"When we say “we don’t know what we’d do under the same
circumstances”, we make cowardice the default position.
At least show a smidgen of bravery and say "I", rather than "we."
" ~Kathy Shaidle~
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for
lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."
~Benjamin Franklin~
Sunrise, as the full moon sets over a House of Worship on Santa Maria California
Fog settles into low spots over Barka Slough, in Santa Barbara County California
May 30, 2007
Timing and Tough Times, that don't last forever
Yeah.... there'll be dead ends and road blocks
tough times and hard knocks
seems like you're always wonderin'
why you're at the right place
at the wrong time
wheels movin' but you feel stuck
like your life's spinnin' in a big mud
when you're out there runnin' around
on a wild goose chase
there's a reason to keep believin'
God don't make mistakes ~Jamie O'Neal~
They say timing is everything. In business and agriculture
it is an essential part of success. But you can't always set the timing of events, some
things are in the hands of other people. I like to believe that the hand of
Providence controls our lives, giving and taking from us to enable us to learn from life,
and therefore live it better and more fully.
For many years I'd been involved in working for a large company that enabled
us to start and continue the cactus farm 'Rivenrock'. As the years have gone by the
farm income steadily rose to supplement the income from the 'regular job'. Late last
year the large company had a 'reduction in force' and dismissed a good number of us.
I chose to look at this as the beginning of making the cactus venture fly higher and
further. It also seemed an opportune time to add to business with web page building.
And to top it off I had been studying another venture for a year even more exciting
than the others. What a good time to get laid off! So here I was, with two hands in
half-baked pies, and edging my toes into something warm and soft that I hoped was
Blackberry pie... but then the hard freeze came that destroyed much of our production for
several months. The timing of the layoff seemed to be wrong, yet one cannot give up
because life is full of little setbacks. So I continued hawking the cactus around the
Southland, getting some sales here and there, and certainly increasing awareness of our
product.
But just today I went back to my old job of twenty-five years due to a
temporary callback. It is set to be ninety days, and may well turn out longer. Again, the
timing seems non-fortuitous, the cactus are now coming into full growth, and the other
business which is also seasonal seems to be wanting to ramp up. But no worries, I'll work
my full-time job, continue the cactus on off time, and still have time to see folks
about the third venture (the ones my toes are in). When the full time job is gone, I'll
have learned more about that Blackberry pie, and be even more well equipped to excel in
that venture also.
So time and the world around us give us opportunities, it is up to us to pick
the blackberries from those thorny brambles and set about baking that pie. If you don't
know how to bake a pie, you have to find out how to go about it before you set about
scratching your arms with the brambles. But remember, blackberries are in season for
only a short while, and like many metaphors of life, this means you have to harvest them
when the season is ripe with them. So when they are ripe and hanging on the vines, be sure
you have your cookbook memorized, so that when the berries are in the tub, you are ready
with the other ingredients to build the pie.
May 29, 2007
A Tee-Shirt Folding Tool
Vickie is forever exasperated at my lack of ability to fold my tee
shirts when I change my mind as what to wear. So I found someone who made a tool to help.
I am a fan of tools and gadgets, I think using tools is one of the mark of a civilized
human.
So...maybe I'll try this out. But I don't think so.
May 28, 2007
Angus, and it's 'Jack-In-The-Box' meaning
OK now, I am no real fan of fast food restaurants,
although I will sometimes swing by Carl's Jr. for one of their $1 'hot and spicy' chicken
sandwiches when travelling. But I do so enjoy the creative ads used by Jack in the Box
since they brought back their CEO 'Jack' and let him run not only the company, but serve
as their spokesman (I am a fan of CEO's such as myself being in direct charge of all
advertising they can manage). And he has come out with what sounds like a great burger;
the Jack in the Box 100% sirloin burger (although I'll probably never try one, I'll just
continue to make my own burgers at home, cause we make the very best burgers I've ever
eaten. A hint Jack, send me some coupons and I might make a report on your new burger). I
also like their clever commercial, which, while misleading to most folks who do not know Angus is a breed of cattle,
is creative and pokes fun at the other guys.
We include a link to it below so you can see the great acting skills of Jack
(including his expressive facial movements) and the wordplay that twists the meaning of
'Angus' around to mean a part of the anatomy of cattle (but not to us Country Folks who
know a bit about beef).
Now, as you might agree, this is a funny ad; which made me
pull it up to watch on YouTube and show Vickie when I read the information I am also going
to tell you about. You see, not only is the ad good, it is funny enough that people will
copy it and put it onto YouTube so that the company gets tons of free publicity from it.
