The place where I come from is a small town
They think so small
They use small words
but not me
I'm smarter than that
I worked it out
I've been stretching my mouth
To let those big words come right out
I've had enough, I'm getting out
To the city, the big big city
I'll be a big noise, with all the big boys
There's so much stuff I will own
And I will pray to a big god
As I kneel in the big church
Big time
I'm on my way, I'm making it
Big time
There are a number of really special places on Earth, and Topanga Canyon is
one of them.
This is a view from Topanga Canyon at Glenview looking down on the San Fernando
Valley.
The broad and nearly straight avenue is Topanga Canyon Blvd going through Woodland Hills
and Canoga Park.
I did not like vehicular smog-control equipment when it first came
out. To be honest, mostly because it made it more difficult to work on your vehicle, it
makes it more likely you will have to take it in to a pro ($$$$). But, the modern
emissions-control technology combined with better mechanical engineering and gasoline
formulations have resulted in cleaner burning engines that run longer between maintenance
and breakdowns. So now, we have better air and engines both.
Thirty years ago it was not common to see the Verdugo and San Gabriel
Mountains in the distance. There is much less smog than before, and about twice as many
people. So, we're getting better and better at this modern life and reducing our
footprints on the earth.
Some of the roads in the hills around Los Angeles are narrow and twisty. They wind their
way up the hillsides with a series of jacknifes and turns. This road (Topanga) carries a
huge amount of traffic for a two lane road. The locals breeze up and down this road
between Santa Monica and the San Fernando Valley. This particular hairpin carries a
recommended top speed of twenty MPH. Many of the locals take a turn like this at a much
higher rate of speed.
Peter Gabriel's video, 'Big Time
July 28, 2007
La Purisima Animals
'Big Red', and 'Rosarita'
Big Red is not only a photogenic horse, he likes to greet all the visitors, and does seem
to have some 'camera training'. He is obliging, and holds his poses long enough for even
digital shutter-lag to not cause any problems.
Rosarita meanwhile, seems to be intent on filling her belly.
Yeah, this fellow is large, strong and heavy.A careless swipe of his head could cause some
injury with those horns. But he is gentle as can be. It's overpowering the sense of
strength you can feel from an animal like this, and yet for him to be so gentle is such a
sweet thing.
Michael J Totten puts out another great article,
this time embedded with the 82'nd airborne in his article entitled
'In the Wake
of the Surge'.
A lichen-covered boulder on a California hillside.
July 24, 2007
Montana De Oro
The Golden Mountains
We took a little trip to Montana de Oro state park, near the town of Los Osos.
All on the Central Coast, pretty much in our backyard.
'Los Osos' means 'The Bears' and got it's name from the huge population of Grizzlies there
waiting for the salmon run when the Spanish first came upon the area.
Montana
de Oro means 'Golden Mountain' in Spanish.
The area was presumably given the name due to the yellow flowers that grow here in the
springtime.
The rocks tumble down to the sea in this area. The colors of the sea,
the rocks and sky all combine to form a most excellent palette of hues with which the
Creators' work is displayed.
We came across a small rattlesnake of unusual coloration.
I think this fellow might be of the species 'Crotalus enyo'.
If so, this guy is a bit north of the usual range of the species which is supposed to be
in Baja California.
While he did prove himself a true rattler with that viper head,
he's definitely not of the usual type rattlers of this area. Chihuahua saves boy is
a nice account of a small dog who saved a child from a rattler.
Those Chihuahuas are small dogs with great hearts.
Majestic cliffs, and a raging sea are trademarks of this spot.
I just love the ever changing colors of the water as it rolls in and out, on and off the
rocks.
July 23, 2007
Morro Bay
The turbaned Rock
We took a day-trip to Morro Bay
to look around.
Like any such trip is likely to be, it was full of people-watching and great sights to
see.
