"OH, THAT'S what all the croakin' is about"

 "OH, so that's what all the croakin' was about" replied my son as he walked by the small 6'x4'x4' pond in front of the little red house and observed the tiny "polyfrogs"( as we call them at our house) swimming around.  The masses of eggs that are laid and fertilized in the pond were just hatching and the little polyfrogs were thick as flies on a cow-pie.  Every summer we have an abundance of toads that are grown and released into the gardens.

They grow tiny hind legs first, followed by the front legs breaking through the skin

 just a few days later.  

When all four legs are present the tail begins to shrink.  They spend most of the day out of the water

sunning themselves on the mossy rocks. 

This Kestrel Hawk is eating his fill of the tiny toads.  I have also seen the big beautiful Red-Tailed Hawk and other species enjoying a snack.  It is the natural cycle of the food chain and by the time the toads are mature, there are still hundreds left to  place all over the gardens.  

I use the lids off old garbage cans, half buried as mini ponds strategically placed through-out

 the gardens.

The toads are transferred to the mini ponds and hopefully find their way to a new home, burying themselves in the cool dirt under the vegetables, and finding plenty of bugs to eat.

 When we get the early summer rains, the old irrigation pond at the edge of the farm fills with water and the croakin' starts all over again.

A Front Porch

My front porch,

a gathering place......

a brass and crystal chandelier dangling from the eves,
  catching the suns rays

casting rainbow prisms on the wall

 an old hand crafted bench seat  placed along the edge
 filled with potted geraniums
bees and butterflies softly landing on their delicate petals
an antique overstuffed love seat

to sit in and read the works of Emily Dickinson, Tennyson,

or Culpepper's Complete Herbal.

An outdoor room
 to set up my easel and paint the flowers

and herbs blooming along the rock pathway
 wind chimes made from oddities, bits and pieces of broken glass,
old hand forged nails, shards of broken plates, and other treasures found
in the yard of our 100 year old solid rock home
 are hanging from the posts
their sound of days long gone drift on the breeze.
Long talks, or comfortable silence
fill the twilight hours
as we watch the night quietly creep in
 the dark shadows
hide the toads
as they search for bugs
and make their way to the small pond I have built for them
I sit still on my porch and enjoy the
cycle of a summer's day.

Farm Babies

Western King bird or as we call it around here

Fly Catcher

This mama was carrying her brood around on her back

 when my son discovered her and scooped them up and put them in the jar

(just long enough to show me and then I made him promptly let them go---far, far away....)

A young fledgling dove that was raised over head of my sun room office

newly hatched chicks--odds are they will all be cockerels

(my babies now all grown and flown the coop)

robins

first steps

horned toad

adorable baby cotton tail rabbit-----until they start munching the lettuce and beans---

then they aren't "so cute"

a new batch of "Poly-frogs" as we call them here at the farm

sunning themselves on a rock

the toads are raised in the small pond at the little red house and then transferred

to the greenhouses and gardens

Recycling Old Cement Sidewalks

The front steps to the little red house are old pieces of cement we found on the farm when we first purchased it.    They measure about 3 feet by 4 feet and 6 inches thick.  Good ole (Handsome Man)  loaded them from the west 40 acre section into the back of the truck and then hauled them into place at the front door using a car dolly.


 

front steps to the little red house with the bright yellow door



butterfly watering rocks are stragtically placed by the front door for easy access
 to fill up the cavities with water
lizards, toads and dragonflys' also use the rocks

 

 

 

 

a walk way to the east gardens using broken pieces of old sidewalks

plant low creeping herbs inbetween the broken pieces

the herbs will hold up well to foot traffic and smell wonderful as you tread upon them

try using mints or thyme

 

 

 

use them to make a large patio or driveway

 

 

a large patio at the side of the sun room of my little red house

the large 6 inch thick pieces in the fore-ground are placed a step above the patio,

 this allow for extra seating and the path leads

 to the gate into the backyard 

 

 

 

                                         make retaining walls, benches, and flower planters

I don't recomend them for vegetable raised beds, not worth

 the risk of chemicals leaching into the soil

ruined the car dolly trying to move these extra large pieces

 

What have you used old side-walk cement for?