But even more, some of Jack's own competitors have joined in to help Jack in the Box show
off their video, because THEY
ARE SUING JACK for suggesting the competitor's beef (Angus, remember that) comes from
an unsavory part of the cow. OK now, first off you're dealing with a fellow who grew up
eating authentic German sausages made by my own family members from their own pigs made
from casings made from the intestines of the same pigs, blood sausage, sweetbreads and
other yummy tidbits that I consider delicacies and cannot easily get now that those
pig-raising family folks are across the ocean (well, actually, I'm the one who came across
the ocean, they stayed at home). So hearing something came from the nether regions of an
animal is not enough to make me decide to pass it up if it is eaten by other folks (I
know, I know, if my friends jumped off a bridge, yada yada; but if that were the case and
they bounced back on the end of a bungie cord I just might). What I am really trying to
get to here is that these other companies are playing right into the hands of the clever
Jack by suing him. They are giving him untold millions of dollars in free advertising with
their lawsuit. So, I have to hand it to Jack, he's a marketing genius and a real guru who
I must study for more great ideas.
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In recognition of all the selfless men and women who have enabled our
country to continue forward, 'thank you', on this Memorial Day
May 27, 2007
"Those who sow the curds of blasphemy will reap the cheddar wheel of
destruction,”
~Firebrand Lutheran Cleric Duane Gunderson~
Vince Lombardi is an icon of sports training and management,
he is also an idol of veneration to a large percentage of the people in the Midwest.
Unfortunately, when caricatures of him were released his fans thought it was too much, and
we have the unfortunate 'Lombardi Riots'. The papers wrote the headlines this way 'SEETHING
MIDWEST EXPLODES OVER LOMBARDI CARTOONS'.
Luckily for us all, we have a story that only about a
quarter of the Lutherans in the Midwest would see violence as a means to an end, and the
papers wrote it this way, 'MIDWEST
LUTHERANS LARGELY REJECT VIOLENCE'. It's good to know that we only have to worry about
one in four!
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"Well, we tried the lutefisk trick and the raccoons went away,
but now we've got a family of Norwegians living under our house!" ~Ole and Lena~
That most beloved of Midwest Style/Nordic foods, the Lutefisk has been
immortalized and enshrined in the collective vision of the people of the region. Therefore
it should come as no surprise that when one was flushed down a toilet the people just
could not take any more (probably just the one-in-four mentioned above). 'LUTEFISK STORY
SPARKS FURY ACROSS VOLATILE MIDWEST'.
Now recently some British Marines were seen on the Great
Lakes, while there is some disagreement about where they were in terms of National Waters,
the people of the Midwest thought them to be in their own territorial waters. Even more
they worried for their beloved fishing spots, so they of course seized them, and held them
for some time. Luckily we saw video of them playing games and eating with the great men of
the Midwest, so we had no worries as to their well being. Neither did we need worry,
because, as the headlines triumphantly announced...'MIDWEST
PEACE BREAKTHROUGH AS BRITISH MARINES RELEASED'.
May 26, 2007
There once was a chick, and she lived in a shoe
I try to humor Vickie by leaving my work boots and shoes
outside on the patio. This way I can give the appearance of caring about the insides of
the house so I trek in less of the dirt and weeds that I am always walking through. I hide
the shoes and boots up high in the structure of the porch, so that the cats and dogs won't
mess with them.
Last year I
wrote about a family of small birds thought my shoes would be a good place to build a
nest. It was cute and amusing, so we never bothered them, and they raised up a family of
young fledglings to maturity before the whole family took off at the end of summer.
They went and did it again this year. I don't think they are the same exact
same birds as last year, they are more flighty than the ones last year (but they are the
same species). It took me some time before I could get photos of them. Anytime I am near,
they wait in the trees for me to leave. Meanwhile the chicks will be in my shoe up above
my head squeaking their little heads off.
Birds make such good parents. Every thirty seconds or so, one of the adults
will get to the nest and quickly drop off some tidbit of a bug to the chicks. They will
then fly off to the trees and in less than a minute will have found a bug or caterpillar
and return back to feed it to the hungry brood. I can't believe how quickly they can
find a little bug. And I suppose the birds do our trees a great service by ridding them of
bugs (although they are certainly indiscriminate predators, taking both the harmful and
the beneficial bugs). I suppose also that us being an organic farm is good, as if we
sprayed all over, the birds would have less food.
This is one of the parents, sitting on the handrail waiting for me to
leave so he/she can give this delectable tidbit of a bug to their young.
Here is one of the parents on the shoes they built a nest inside of.
These are about seven feet off the ground, and the cats cannot get to them, even though
they are right above the porch where the cats sit and wait for food. The plant stalks are
from drying garlic.
May 25, 2007
'Thus Spake Zarathustra'
On Men’s Room Etiquette
A humorous look at the possibilities that improper etiquette could
have on the functioning of society.