The fog of the marine layer was creeping onto the coast,
here we see it envelope the bottom of the famous Morro Rock across the harbor.
A nice little mermaid statue surrounded by blue dolphins in the center
of town.
One of the nearby islands was the site of the 'true to life story' immortalized in the
famous book 'Island of the Blue Dolphins' by Scott O'Dell.
Morro Bay is a bit of a tourist destination, so usually I pass by the
shops catering to the tourist trade. But this shop caught my eye with it's sign stating
"Danger, Culture Shock Zone".
I was so amazed at both the quality of the wood carvings, and the low prices.
I picked up a large walking stick and was posing with it to test it's height, a woman
walked in, and saw me thinking I was a giant statue, she screamed when I moved, she was so
shocked. She almost died from her deep laughter, and I sure thought it was funny also.
Morro Bay is a fine place to visit, any trip to the Central Coast
should include an obligatory stop to this home of the 'Great Rock'. The
Rock is a 'volcanic plug', and one of the 'Nine sisters' of similar peaks in the area. It
is thought that the area slid over a volcanic 'hotspot' millions of years ago. This caused
the line of peaks, all in a row along a ten mile area.
July 22, 2007
There are no guarantees
Poopan is a nice little Reggae band in the San Fernando Valley.
They put together a really nice little video to show off their new hit song 'Guarantees'
A very well done video indeed! Good job guys and gals!
I even play a role in the video.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Speaking of cute on film, you gotta look at the tiny little baby
mammoth found in Siberia recently. The little tiny female mammoth is thought to have
died and been frozen about ten thousand years ago at six months of age. She's still
cute as a bug!
July 21, 2007
Artichoke, a yummy thistle
Lompoc has a good climate for this particular type of artichoke.
As I recall reading the story some years ago..a local seeds company developed
this particular artichoke that can be grown from seed, it also matures in the off-season
when artichoke prices are higher.
I imagine they are allowing this field to go to seed, for the high value of
the seeds of this variety. Notice the purple coloring on the leaves and flower.
It is also easy to see that artichoke is a type of thistle.
July 20, 2007
'Has Anyone Ever
Written Anything For You?'
~Stevie Nicks~
Has anyone ever written anything for you
In all your darkest hours
Have you ever heard me sing
Listen to me now
You know I'd rather be alone
Than be without you
Don't you know
Has anyone ever given anything to you
In your darkest hours
Did you ever give it back
Well, I have
I have given that to you
If it's all I ever do
This is your song
I visited a reptile rescue facility in Santa
Barbara Calif yesterday.
They care for many kinds of reptiles, here we see some of the iguanas that have been
turned over to them. Some of these are turned in by owners who cannot keep the animals
anymore, and some are turned in when they are found running around loose after
escaping or being 'returned to the wild'.
They even have some fowl. This is a muscovy duck who is 'broody', meaning she has an
overwhelming desire to sit and warm eggs, and raise ducklings. The problem is, the
folks here could not find any viable fertile duck eggs, so they substituted chicken eggs.
Now this duck is raising these little Rhode Island Reds as her own babies. CUTE!
This fellow is named 'Fairview' because he was found on Fairview Ave in Santa Barbara.
He'd been hit by a car, and is now paralyzed from the hips down.
Sometimes seeing how well animals cope with disability gives good insight.
These are Egyptian Tortoises, a bit rare in the USA. The one on the right is wild
captured, the one on the left is captive raised. See how the captive diet has made
variations in the shell?
A Sulcata Tortoise, he's reluctant to come out of his shell.
These are some large torts, the one in the middle is about 150 lbs.
These animals are all at 'Turtle Dreams', a private reptile
rehabilitation center. Jeanie Vaughan and her daughter Christine run the center with their
own funds. I got in touch with them because people had been telling me of them for
years, and recently I heard the sad story of 'Bob the Tortoise' who was stolen and brutalized in Ventura.
