The toads arrived today!

I was so excited when I received a call today that my friends had caught some toads for me.  I built the toad house two weeks ago.  Dale has a couple of lawns that he mows that usually have a lot of toads.  But since I've wanted some, he hasn't seen any.  

Toad travel house

The larger toad was a female toad.  When she was put down, she went strait across the garden.  She needed to be picked up and put into the house so that she would see it as a safe place.

She toad

  With more than one toad, I added another section of bricks onto the house.  I wanted to make sure that they had room inside.  I've also noticed a cat hanging around the garden lately.  With the longer house, the toads can now hide safely out of paw reach.

Extended toad house

When the toads were dropped off, I noticed that the water in the "pond" was low.  So I walked back out to add more water.  I almost stepped on him.  He was in the lawn between the dog yard fence and the garden.  She was in the grass behind the house hopping away from the house.  I got in front of her and she high-hopped it to the house door.  I stopped and allowed them to feel safety when they got near the house.  

He takes a dip in the pond while she heads to the house.

The lawn and garden is full of bugs.  So I hope that there is enough around to keep the toads nearby.  Today is day 76 of 160 for the cotton plants.  They are growing well outside.  We've been getting rain a couple of times a week which is perfect for the plants.  It looks like I've lost two so far.  They had started out as the smaller plants when I planted them outside.  It didn't surprise me when they didn't make it.  When people hear that I'm growing cotton they all have the same reaction.  "Isn't that normally grown down South in the heat?"  That doesn't mean impossible in Minnesota.  It just means challenging.

The cotton plants are growing!