A strange pointy fruit in the compost bin

I'll post a picture soon of the strange plant that came up in the compost bin.

Walking to school

Our new routine involves driving to a carpool pickup point for one kid, then walking to
school with the other. What a great way to start the year!

Back from the lake!

We're back from the lake, with none of the disasters I expected actually
happening.

Toads and a blue tailed skink

I movedthe "Toad House" my sister gave me, more specifically, I moved it to
where the little girl who lives next door told me to put it. It's kind of like an upside down pot, with the words "Toad House" on it.

I just assumed that there were no actual toads around. Then the next day, I was cleaning the leaves from around the house, and surprised two toads. They were
only about 6 feet from where she told me to put the toad house. Five year olds
can intuitively sense these things.

The other day I saw something blue on the porch and reached for it, and it ran
away. It was a blue tail skink.

Almost out of our drought

We're almost out of our drought.

On a school field trip last week, we visited a family with chickens. They grew grapevines over the chicken enclosure so that they could shake the Japanese beetles down for the hens to eat for breakfast.

Lavender and Moss

This sounds like the title of a play. But my sister suggests growing lavender in the dry, eroded spots in our yard. I also like the moss
that's growing in our back yard and would like to cultivate it. Our neighbor is trying to kill all the moss in his yard, because it takes over from his lawn.