Turtle Dreams is helping to nurse him back to health. I decided to do a little and donate
a couple of boxes of cactus for the tortoises.
Bob was off at the vet the day I was there, so I did not get to meet the big
guy. But I'm sure I'll swing another box of nopales by there in the next week or two.
Jeannie says Bob is doing better, and they expect him to recover from his
injuries fully eventually, but he is likely scarred emotionally for some time.
July 19, 2007
Bless the Beasts and the Children
~The Carpenters~
Bless the beasts and the children
For in this world they have no voice
They have no choice
Bless the beasts and the children
Give them shelter from the storm
Keep them safe
Keep them warm
Above, a beautiful slideshow of kids and their pets.
There is much beauty in this world, and the oddity of this primate that can cause natural
enemies like cats and dogs to be friends is astounding. But at the same time we hold such
beauty, we also present an unimaginatively ugly face to the universe, turning our back on
the Creator and pushing away from ourselves all that is light, healthy and wholesome.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Michael Yon gives one of his excellent 'first-hand' reports on the war in Iraq.
It is a sad and depressing piece about psychopaths that our media and even our president
don't speak of. If more people knew the kind of enemy we are at war with, there would be
more resolve among our people to fight this war all the way through, this is not a time
for half-way measures.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
God Bless our military, who are putting themselves through so much...
thank you folks
xxxxxxxxxx
VDH uses his usual insight to refute the way the NY Times
and most other media support a hasty withdrawal.
If we leave Iraq, we can be sure of huge amounts of killing,
and the enemy will be emboldened.
This will again send the message that we cannot be relied upon,
and will hamper the help we need of indigenous peoples in this coming world war.
Any withdrawal is just a lengthening of the end.
July 18, 2007
Micro wind turbines can now be used by apartment and home user to
capture even tiny breezes.
Of course in Lompoc where it is usually breezy, they'll work even more better.
Yeah sure, with the airports under watch, how they gonna get in?
Oh-oh...
According to the FBI, someone is said to be smuggling
Iraqis into the USA through our border (still unsealed) with Mexico.
But I imagine they're only coming here to do the work Americans won't do.
July 17, 2007
Water on the terraces
Droplets lit up by the morning sun.
This sprinkler system puts out some water.
To get high production from our cactus, we do water them some.
Since we rotate the cactus away after a few years, we often grow some vegetables, or let
the native plants (weeds) grow for a season and till them in or mow them before they seed.
This is a cheap and (almost) natural way to keep the soil carbon levels high.
The sprinklers are on at Rivenrock on the terraces.
The small saplings are 'Black Wattle', a legume tree that adds nitrogen to the soil.
July 16, 2007
On Anti-Americanism
Raise a twenty-five year old in the home the whole time, he
is likely to be happy to not have to foot the bills, but he is also likely to resent the
'kept' status he has. To leave and have to pay his own bills is too much of a bad
dream, yet having to live under his parent's roof in his mid twenties seems like a
nightmare to many.
This is the status of many of the countries the USA has
helped in the decades since we helped save their countries from annihilation at the hands
of their despotic enemies, or their own governments. Germany, Spain, France and South
Korea all have the same attitudes (Spain to a lesser extent, and France got rid of it's
'inferiority complex' by demanding the USA close all bases and leave long ago.
Anti-Americanism in South Korea is a website that deals with this
irrational phenomena very well. It is written from the perspective of an American who
teaches English in SK and has been there for a decade.
Anti-Americanism
is a type of mass-hysteria that is akin to the German concept of 'schaden froh' which is
'a happy feeling at seeing harm come to others'. It is this feeling, indeed
prejudice that makes one happy to see harm come to the one who helped you when you could
not help yourself. Your own feelings of inadequacy and helplessness become a type of fuel
to power a low level of hatred aimed at your benefactor. It is the same thing that makes
people across the world say that they would like to see American hegemony reduced at the
same time that they happily take in American dollars to build up their economy and gladly
ship their products to the American market.
