When you decide to build a cabin in Benezette, you might forget that there’s work to be done on the outside too.
We’ve got quite a bit of landscaping that needs to be done. And by landscaping, I mean pushing around a lot of dirt that appeared when the husband dug the sewer and water lines. Additionally, things like planting grass seed after said dirt has been pushed around and maybe even an elk resistant posy or two, are on the agenda.
While the husband set to work on fencing new apple trees, I was in charge of burning some trees we’d previously knocked down.
While I was hauling limbs, I glanced in the puddle where the roots to this tree had previously been. And I saw something gross.
See that trail of what might be intestines, or poo or I’m not sure what else, but it looks really gross? That’s Eastern American Toad eggs. And you’re about to get a lesson! The internet (also, fun fact, we aren’t capitalizing internet anymore. Haven’t been since 2016. I didn’t know.) tells me that they lay between 4,000 and 8,000 eggs that hatch into tadpoles in 3-12 days. That gross string of eggs could be between 20 and 60 feet long. (ew!) The tadpoles will mature into toads in 40-70 days. I’ll let you know what I find on Saturday.
Anyway. Apple trees are all installed and are really quite happy. The new guys have a few little green buds peeking through, the trees we planned last spring look great and the ones from the year before that are very happy!
Planted 2 years ago 
Planted Last Year 
New Trees
There’s more rain in the forecast this weekend, so it’s unlikely the dirt pushing and grass planting will happen! Stay tuned!