“ Turn-the-other-cheek pacifism, only flourishes among the
more prosperous classes,
or among workers who have in some way escaped from their own class. . . .
To abjure violence it is necessary to have no experience of it."
~ George Orwell~
“ If you want peace, prepare for war."
~Flavius Vegetius Renatus~
“ To the meaningless French idealisms of Liberty, Equality, and
Fraternity,
we present the German realities of Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery."
Kids back in these hills don't go trick-or-treating. The
distances between houses is just too far to make it practical. Folks here who want to
train their kids to beg for food go into town and walk around the neighborhoods there. The
treats from the 'Townies' beat the tricks you are likely to get from locked gates, mean
dogs, and shotgun-wielding Country-Folks who aren't used to vehicles they don't recognize
coming up their drive.
Still, it is nice to see folks being nice and friendly-like.
Notice the warning signs. Ranch-Watch is in effect in these areas.
Another neighbor of ours has a sign saying...'No
Trespassing, Trespassers Will Be Violated'.
October 30, 2007
Hunter's Moon, Blood Moon
The Full Moon in October is often called the 'Hunter's Moon' since it
is a good time to get the larders full of meat for the winter. The animals back East are
more likely to be fat from the autumn nuts harvest.
The Chinese call it the 'Kindly Moon', the Cherokee call it
the 'Harvest Moon', and the Old English called it the 'Blood Moon'.
Right now, with the smoke from the Los Angeles/San Diego fires, the reddening
effects of the particulates has given an eerie orange tint to the full moon which occurred
on the twenty-sixth.
October 27, 2007
The Green Green Grass of Home
Yesterday it rained, this brings us to three small rains in the last month, it has already
caused the Autumn grasses to start growing up.
The animals around here will be relieved to be able to eat
something nice, green and tender again.
Hopefully the next few months will bring rain every few weeks, enough to get
the grasses to growing well, and to replenish both the water tables and the reservoirs.
Autumn is the season for rebirth and renewal here, and we could sure use some
rain, but they say you have to be careful what you pray for.
This is pretty early for the autumn rains, but they are welcome for sure.
Our neighbor who is a wild animal expert for sure, told me that the deer are
now eating acorns. And that their travel patterns have changed. He says they are now going
from tree to tree trying to find which trees have the largest acorn drop. The acorns he
says, bear differently on different trees each year. In other words, the oak trees
practice what is referred to as 'alternate bearing', meaning each year their production
levels rise or decline based on some internal scheduling.
One of my favorite singers, Joan Baez sings 'The Green Green Grass of
Home
October 26, 2007
God must be a Cowboy at Heart
~Chris LeDeux~
Campfire coffee from a tin cup in my hand
Sure warms the fingers when it's cold
Playing an ol' guitar, a friend I understand
It sure smoothes the wrinkles in my soul
Sleeping in the moonlight, a blanket for a bed
It leaves a peaceful feelin' in my mind
Wakin' up in the morning, with an eagle over head
Makes me long to fly away before my time
And I think God must be a cowboy at heart
'Cause he made wide open spaces from the start
He made grass and trees and mountains
and a horse to be a friend
And trails to lead ol' cowboys home again
The night life in big cities is alright for a while
It sure makes you feel good when you're there
But the country's so pretty it goes on and on for miles
And it takes away my troubles and my cares
And I think God must be a Cowboy at heart
This is the canyon where we live.
It's pretty representative of the mixed California
Chaparral/Oak Woodlands environment. The predominant species is the Coastal Live
Oak, and various shrubs collectively known as Chaparral. These include
Chamise, Coyotebrush, Manzanita, Sage and Ceanothus among others.
It makes for a rich and diverse group of plants with many desirable
attributes, but one big danger; fire danger. It's a bit controversial, but there are
getting to be more voices calling for dead-fuel eradication in chaparral areas. I think
that anywhere near a home the chapparel should be controlled to allow the home to more
easily resist fire danger. And even the areas such as the wildlands here, should be
considered for control burns every few decades or so. I think this should be done in a
'hopscotch' pattern. This would give wildlife shelter in the thick brush, and they
will have recently burned areas nearby that will have fresh grass, as well as other areas
burned in the previous decade also nearby that will give more browsing. Wildlife generally
likes the 'fringe' environments, with a mix of resources at their near disposal.
But I am not in favor of clear-fire burns, wherein huge swaths of land are
all burned at once. In nature a fire usually misses spots here and there, that is where
the wildlife will take refuge in the first years after a fire.
Anyways, taking care of the land is a big responsibility, and it must be done
in a way that brings enough economic incentive to make it profitable to keep it in good
shape, and done in an environmentally friendly way. Such that the charge we have
been given to take care of God's land is not dismissed. God must like wildlands a great
deal, He made so much of them, it is us that clear-cuts, plows and destroys so much.
October 25, 2007
'Everything's Beautiful (in it's own way)'
~Dolly Parton~
When I see the clouds form a black summer windstorm
That uproots the harvest and hurls it away
In the midst of such anger, destruction and danger
The storm's even beautiful in its own way
Words can't describe what I feel inside
When I see the beauty in each coming day
What my eyes behold can't be bought or sold
And everything's beautiful in its own way
A half-ton of cactus, all boxed up and ready to go.
Our largest selling cactus, the Nopalea Grande is a bit
eaten up by the deer, and we're still having problems growing enough out to fill all our
orders, but week by week it is getting easier as regrowth comes back.
