One of these leaves is not like the others...

Can you tell which of these items are not one of the many leaves covering our back yard??



I mean seriously, this stuff just popped up over night. Think of all the money I'll save from having to buy mushrooms at the store!

Speaking of growing produce, check out our cherry tomatoes:
They're like the size of basketballs, but won't turn red. It's probably too cold now. It's getting into the high 30s at night. That'll teach us to plant our garden two weeks before the end of the season.

So, today and through Saturday, I am attending a conference at Chico State called "This Way to Sustainability". It's three full days of concurrent classes about different topics of sustainability. Today I learned about CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) from a Chico group called GRUB (Growing Resourcefully, Uniting Bellies). They're pretty much a couple of hippies who grow crops on a two acre plot that regular people, like you and me, pay to be members of and get a share of the crops they harvest each week. Currently they serve 40 families from their 2 acres, but have recently come across some additional land and will be planting another 2 acres in the spring. You pay a monthly fee of $65 and get a bunch of veggies, fruits and herbs. Of course after listening to them, I was ready to whip out my pocketbook and sign up right then. Same with my next class which was a status report from the City of Chico Sustainability Task Force. Afterwards I was ready to write all these policies and implement new sustainable development standards. My last class today was about recycling. What is, what isn't, and why. I came roaring out of there ready to fire off an email to all my co-workers (who are already sick and tired of emails from the "Green Team") about easy recycling rules of thumb. In between the concurrent classes are keynote speakers for all the participants. The last one of the day was about the benefit of local businesses over a global market and large box stores. So don't be surprised when everyone gets local Chico products for Christmas. I'm never going to be allowed to go to one of these conferences again. Next thing you know, I'll be convincing Chris to sell the house and live in a commune, growing our own food and only showering yearly.

Please intervene before I go that far!