It
comes across to me like one of the old Army training films (complete with Klaxon Horns),
designed to keep grunts from getting themselves in trouble with, umm, things regarding
hygiene. It is very humorous, but has just a bit of 'Potty Humor' in it.
May 24, 2007
Brazillian BBQ...yummm
The variety of humanity is mindboggling. It seems everywhere
you go people are doing pretty much the same thing, only in different ways. We are so
lucky to be living in these times where we can learn about the different manners of doing
the same thing without having to undertake a perilous journey of months in abysmal
conditions on ship, only to be stuck in whatever Godforsaken land we have spent our life
savings (or been sent to by government decree) to get to.
Now we can read on the internet of recipes from far away, and one I read of
recently is the Brazilian BBQ called Churrasco.
There are great similarities between The Barbecue of the Gauchos and that of the Californian Vaqueros. The
similarities are profound and many, one is that the meat is cut from the beef at the hind
end where the sirloin comes from, just as our own 'Top Block' or 'Tri Tip' comes from the
same section of meat. They also season it like us using mainly salt (although we tend to
also add pepper in this area). Thirdly the fat is left on the outside of the meat, to drip
onto the coals, fourth is the type of wood used. Now there the similarities end except for
the fact that both the Gauchos and the descendents of the Vaquero tradition are sticklers
in the choice of wood. The Gauchos prefer Eucalyptus charcoal, while we here prefer our
own native Red Oak and eschew Eucalyptus for BBQ, preferring it for home heating instead
(it packs a lot of BTU's into a ton of wood, and burns nice and clean). Our own town
of Nipomo is famous for it's groves of Eucalyptus trees, which here are considered
something of a nuisance tree as they are so highly flammable and drops loads of limbs,
bark and leaves all over.
I guess it comes down to what you are raised to think is right and proper,
and if I'd been raised in Brazil Tri Tip BBQ would be a nice and exotic departure from my
normal ways, but I'd feel more at home with Euc logs sizzling under swords packed with
Churrasco. As it is, I look forward to a trip some time in the distant future to Brazil,
where I can see the 'Christ
the Redeemer' statue, walk the fabled beaches of Rio, and eat the indigenous food of
the natives seared over Eucalyptus charcoal.
Go Brazil!
May 23, 2007
Government Authority
A cocky State Highways employee stopped at a farm
and talked with an old farmer. He told the farmer, "I need
to inspect your farm for a possible new road."
The old farmer said, "OK, but don't go in that field."
The Highways employee said, "I have the authority of the
State Government to go where I want. See this card? I am
allowed to go wherever I wish on farm land."
So the old farmer went about his farm chores.
Later, he heard loud screams and saw the State Highways
employee running for the fence and close behind was the
farmer's prize bull. The bull was madder than a nest full
of hornets and the bull was gaining on the employee at
every step!!
The old farmer called out, "Show him your card!!"
May 22, 2007
What a Beautiful World
This projection Image shows the sunshine and night areas of our
beautiful planet.
Can you imagine any more beautiful place? It is up to us all to take care of it,
preserving the beauty for all time.
WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD
~George Weiss / Bob Thiele~
I see trees of green, red
roses too
I see them bloom for me
and you
And I think to myself,
what a wonderful world
I see skies of blue and
clouds of white
The bright blessed day,
the dark sacred night
And I think to myself,
what a wonderful world
The colours of the
rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of
people going by
I see friends shakin'
hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying
"I love you"
I hear babies cryin', I
watch them grow
They'll learn much more
than I'll ever know
And I think to myself,
what a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself,
what a wonderful world
May 21, 2007
A 'Beastly' Steer
Beastly is a neighbor's steer, and a very well mannered,
docile and sweet dispositioned steer he is. He is of the breed known as Angus.
The neighbor is a cattle rancher woman, who raises tons of
beef each year. Even though she raises beef and sells them off to the cattleyards, she
doesn't eat beef.
One day, many years ago she saw one little steer being
attacked by neighbor dogs, she ran out to save her investment from the canines and nursed
the little fellow back to health. His muscles and tendons in his neck had been severed in
the same manner a 'Picador' severs tendons in a bull at the beginning of a bullfight.
This means that the young steer could no longer raise his head to nurse from his mother.
So Sherry nursed him from a bottle to help him regain his strength. His nose was torn
open, and his ears torn off also (this is how wild dogs and wolves bring down their prey,
much more terrible and inhumane than a 'properly trained hunter' with a high powered rifle
or arrow).
Poor Beastly cannot raise or lower his head to this day, he
can only eat on his own on a hillside (which we have plenty of) where the grasses are even
with his low slung nose. He also lays down to crop the grasses. He is two thousand pounds
of muscle, but so gentle that I've sat next to him on the ground as he walks about, there
is no need to fear him at all, he is as gentle as a puppy, and he's totally devoted to
Sherry, as she is to him.
