own toad habitat. We dug the pot out of our shed. Shovels in hand, Thomas, Rosemarie (in sling), and I trotted out to our garden and situated our toad habitat. Thomas enjoyed the digging and filling and leaf-picking, excited blue eyeballs popping out of his head when he told daddy the story of how we'd watch day to day to see if any leaves were moved, evidencing the success of our endeavor.
And they came. Cute little warty toads that would tease Thomas by hopping just out of reach when he'd toddle toward them, attempting to pick them up out of our garden beds with his chubby hands.
But there has been a casualty.
Fulfilling my life-long fantasy of being a country wife who hangs her laundry out on the lines on cool summer mornings, infant and toddler happily napping in the house, nut-brown locks of hair blowing in the wind all the while, i thought nothing could be more perfect than a morning like we had today.
That is, until i felt my right foot slip on something green and warty when i was headed back into the house.
With all this wildlife out here at Providence Cottage, there are bound to be some unintentional casualties... right?
5 comments:
That's really terrible and rather amusing all at the same time. Rest assured that the toad is in a better place now, with all of the terracotta pots imaginable.
We've got toads coming out our ears. Come get a bucketfull any time.
Kevin
Kevin,
Literally?
That's gross.
At least it was light out. The one thing that is supremely disturbing, working on a farm is stepping on a squishy in the dark, because then you have to wait to get to the house to figure out what it is!! I'm sure you have them, but one great thing that I invested in were a pair of wal-mart "crocs"...I kept them by the back door and I'd just slip them on when it was time to feed the chickies or pick veg for dinner...plus mine were a fashionable purple, so I'd slip them on when I was running late for Mass...better than flip flops because they hide garden dirtied toes!!!
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