July 15, 2007
Climate change and adaptation
Man is an ingenious animal, cunning and resourceful. We can kill an animal
and use parts of it to make more weapons with which to kill even more animals. It is this
staggering lurch toward survival that has endowed us with the ability to survive in any
climate on earth, even though sometimes we suffer greatly in the name of science or
refuge.
What was it like for the first humans to walk across the landscape of
the ancient Americas in which no animal had ever seen a human? How comparatively easy
would have survival been in an area in which the fauna had no fear of these small
upright walking critters? Yet also, in strange lands, with strange hazards not yet seen, a
new and alien plant life and the necessity to determine what was edible, and what
could be useful for tanning, cordage and other building materials. Life would be a boon of
huge amounts of animal protein and broken bones. Add to this the fact that at some point
in all this the climate changed suddenly to make the transition from the Pleistocene to
the Holocene era. there are some who speculate it occurred during just a forty year
period, far faster than previously believed. This would entail the humans in the affected
area to have to adapt to a changing climate in a mere two generations. Now could you
imagine the old folks at the tail end of the transition saying "when I was a kid, the
weather was always so much more 'such-and-such'".
You can read the entire article in the Journal 'ScienceDaily.com'.
July 14, 2007
Broken Sycamore
Sycamore is a hardwood, and very dense it seems. Yet they also tend to
break on occasion.
This is one down the road from us.
Tao Teh Ching
Chapter 76
At birth a person is soft and supple; at their deaths they are firm and strong.
All creatures, plants and trees are born tender and flexible,
when they are dead they become brittle and dried.
Thus it is that people who are stiff and hard are companions of death.
The soft and yielding are the followers of life.
It can be seen that a great inflexible army will fall under it's own weight,
just as a stiff unyielding tree will break in the wind.
Dwelling in an inflexible unyielding manner will bring downfall.
The pliant and supple will survive.
Along the California Coast we have what we call the 'Marine
Layer'. It comes in during the summertime as a blanket of low clouds, slowly creeping in
from the sea and spreading inland for a few miles. It envelopes the local environs with a
smothering blanket of cool air.
The Marine Layer was blasted away by the heat we had recently, but now it is
back, and we are refreshed by the cooling atmosphere. The temps are back into the mid
seventies and low eighties, and we are happy to be away from the high heat.
Our town of Nipomo was recently written of in some publication as having the best
weather in the entire USA! Yay! It's a fine little town with fine weather and great
people. The history of the town is written in the Historic Dana Adobe in
town, and the lines of the furrowed hills.
July 12, 2007
The Blue-Flowered Weeds
Blue Flowers on a Country Road
These are some interesting flowers, they grow along this
road most years, but some years they don't come in strong. Perhaps the low rainfall winter
helps them while it hurts some of the other plants. These are different than so many in
that they are open in the evening and through the night. In the morning they start to
close up. By the late morning they look like just a bunch of weeds growing along the sides
of the road. This photo was taken in the early morning, just before they started to close.
July 11, 2007
"How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?
Four.
Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."
~Abraham Lincoln~
Opuntia ficus-indica flowers.
Two different colors on the same branch.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Susan MacAllen on cognitive Dissonance
"So...if we don't call the spade a spade, it magically can be...what...a
spoon?" Read
further...
July 10, 2007
Opuntia flower
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Feed
the Pig.org has a really interesting concept...teach Americans how to save their
money. In most Western nations the savings rate is in the double digits, even over 25% in
some countries. It used to be pretty high here in the States also, but has in the last
year fallen to zero.
I've heard it said that the ability to put off pleasure and fun for
today in order to enjoy it more abundantly tomorrow is one of the hallmarks of maturity.
But we as a nation seem intent on spending every dime that comes to us, as a result
tomorrow many people will still be paying for the groceries from last winter's Christmas
party.