In that most strange of occurrences where tragedy leads to
riches (such as my mother's family being exiled from their native Hungary and set homeless
across the border, would lead some of them to the USA and the riches we have here),
Beastly was granted a permanent reprieve from the slaughterhouse. He will NEVER be
beefsteak to any of us here. He will instead live out a long, full and pampered life as
the special steer of the Canyon.
Note, in looking to Wikipedia for a link to info on Picador,
I saw that Wikipedia had a different
reason for the Picador than that which I'd always heard. That is, Wikipedia says
that the Picador pierces the circulatory system of the Bull, such that blood pressure is
lowered. I am no fan of Bullfights, nor any authority at all (although I saw a couple
while in Spain), so I leave it to the two competing 'authorities to decide which is the
true account.
May 20, 2007
Cows with Guns
OK, humor is one thing we figure separates us from the 'lowly beasts'.
And Cows are wide open to being made fun of. This song does it well.
May 19, 2007
Searching for Santa Maria BBQ
We grill meat here a lot on the Central Coast. We don't call
it grilling though, we call it Barbecue, and we have refined it to such an extent that we
have patented the process and the name. Yes, this little idyllic town on the Central Coast
of Nowhere has a patented BBQ process such that other folks dare not do what we do openly
and brazenly in thousands of backyards and clearings in the oak groves.
We are so very proud of our BBQ processes and the oak wood
that is required to bring our own cut of meat (the Tri-Tip) to just the right degree of
smoky richness and fatty tenderness that we despise people who heat their houses with the
precious oak wood.
On our place we have a fair amount of pine wood that I will
sometimes let friends have to heat their homes, I will sometimes take a little to
friends in Los Angeles when we have a celebration there and need a fire in the back yard
to give that 'rustic' atmosphere the City Folks so enjoy. But, I have not yet (never
say never) given ANY oak wood away to anyone. Neither have I sold any, even to my dear
parents who insist (against all local tradition) on firing up their fireplace with oak
wood.
Yes, Oak wood BBQ is big here, and I pity the man who does
not have a grill built to local standards with the grill that can be raised or lowered by
means of a winch. I grew up with these types of BBQ grills, and was so surprised when I
saw people from other places who thought that was a new and marvelous contraption...well,
they are right on the marvelous part, but such BBQ equipment has been around for some
decades in this area.
Suffice it to say, we BBQ here, and our BBQ outdoes any I've
ever come across.
For a really fine page on Santa Maria BBQ, complete with a
fine set of links to the subject at hand, you can do no better than Central Coast
Travels run by a good friend of ours.
May 18, 2007
Belly full o'beer and a possum in a sack
~Don Williams~
Louisiana Saturday Night
Well, you get down the fiddle and you get down the bow,
Kick off your shoes and you throw ‘em on the floor.
Dance in the kitchen 'til the morning light:
Louisiana Saturday night.
Waiting in the front yard, sitting on a log;
Single shot rifle and a one-eyed dog.
Yonder come my kin folk in the moonlight:
Louisiana Saturday night.
Well, you get down the fiddle and you get down the bow
Kick off your shoes and you throw ‘em on the floor
Dance in the kitchen 'til the morning light
Louisiana Saturday night
My brother Bill an' my other brother Jack,
Belly full o'beer and a possum in a sack.
Fifteen kids in the front porch light:
Louisiana Saturday night!
When the kinfolk leave an' the kids get fed,
Me an' my woman gonna slip off to bed.
Have a little fun when we turn out the lights!
Louisiana Saturday night!
Opossums are
one of the weirdest creatures on the planet. We have some that come around the house on
occasion. As far as we know, they don't cause us any problems with our cactus
operations, although they drive our dogs crazy.
Yesterday some friends of ours showed us a box of baby Possums that
they had rescued from a barn some miles from here. They were said to be orphaned Possums
and the neighbors wondered if we wished to hand feed them to raise them until they are old
enough to release and survive on their own. I am not sure that they would go into the wild
safely. Like as not, we'd be left with a haggle (?) of Possums living around our house
eating cat food, although I have heard they can make good pets.
These little creatures, like all young, are extremely cute, but once they get older they
are kinda ugly (sorry Possums, no offense, but I just think you are). And one of the
weirdest things is to see one of these critters 'playing Possum' wherein they lay down and
faint, and will stay that way for a couple of hours, their mouth will be open and lips
pulled back baring strange teeth and looking like they died a horrible death, they give
the appearance that you don't even want to eat them they look so scary (and I'm a fellow
who hardly ever has any qualms about eating anything). Note those opposable
thumbs on the back feet. This enables them to easily climb small branches.
