Some miscellaneous stuff

For those of you that don't know, we have a desert tortoise named "Flash." We obtained him from some friends of ours that were moving back up north in an environment that would not be suitable for a desert dweller. Flash earned his name by zipping around our yard when he first started to familiarize himself with our yard. It took us a few attempts to turtle proof our backyard since he managed to escape about three times. Our neighbors have become used to our visits to their homes to look for our wayward turtle. Last year, we made a home for him. However, he had other decorating ideas and dug himself a hole that stretches about 10' long. Here he is camping out.

Owen is practicing his climbing and swinging.

As part of getting our backyard done, we have had deliveries of rocks and sand to the house. After seeing how much fun Owen and Bruce are having with the deliveries, it might have been a better investment to simply dump a pile of rocks and sand in the backyard. They really have a good time. Here they are transfering the rocks to the caution cone.

Our lantanas are doing well this year. For some reason, both of the boys love to eat the flowers. When Owen first discovered this, we were concerned since almost all plants here in the desert are poisionious. Fortunately, Lantana flowers are not.