The mascot for 'Feed the Pig' is a fellow named Benjamin Bankes, and he even
has a MySpace page.
I thought at first that Feed the Pig must be a group set up by the government
to encourage the citizens to save. A high savings rate means more capital for commerce,
more moolah to go into the big pool of dinero to lend. A high savings rate should be like
opening the secondaries on a four-barrel carburetor, the added fuel to the engine
'ought-to get that engine roaring and kicking into gear. That is one of the roles of a
government, to provide some of that 'social engineering' needed to cause the people to
transform of their own will and desires. When the change is complete, the people should be
able to think they did it themselves. But, alas, it is a group of Accountants and
Advertising Folks (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and The
Advertising Council) that is giving us this good message. But, no bother, good advice from
any decent source is still good advice.
Tao Teh Ching
Chapter 17
When the Master governs, the people
are hardly aware that he exists.
Second best is a leader who is loved.
Next, is one who is feared.
The worst is one who is despised.
Such as these have no faith in their people,
and the people in turn become unfaithful to them.
The Master is humble and sparing with his words!
When his work is complete and the purpose is achieved,
his subjects regard the accomplishments as their own.
July 9, 2007
Opuntia phaecantha
July 8, 2007
Knee High by the fourth of July
Corn Star
I've been through the 'corn belt', and I am a heavy consumer of corn.
I've been interested in corn since I first experienced it. I like to have some corn almost
every day, and I like to look at it a lot also. I am so into corn, I am thinking of
getting into the corn industry, but I know I can't compete with the real pros and their
machines. So I'll probably keep myself content and my corn addiction satisfied by
producing my own meager source of the highest quality corn you have ever seen.
I like big machines, sometimes I drive some big stuff myself, but
usually that's for the 'Big Boys' Downtown. Here's a big piece of equipment some of
those fellows left on the side of the road while they got their truck towed and repaired.
This is a scraper that is used to scrape off the surface of the soil, and store the dirt
before putting it back on the low spots. A compactor will usually come by after this
fellow is done and mash the dirt down to compact it to standards set by the local
regulatory agency (the engineering department).
Here's a big tractor at the local 'Sanitary Landfill'
pushing a big crate off a truck.
The tractor now pushes the box along with sundry other items into the
area where it will later be covered with dirt, and compacted with a 'sheepsfoot' roller.
You can see the large dump truck below dropping of refuse in the lower area.
The Santa Maria Landfill where these photos were taken is a good example of a well-run
Sanitary Landfill.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yeah, this is a blurry photo, but I like the colors, Man.
The pyramid shaped hill in the photo is called 'Silver Mountain'. It is
reputed to have several old mine drifts in it that were used in the 1800's and have been
sealed up to keep out adventurous kids.
The local legends surrounding this hill are even more interesting and deeper
than the mines...it is said that a childless couple can ascend the hillside in the light
of a full moon, and if they stay the night alone on the hilltop, and try real hard, they
will surely conceive a child. This legend is said to have been told to couples for
millennia, and it is also said that it has worked every time.
I was telling a buddy of mine this story the other day, I assured him that
despite the doctors and the 'snip-job' they gave him a couple of decades ago, that his
wife of thirty years will be able to once again give him the pitter-patter of little feet
running through the hallway, and they won't be all just his grandkids.
He decided that he's done raised enough kids already, and that's why the
visit to the doctor so long ago, and he's happy enough waiting for his mature boys to give
him the grandkids he's waiting for, that way he can send them home at night when he's done
with them.
July 5, 2007
The Sunbane
We've hit a patch of warm weather, the temps are often getting into the
100's.
With the pelt of hair I have all over me, it is like wearing long-johns day-in and
day-out. Yep, once the temps get into the 80's I get a mite uncomfortable, I prefer the
temps in the sixties so I can keep working and get things done. But our cactus loves
this weather, so they are growing out like crazy and having the time of their lives.