As fate would have it, our dogs went crazy in the middle of the night,
and when opening the door, there was an injured Possum on our porch. It seems to have
gotten hurt by some animal (not our dogs, they were indoors, and are Chihuahuas, not
likely to hurt this guy) and had an eye out. It is a sad thing to see an injured animal,
and although I have immense sympathy for the animal, I have no wish to bring a wild animal
into the home to try to care for it. Neither did I have the heart to kill it and put it
out of it's misery. It might just survive and be a one-eyed Possum.
Also, we wondered if this might be a parent of the baby Possums still being kept by our
friends, although I somewhat doubt it; our friends said they got them from a barn
somewhere, and although I don't know the exact location, I gathered it was some miles from
here, maybe even another canyon.
We feel bad for this animal, and wish it well, but it is the nature of the wild, that all
animals will in some way end up being meat for something. In the morning he/she was gone.
It's probably living in a shed or barn near here now, and hopefully will survive through
these grievous injuries.
May 17, 2007
Happiness
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~Abraham Lincoln~
Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.
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~Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young~
'4+20'
Morning comes to sunrise
And I'm driven to my bed
I see that it is empty
And there's devils in my head
I embrace the many-colored-beast
I grow weary of the torment
Can there be no peace?
And I find myself wishing that my life would simply cease
While most of us know some of the essentials of happiness,
how do we cultivate it? The article does not delve into the essentials of this matter.
And it is a matter worthy of great consideration.
A person’s personal
happiness is dependent to a large extent on themselves, not their own outward
circumstances. Some studies will cite people of low income being less happy in general
than their more well-off brethren. But this is a chicken/egg question. Might it be that
people who are happier might be more likely to acquire material wealth due to their
optimistic outlook and generally easy-to-be-around disposition? Lookat it this way; a contractor I know took me out to
look over his worksite, all of the workers I met on the job were happy decent people, and
I remarked on this. The contractor smiled and told me that he only hires decent happy and
friendly people. The grumpy unhappy job applicants will get no call from him.
A similar tale might be
told in the prevalence of drug and drinking use among unhappy people. Yes, a great many
heavy drinkers and druggies are unhappy, but perhaps they were unhappy people before their
first drink, line or toke that helped to assuage the sad feelings in their mind. In this
sense they are self-medicating themselves, acting as their own personal pharmacist, when
they should instead be looking into themselves and their reaction to the tragedy that
thrusts itself into every life from time to time.
No one is immune from
conflict, trauma and drama.Perhaps happy
people know how to deal with these things better. They might be said to have better coping
skills.
But what is the
meaning of ‘looking into yourself’ to find the answer? I am not sure if we are
what is inside, or what we show to the world. If a loaf of bread is hard and crusty on the
outside, but when cutting into it I find it to be soft and sweet inside, what is the true
nature of the bread? If a person is a curmudgeon on the outside, that is all I see. If he
is soft and sweet inside and never shows that to the world, all we know of him is the hard
crust.
There is the thought
that to open to the world, to show the sweetness and light (if you have any) is the
essence of our being. If you feel bitter and pained, go to an old folks home and
volunteer. Help someone in need, the mere opening of yourself to the word is the
proverbial knife slicing you open to expose to those you help the light fluffy stuff in
you. Let them taste of the light and tenderness you contain, in that way you reduce your
own hard exterior and become a better and happier person.
It’s a shame
that things such as mental illness infest some, but I suppose it is the nature of the
world that some will never rise beyond the tragedy inflicted on them. Yet sometimes you
can meet people raised in the most dire circumstances, who have risen above it and
acknowledge the benefits they have received. But I submit that they grabbed onto those
benefits when they came their way rather than let old hurts fester like an angry wound,
reddening and putrefying as they scratch at it, forcing it open time and again, never
allowing it time to heal and get better.
You are the greatest
treasure in the world, and it is up to you to cultivate yourself like a precious flower,
opening at the times when it is helpful to others. Hold your head high and be proud of
yourself, no matter how grievous your wounds. Do not force others to look at your scars as
you wallow in pity. Look instead to the multitudes who need help, and you will see
yourself as more fortunate than you sometimes think.
Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.
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~Kahlil Gibran~
Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, "he who works in marble, and
finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.
And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he
who makes the sandals for our feet."
But I say, not in sleep but in the over-wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not
more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;
And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own
loving.
Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should
leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with
joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's
hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the
voices of the day and the voices of the night
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~The Eagles~
Get Over It
I turn on the tube and what do I see
A whole lotta people cryin’ ’don’t blame me’
They point their crooked little fingers at everybody else
Spend all'a their time feelin’ sorry for themselves
Victim of this, victim of that
Your momma’s too thin an' your daddy’s too fat
Get over it
Get over it
All this whinin’ and cryin’ and pitchin’ a fit
Get over it, get over it
You say you haven’t been the same since you had your little crash
But you might feel better if I gave you some cash
The more I think about it, ol' Billy was right
Let’s kill all the lawyers, kill ’em tonight
You don’t want to work, you wanna' live like a king
But the big, bad world doesn’t owe you a thing
Get over it
Get over it
If you don’t want to play, then you might as well split
Get over it, get over it
It’s like going to confession every time I hear you speak
You’re makin’ the most of your losin’ streak
Some call it sick, but I call it weak
You drag it around like a ball and chain
You wallow in the guilt; you wallow in the pain
You wave it like a flag, you wear it like a crown
Got your mind in the gutter, bringin’ everybody down
You complain about the present and blame it on the past
I’d like to find your inner child and kick it’s little ass
Get over it
Get over it
All this bitchin’ and moanin’ and pitchin’ a fit
Get over it, get over it
Get over it
Get over it
It’s gotta stop sometime, so why don’t you quit
Get over it, get over it
May 16, 2007
Harris Grade, Bishop Fir
Harris Grade is a road that twists its way through the hills between
Santa Maria and Lompoc California.
It is a fun road to drive with curves every-which-way up one side and down tu'ther.
Harris Grade is a road full of mystery, history and tragedy.
This small patch of trees on the crest of these hills is also the
Southernmost stand of Bishop Fir in California.
A fire came through this area about seven years ago, and burned off the
mature trees that had grown to a full fire fuel load, and burst into flames as the heat
traveled to them. But the killing of the old trees also burst open the seed coats of
millions of Fir seeds. These seeds are programmed from
conception to hold off sprouting until the heat of a fire has softened them. At that time
they can then grow in the bare soil fertilized by the previous generation of trees without
having to compete for light with mature trees. This is a process known as
scarification.
Fire is a natural part of the Eco-system in California, and regular control
burns are actually beneficial to wildlife, as well as reduce the fire danger from an
excessively high fuel load of mature forests. MyEdsel has a nice series of photos
of a traveler on Harris Grade in a red sports car.
May 15, 2007
California Architecture;
Ancient appearance, modern methods
This office building in Arroyo Grande is pretty standard architecture for California.
The style is millennia old in some respects.
The arches and tiles are Roman and Moorish inspired.
The old style of building was with stone, concrete, or adobe. But the modern techniques
blend a mix of 'stick built' construction (2x4's) with an overlay of stucco. There is also
foam built into the walls to give the needed elements of depth and bas relief to the
structure, just for the Spanish appearance.
This all blends into a mix that is earthquake resistant, and very attractive.
The modern roofing tiles also are an artificial artifice in some
respects.
While they tend to mimic the appearance of the old Roman style red tile roofs used
throughout Europe for the last two millennia, they are actually modern versions cast in
concrete, and designed for easier application and upkeep.
Many of these roofs are guaranteed for fifty to eighty years.
May 14, 2007
Roadside Romance
On Mother's Day, I came upon these two lovers coiled in each other's embraces along the
side of the Highway near Santa Maria. While the nice warm pavement was probably nice
as it would add to their vigor, it is not a wise place to engage in...umm...these
activities.
They were passionately enjoying each other's company, but I worried for
their safety. They seemed to be oblivious to the cars whizzing by, and I worried that
their rapture might lead them to venture further onto the roadway.
Once one was safely set into the brush, the other was a bit
perturbed...to say the least. He adopted a defensive posture, in which this
harmless-to-humans non-venomous snake tries to assume the mannerisms of the feared and
deadly rattlesnake. They will shake their tail, feign strikes, and hiss, mimicking the
sound of a rattler to the best of their ability. But once you've been toe to toe
with a few rattlers, you know the difference.
Here he is, while I hold him by the tail.
He is a magnificent specimen, about five feet long, beautiful and entrancing.
This snake is the useful and friendly Gopher Snake, also called Bull Snake in some areas.
The scientific name is Pituophis catenifer. They are very common throughout the USA.
We see some every year, but these are among the largest I've ever seen. They are useful
snakes to have. They are eaters of gophers, so I have a big spot in my heart
for these little guys.
I hope these two continued their little soiree in the grass, and that
they give birth to a great number of gopher killers.
May 13, 2007
Anyone for a Brontosaurus burger?
These little Brontosauri, Apatosauri, or perhaps Diplodici are attractions at the Santa Monica
Promenade
This is a view of the Santa Monica Pier
from the terrace at the top of the cliffs.
The Santa Monica Pier is famous for it's Ferris wheel and other attractions.
May 12, 2007
Pirates...bigger than life
Now, this is an impressive billboard!
Cap'n Jack Sparrow stands in all his swashbuckling regalia, poised to take the box office
by storm!
This eight story advertisement in Los Angeles is impressive.
