Lizard In Garbage Disposal

I have seen tiny lizards all around the yard the last few months.  Smaller than I have every seen a lizard before.  Most are blue-bellied alligator lizards.  I don't know if the large population of them has to do with an increase of insects, mild summer or something else, but I see more each week then I usually do in a whole year.

One day, a few weeks ago, I was taking out the trash and saw a tiny one and decided to catch it.  I brought it inside to show the kids and take a picture of, since I was amazed at how cute and small it was.

So, as I am taking these pictures, one handed, I decided to move over the sink, so that if it falls, it will be a shorter fall and it won't fall all the way to the ground.

Well, it doesn't fall, it jumps.  Instead of landing in the sink it falls straight down the hole into the garbage disposal.

I can't think of any way, at all to get it out.  Daeton comes to help me and shines a flash light down the hole and verifies that he sees it.  I'm afraid if either of us reach and try to grab it, we either would squeeze too hard or not be able to pull our fist out.

On top of all of this, we have to leave the house.

I put a butter knife in the sink, diagonally, so it could have a 'ladder' to climb out and we leave.

We get home from football practice a few hours later and I don't see the lizard (I don't bring this fact up to the kids so that they aren't reminded).

I don't know if it is still down there or got out and is anywhere in the house (not safe with the kittens around).

I don't use the sink at all and we go to bed.

The next morning I am doing something in the kitchen and go to wash my hands in the sink and on the OTHER side of the sink (it has two basins) I see the lizard in a saucer.   Alive.

WHOOO HOOOO!  I grab it, take it outside to one of the planters, and release it!

Thank you, God!  I was really worried that the lizard was going to be stuck there until it died from the elements or lack of food.

Vegetables Growing In The Yard

I have some plants that I planted a few months ago that are doing very well.  I planted some vegetables this year that I knew the kids would eat and enjoy.  I have had tomatoes growing in the past and they are easy to take care of, little maintenance and grow fast but the kids only like tomatoes if they are in spaghetti sauce, ketchup or mild salsa, so the idea of me planting a large bounty of tomatoes isn't going to be fruitful for them.

This planter has (right to left) birdhouse gourds (I thought it would be neat to grow, dry out and do some art with them), crocked-neck squash, sweet peas, artichoke (this will be huge when full-grown), and another squash-family plant but I can't remember what it is. I think it is pumpkins or watermelon.  We have flowers on it but no vegetable at all.  On the very left, not really showing, is night-blooming jasmine (it has been in the planter a few years).

 I wanted to 'fill' the planter with plants so that it was all green and pretty and have little dirt showing.  Once the cold weather hits most of them will die but the artichoke should be fine.

 This sink is a project I've wanted to do for a while but been slacking at.  I want to get 3-4 bricks and put them around the bottom of the sink.  This will make it surdy yet have it where the hole in the middle will drain out.  Right now, just setting it down on the ground, I think the water will back up from the dirt below the planter, and the plant or dirt will get soggy.  So, after I get the bricks, I will fill it with dirt and put something in it.  I think flowers would be pretty but I also heard that this is a great way to plant potatoes so that they are easily harvested.

Small Area Gardening

I have a relatively decent sized yard but not much in terms of planting vegetables.  I have a few long strip-planters that are really meant for flowers.  I love flowers but I'm trying to grow more vegetables and have the kids eat healthier (so we can actually eat what we grow).  I've also had gardening on the 'chore list' when Daeton has had negative behavior.  Not that he really minds gardening, but I think it is also good for both of them.

Last week I sent Kaela outside and she cut 5-6 small crooked-neck squash (some people call it yellow squash) off of the plant and we ate them 1/2 hour later in our dinner.  They tasted great and the kids got a kick out of eating something that had just been growing.  We have done this with our fruit trees before and have grown tomato plants often but this squash was a first-time for cooked veggies.

This planter that Daeton is planting seeds in is in the front yard and is a raised one.  It was built a few years ago when our next-door-neighbor tried to build the wall we share higher and the city said front walls are only allowed to be 6 feet high.  He said the only way that it can be allowed is if something like this was put in, since the 6 feet is technically 6 feet from the ground, so this planter makes the ground higher.  :-)  Either way, it was a free planter for me since the height of the wall didn't bother me but the neighbor did it without asking or talking to me about it and when I wasn't home.

 This next one is in the backyard, on the side of the house.  It is HARD compact dirt that needs to be dug up and turned over.  Daeton went here on his own and planted seeds. I have only a little bit of an idea of what he planted.  So, when plants grow I am going to have to guess... bulbs?  Broccoli?  Cauliflower?  Onions?  Lettuce?  Flowers?  ... he had a plastic grocery bag of seed packages and I'm not sure which ones got opened!  I guess I can call it my 'surprise garden.'