The sunrise in Nipomo California
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
'Well,
that didn't go so well'
by IowaHawk and Kahlid Ahmed, MD
Board Certified Gastroenterologist and former Jihad Associate, Al Qaeda UK
Some 65 brave and adventurous souls are gathered into a ninety foot boat, a
replica of the largest Viking warboat known, to re-enact a historic voyage made by those
seafarers the Vikings so long ago. They are journeying from Denmark to Ireland where so
many Vikings left their descendents in the form of red and blonde-haired Irishmen.
This is a pretty valiant adventure, for instance they are only allotted a
meter square of space on the boat. Yep, them's gonna be some smelly and irritable fellows
by the time they get to Dublin after seven weeks and a thousand nautical miles at sea. No
wonder the Vikings made such an awful impression on the Irish when they first got there
some one thousand years ago. They expect they will get a better welcome this time, perhaps
they will bring deodorant and toothpaste with them.
Once when working on a commercial fishing boat, I spent three weeks with no
shower, but a daily plunge into the sea was de-riguer, and we did have modern things like
decent food (until we ran out) and toiletries. Oddly enough, even after three weeks at
sea, when I disembarked and headed straight to a food joint to get some fats in my food
(three weeks of eating mainly fish was driving me nuts), someone I met while eating
offered me a job (I'm a naturally gregarious and open fellow) even though I looked like
I'd spent three weeks in the salt water and spray without a shave or shower. Dang, I must
be a good worker.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
File this under... 'Those crazy Northern Europeans' (yeah,
I'm mainly one of them myself)
A German fellow is wanting to sail
a reed boat from New York to Europe to try to prove that it is possible. He is one of
the people (and again, I am also) who believes there was trade between the Old World and
the New World thousands of years ago. He is reminiscent of Thor Heyerdahl who
sailed his rafts the 'Kon-Tiki' and 'Ra II' (and a couple of others) back in the sixties
and seventies.
The idea of pre-Christian contact between the East and
Western hemisphere is not a new one, but it is very adequately covered in the research of
the academic Barry Fell in his book called America BC.
July 4, 2007
Long may Freedom Ring
~Cowboy Junkies~
'Crescent Moon'
Reach a hand to the crescent moon
grab hold of the hollow
If she sits in the palm of the left
that moon will be fuller tomorrow
If she sits in the palm of the right
that moon is on the wane
and the love of the one who shares your bed
will be doing just the same
`Won't you come with me', she said,
`there's plenty of room in my iron bed
You're looking cold and tired
and more than a little human
I know I'm not part of the life you had planned,
but I think once your body feels my hand
your mind will change
and your heart will lose its pain'
Out among the fields gently hipped
beneath the corn,
Assiniboine bones beneath the highway
he stood there and he thought of home
A finger traces the path of a satellite
You're drawn to a distant copse of trees
A voice as sweet as Mare's Tail
clings to the prairie breeze
A waning moon sets over the Nipomo hills
July 03, 2007
Gaviota
Gaviota Pass is a narrow little space that a small creek uses to snake
through the hills to the coast. It is really a wonder of nature, a thing of beauty. A very
hilly spot with grand hills on both sides, their rocky bulk running down to the sea.
It is also a very dangerous windy twisty road with huge wind gusts due to
it's funnel shape. Last week a truck loaded with broccoli took the turn too fast, and
ended up spreading broccoli all over the road, shutting it down for hours, and reducing
the highway to one lane for nearly a full day.
Notice the speed advisory sign, there are many who scoff at the notion of reducing speed
from 65 to 45 for a small space, but it is that thinking that leads to broccoli
squished onto the roadway.
One event that made me chuckle when I heard about it on the news, some
traveler was heading down this road when a bear came onto the roadway running down from
the hill. the bear turned to run the same direction the car was going, the driver was
braking but could not evade the bear for fear of losing control (a wise move), eventually
just before he was fully stopped his bumper hit the bear on the rear, pushing the bear a
bit further and causing it to roll head over heels with two summersaults. The bear
recovered his footing, and ran off into the creek, evidently unharmed, the driver was a
bit shook up I suppose, but there was no vehicular nor human injuries.