'Pirates of the Caribbean' opens on May 25, you can bet it will be the hit of the summer.
May 11
Smart Engineering
I am a fan of the concept of high mileage vehicles.
For that reason I have an interest in the Smart Car.
It's a shame that our own government which should be concerned with getting us to a state
of energy independence is holding off on allowing these cars to be imported into the USA.
It's also a hugely perplexing thing as to why the European auto makers who are
building this car are not equipping it with the US mandated safety equipment, so instead
importers are buying them from dealers in Europe and shipping them here to be retrofitted
in the USA to meet US standards. This seems a 'double-hit' on economy, making the cars
higher priced than if they were properly manufactured in the first place. Also the
re-engineering to meet US regulations brings the mileage down from the 60 MPG of Europe,
to 37 MPG.
The Smart Car is projected to run some $15K to $25 K. Cars like these should be
manufactured in the USA by US citizens. And the price must be low enough that it makes
sense to get the car and save money on gas.
The Smart Car in Canada is diesel, gets 70 MPG and costs $12K.
It makes no sense to overpay for good mileage; until things change, yes Americans will be
idling on the 405 getting terrible mileage but in their older less expensive cars.
Edmonds.com has a great article on the Smart Car.
I found this cute little car driving around Santa Monica (across from Sur La Table)
the other day.
It was striking enough that I had to take photos of it.
I think there is a market for these vehicles in the US, as is echoed by MSNBC. Sure,
many people say Americans won't take to small cars, but I think folks will for the
purposes of economy alone.
With gas prices nearing four dollars a gallon in California, it makes good sense to get
high mileage out of your daily commuter.
This is the view from across the street.
It reminds me of the 'Sunfish' that one sees off the California coast.
They appear as a fish or car with the back half inexplicably 'gone'.
This is the reason I think Americans will take to smaller cars.
This photo was taken on the second of May 2007. I think in five years we'll look back at
this photo and wish gas were 'only' $3.61 a gallon.
May 10
A bakery gaily decorated with bright murals in Eagle Rock
Calif.
May 09
Rock stacks
~Lewis Carroll~
'Alice in Wonderland'
"If you knew time as well as I do,
You wouldn't talk about wasting 'it'...
It's 'him'."
On a country road near the beach, I found little stacks of rocks, I
replaced some rocks that had fallen down, to give a nice height to this whimsical waste of
time.
May 08
Time to thin the plums
Any environment can only handle so much bio-mass, it is dependent on the health of the
particular Eco-system and it's accompanying circumstances. Just as a checking account
cannot allow unlimited withdrawals without accompanying and equal inputs, a fruit tree
cannot allow an overage of fruit to grow to their largest most marketable size.
The tree above; a Shiro plum is a good example of the philosophy of fruit thinning.
This photo shows the same branch with the fruit thinned. We try to remove the majority of
fruits, removing all but one from each bunch, and keeping a couple or three inches between
individual fruits. If you do not do this, you will let the tree try to ripen all the
fruit, and what you have will be a great many small fruits with large pits. With thinning
you should get the same size pits, with a larger fruit content around it.
One thing about this technique, is no matter how good you think you got it thinned, the
next day you can look and see several areas where bunches of grape sized fruits hang in
profusion still.
This is the ground under this tree after our thinning. We removed several hundred little
fruits, this is hard for most people to do. It is analogous to the terrible word 'triage'. But it is
essential, especially in trees such as plums and apricots that tend to have cyclical
harvests (biennual
bearing), meaning one year an overly large harvest that stresses the tree, and the
next year, a very small harvest as the stressed tree takes it easy for the summer to renew
it's strength.
There is an environmental component to this concept of heavy fruit set every other
year...it goes like this.... one year the tree has very little fruit, the local animals do
not see it as a verifiable and routine food source, so they do not await it's fruiting nor
travel distances to get it's fruit. The next year it yields very heavy yields, this time
the animals around are not expecting fruit, so much of the fruit falls to the ground
unmolested and able to grow. So it might be a procreation advantage to bear alternately.
May 07
This 'No Va' does move
We live down a three mile dirt road, it is a long slow dusty trip in
and out. Most of us have 'beater' cars and trucks, but there is the occasional luxury car,
sports car or Hot Rod that comes in and out daily.
This is a 1964 Nova built and owned by a neighbor, Randy. He and his Dad built the
powerful engine themselves (totally souped-up), and Randy drives the road at five or ten
MPH so he doesn't rattle the car to pieces. Every time he gets to the pavement at the end
of the canyon, he stops and wipes his shiny machine down so it stays nice looking.
Randy's a good kid, kudos to him and his folks for raising him up well. He's studying web
page building at his High School now.
