Showing posts with label toads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toads. Show all posts

5/7/12

Our New Friend

Over the last few weeks, we have had a visitor to our pond--luckily, it wasn't the Great Blue Heron this time around! I think our koi are too big for it to comfortably eat one.

It was this little fellow.
Herbert
It's actually a toad (bumpy, rough skin). Hubby and Kidlet were outside by the fire when he started up. He allowed them to pick him up, place him on the rock and didn't seem to mind the flashlight shining on him! This picture was taken the night of the super moon--which I slept through--and I slept through Herbert's chorus of "I wanta girl. Not just a girl. But a girl like Mom". I was sick (cold, upper respiratory gunk) and tired (I had gotten up at 3:30 that day to take the kidlet to a swim meet in OKC)!

Trust me, sleeping through Herbert's chorus is fairly remarkable because for such a little guy, he's very, very loud! Size-wise, he's probably about 2-inches long, head to rump. Our bedroom window is around the corner and we can clearly hear him every night.

Though he's noisy, I don't mind him. I actually like frogs, toads and lizards, because they eat bugs. And with the pond and garden, we have lots and lots of bugs!

Enjoy Herbert's chorus . . . you might want to turn the volume down though.

Oh, the added, "ribbit, ribbit" is from the hubby 'encouraging him to sing', and my kidlet is mumbling in the background.

Later, Peeps!

8/9/11

We had RAIN!!

We had rain last night. In fact, two nights ago we had rain, too. Does this mean our drought's ended? Nope. Not by a long shot. Just yesterday volunteer firemen were trying to put out numerous wild fires that had started west of Tulsa. Four towns had to be evacuated--it was that bad.

But we had rain.

When we have rain, I have to check the pool skimmers because the neighbor's willow trees poop in my pool when the wind comes from the west, which is 90% of the time. And on a sad note, I found a dead toad.


I happen to like toads. I like them better than frogs. Toad have rough, pebbly skin on their backs with a soft white underbelly . . . and yes, they like to pee on you, but not this guy. He was dead.

I can only assume Mr. Toad was out in the rain dancing nekkid along with the rest of us when he was blinded by a flash of lightning and fell in the pool. Toads can't swim, so it was only a matter of time before the current dragged him into the skimmer where he spun around and around and around until he drowned. Poor Mr. Toad.

On a lighter note, a few years ago after a big rain and I was cleaning out the skimmers, I saw something dark on the Kreepy Krauly hose. Kreepy is constantly running in our pool vacuuming up the leaves and stuff that falls to the bottom of the pool.
Anyhoo, the hose vibrates as Kreepy crawls along the bottom and sides of the pool. And guess, who was a passenger?
Yep, this little guy.

Poor thing was stunned. No telling how long he'd been sitting on that thing. Imagine sitting in one of those massage chairs for hours and hours. So I captured him and released him into my garden bed near the pond.

I don't know about you, but I like rain.

And now that we've had a little bit of rain, I think I would like a little more, please.

Later, peeps!