July 02, 2007
Summerland Murals
Murals are very popular in California. They serve as a way of
commenting on the past, and hoping for the future. This long mural along the retaining
wall of the Post Office in Summerland
shows the old town the way it was a hundred years ago, when cowboys still rode through
town on horses, the railroad served as the primary method of transportation, and oil was
the new gold of the coast.
There was a time the oil derricks were hard and heavy all over California. I have seen so
many photos of the places I travel regularly that were covered with pumps every fifty
yards, pulling up the treasure from the ground to spread along the land to fire up that
economic engine we call the twentieth century.
Luckily technology and a heightened sense of environmental
sensitivity has given us the ability to pump from the ground with less obtrusive means.
When I was a kid every single trip to the beach meant spots of tar from the
oil seeps and spills on our feet. We would use butter or peanut butter to cut the oil and
wipe it off our feet before tracking it into the house. I recall surfing and seeing huge
gobs of oil floating here and there on the surface of the ocean.
Thankfully those days seem to be behind us, we now have a fairly benign
petroleum industry that seems to be concerned with extracting oil without causing oil
spills which are costly in these days in which they must clean them up. Social and
governmental pressure has been brought to bear to enforce this. I'd like to think they did
it because it is the right way to do things, but I do not find big business to be so
altruistic. Regardless of the reason, the end result is we have a home-grown petroleum
industry that can be relied upon to keep the oceans clean while giving us this fossil-fuel
that powers the engine of commerce and our personal sense of freedom.
The coast of California is dotted here and there with large offshore rigs
that house crews of workers on their 'week-on, week-off' shifts. Many people complain
about the appearance of the derricks on the horizon. Perhaps I've seen them enough that
they are not obtrusive to me. Like the fellow who lives alongside the freeway and does not
notice the traffic; I look upon our great Pacific Ocean and see the beauty of nature and
seem to bypass the occasional points that stick up above the glossy sheen of sea as they
pumps oil into the tanks that are hidden on the shores behind cliffs and rows of trees.
July 01, 2007
On Reptiles and Cactus
~America~
'Ventura Highway'
Cause the free wind is blowin' through your hair
and the days surround your daylight there
Seasons cryin' no despair
Alligator lizards in the air
Many of our customers are reptile enthusiasts who buy our
organic cactus to feed to their tortoises and iguanas. We did not initially intend for our
fine edible cactus to be seen as animal feed, but the greenbacks of those hard-shells
covers the bills as well as mulah from a chef in Boca Raton. So we welcome the infusion of
herpetologists who deluge our site daily for information on cactus (cactus has the most
perfect balance of calcium/phosphorus for shell building of any vegetable, and is reputed
to be the best vegetable for feeding tortoises. And we all know that 'Calcium without
Phosphorus is preposterous').
One new potential customer is Bob Stano the moderator of the
Lizard Corral
Forum online. I found his forum to be an entertaining, interesting and
informative composium of many things reptile. Do visit it, become a member (it's free) and
visit regularly for the latest information.
As fate would have it, after reading his e-mail to us, I
stepped outside to read the thermometer (90 degrees, too hot to work), and saw an
Alligator Lizard crawling along in the shade by the thermometer on the porch. Of
course when he saw me pointing the camera at him, he decided to hide, so I had to settle
for a photo of him concealing himself between the beams.
These little Alligator
Lizards (Elgaria multicarinata) are a very common species in this area. They are a lot
of fun and have a fiery feisty 'never-give-in' disposition that I admire. I used to catch
these and the other local species by the score when I was a kid, usually releasing them at
the end of the day before trudging home, covered in dirt and stickers.