An interesting marketing reminder is that different populations will
take or reject a product based on name alone. For instance, in Spanish 'No Va' means 'It
won't Go'. So the Chevy Nova (one of my favorite cars) never made good inroads in the
Latin Countries market (which leaves all the vintage Novas for us Gringos).
May 05
Livin' in the Boondocks
'Boondocks'
~Little Big Town~
I feel no shame
I'm proud of where I came from
I was born and raised in the boondocks
One thing I know
No matter where I go
I keep my heart and soul in the boondocks
And I can feel
That muddy water running through my veins
And I can hear that lullaby of a midnight train
It sings to me and it sounds familiar
And I can taste
That honeysuckle and it's still so sweet
When it grows wild
On the banks down at old camp creek
Yeah, and it calls to me like a warm wind blowing
It's where I learned about living
It's where I learned about love
It's where I learned about working hard
And having a little was just enough
It's where I learned about Jesus
And knowing where I stand
You can take it or leave it, this is me
This is who I am
Give me a tin roof
A front porch and a gravel road
And that's home to me
It feels like home to me
I keep my heart and soul in the boondocks
You get a line, I'll get a pole
We'll go fishing in the crawfish hole
Five-card poker on a Saturday night
Church on Sunday morning
Say a little prayer for me
The neighbor's cattle get loose sometimes and run all over the place. They enjoy getting
away from their old regular haunts, for the chance to roam to new areas with new greener
grass.
The ear tags are registered so the animals can be traced to the owners. We know who these
little beefs belong to. Cattle are kind of funny, they give an initial impression of
stupidity, but sometimes, their curiosity reveals a bit more in that (tasty) brain than
you'd at first suspect.
They will usually move out of the way as you go by (well, they ALWAYS
move, just sometimes you have to get a lot closer). But you don't ever want to slam your
vehicle against something like a cow, horse, or moose (we have no wild moose here, so I'm
safe as far as that goes).
These photos were taken on a foggy morning, one of those times when the
wet forest duff swallows all the sounds of the morning.
May 04
Coffee Shop Murals
Murals inside the Coffee Shop in the Vons Center in Nipomo California
May 03
Santa Monica Third Street Promenade
The Santa Monica Promenade is a really fine place to come and spend an
afternoon.
The shops are really fine, but the real attraction is the people watching that can be done
at this little three block area.
The promenade is a three block area that is closed off permanently to vehicular traffic,
so you walk on the nicely cobbled street, and many restaurants have tables out on the
sidewalks in front of the establishment. It all makes for a very friendly small town
almost carnival atmosphere.
At the South end of the Promenade there is a series of water fountains that are also
topiary pieces made to resemble dinosaurs.
The one above is a Stegosaurus.
The beauty of the architecture is impressive, but no less so than the people who come for
the world famous shops, or maybe just to hang, show off their bling and have a fine
gourmet meal.
This area is very clean and almost Spartan-like in its simplicity.
Yes, this is the premier attraction in Santa Monica.
May 02
Canyon Walk
I took a walk along the creek the other day. The water is still flowing
even though the winter has been dry, hopefully it will continue all year, although already
there are spots where the water travels underground, and the creek surface is dry.
The roots of massive trees buttress the banks, and anchor the trees to
an otherwise precarious position next to waters that flow swiftly during the winter rains.
May 01
Earth Day Celebration
Our neighbors had an Earth Day Celebration/Party on Sunday. We attended
and had a good time.
This photo shows the dedication of the Torii Gate on their property.
Al and Val, the best local musicians for many miles around showed up
(they are neighbors also) to lend their talents to the celebration.
If you ever need a Janis Joplin sound-alike singer, Valerie sounds just like Janis did,
and has toured with Big Brother and the Holding Company.
Al is a most serious musician and can masterfully play a wide array of stringed and
keyboard instruments. He is one of the few people I have seen who has mastered the Banjo.
As most of our parties in the canyon are...this one was a potluck. You
can see our contribution of cactus salsa on the table. But I was amazed at these little
'kabobs' made of fruits and vegetables and cheeses. They were so artistically created,
that it seemed a shame to eat them. They should be on display in a case in a museum...but
I ate a few, reluctantly leaving some for other revelers.
All of our local parties center around music and food, but I suppose that is the way and
wish of all peoples around the world... food, family, friends and fun.
Our canyon is composed of such an eclectic mix of people, with varying national
backgrounds, this was reflected in the variety of foods brought to this gathering.
Note the table is made from one huge slab of Sycamore that the neighbor
cut with his portable sawmill. It is a few inches thick, and perhaps fifteen feet long.
They had two of these planks set up as tables, and they were both packed with food by the
time everyone showed up.
The neighbors have two huge poodles. Now, these ain't your little
'foo-foo' poodles, these are the ones that I can look at and actually believe that poodles
were bred for hunting, they are impressive dogs, and friendly to boot.