The particular leaves in the boxes above are the 'deer tongue' types. they
are a different type the deer don't like as much, and they are used more for industrial
uses than food. So we're still able to ship out large quantities of those when asked to.
These went out on Monday afternoon. We meant to pick them all on Sunday and ship out
Monday morning, but the high winds on Sunday made the plants wave all over the place, and
one place you don't want to be in a windstorm is the middle of a large cactus patch with
ten foot plants rubbing their large arms all over ya!
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The wildfires in California are terrible, but yet impressive.
If you'd like to see images from space you can go here to see satellite views.
Seasons change with the scenery
Weaving time in a tapestry
Won't you stop and remember me?
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
Is a hazy shade of winter
The winds have brought the smoke from the Los Angeles fires to our
canyon.
Everywhere I drove along the Highway 101 today;
the hazy gray/blue pall hung over the canyons,
and extended out over the ocean.
This brings home the need to control brush and overgrowth on
a massive scale. Yes, my environmentalist friends disagree with me on this... but since we
all acknowledge that fire is a part of the natural cycles, and that in a natural ecosystem
of this area, fire would probably happen every 25 to 35 years anyway...we can see that
areas which are prohibited from burning for a hundred years, but have no concurrent
removal of dead overgrowth will likely result in a massive conflagration eventually. The
point comes down to this...either we pay to have brush removal done through mechanical or
grazing action on our own schedule....or we pay for massive firefighting when the
mega-tons of flammable material goes up on it's own schedule.
Want to have an Up-To-The-Minute Fire Map by the Fire
Service? Go to ActiveFireMaps to see it.
October 23, 2007
Zorro = Solomon Pico
Solomon Peak, not named after the Solomon of the Bible, but after
Solomon Pico, our own local outlaw of the nineteenth century.
After the American acquisition of the area called by the
Mexicans 'Alta California' (Upper California), there were some people who had their huge
tracts of land taken from them by the American government. I suppose there was a lot of
political wrangling and finagling done by folks to keep their land. Knowing people and the
power structures we tend to build, the ones who resisted the American expansionism were
probably the ones most likely to have their previous land holdings invalidated.
Understandably, many of these folks were bitter and decided to fight the
American interests in any way possible.
One such person was Solomon Pico, who's family had a large Spanish Land Grant near
this area. Once he was pushed off his property, he took up the outlaw habit and robbed
'Gringos' all over California. He became so infamous that any Mexican committing unlawful
acts had his actions attributed to the terrible 'Solomon Pico'.
Our local area became a 'Base of Operations' of sorts for this brigand. The
peak above is named after Solomon Pico, we call it Solomon Peak. His band of outlaws would
camp out on top of the peak when in the area. From this vantage point they could see from
the surf to the inland valleys. Anyone coming from miles away could be seen by his
henchmen, and alarm would be given for either flight or preparations for stagecoach or
miner robbing.
People often grouse about the hazards of modern life, the media present us
with scores of sad stories daily. Yet if we were to be transported back 150 years, we
might well be surprised at how short, brutal and precarious life at that time was.
This is a view of the road half way down Solomon Peak.
Some years after his death, Solomon Pico was given a
'makeover' big-time. His reputation has been burnished with the Hollywood Image Machine
that gave him the name 'Zorro'. He has been transformed from a dirty murdering thief with
a hatred for anything American, to a suave, charming, debonair, and fastidiously clean
lady's man with a strong sense of justice and sympathy for the underdog.
Now it's time for the same machine to spring into action and save the
reputation of Brittany and Lindsey.
Killerreviews.com- "The One Independent Film of 2007 you should see!"
RogueCinema.com- "(Harvest Moon) is one of the best indie horror movies of the
year"
Hollywoodistalking.com- "The cinematography is the caliber of a production with 10
times the budget"
Buy it online now!!! Only $10 signed with FREE SHIPPING!!!!!
October 22, 2007
Dustbowl
~SunTzu~
'The Art of War'
III. ATTACK BY STRATAGEM
12. There are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon
his army:
13. (1) By commanding the army to advance or to retreat, being ignorant of the fact that
it cannot obey. This is called hobbling the army.
14. (2) By attempting to govern an army in the same way as he administers a kingdom, being
ignorant of the conditions which obtain in an army. This causes restlessness in the
soldier's minds.
15. (3) By employing the officers of his army without discrimination, through ignorance of
the military principle of adaptation to circumstances. This shakes the confidence of the
soldiers.
It's interesting how wisdom is applicable across cultures,
occupations and time/space. The ancient words of the Chinese Philosopher Sun Tzu in his most
excellent treatise 'The
Art of War' is as apropos today in a business sense as it was two thousand years ago
in his examination of the principles of warfare.
Wind erosion in Santa Barbara County
Here we see tons of soil being removed from a field by the
wind. Winds can be very destructive of soils when the soil is unprotected through recent
plowing. Pretty much, when you've lost your soil, it's gone for good. I've read
studies that suggest most soils have up to 1/8 of an inch of new soil blown onto the
ground every year. These are soil particles that have blown off of other people's
land. If you have mulches, and living plants on your soil, if is conceivable that
you might actually have a greater soil depth after some decades of receiving in these
soils from other folks.
Sadly, the fields this sand came from will likely not often be managed in a
way that will save the soil. In the new wave of large-scale Industrial multi-national
corporate farming.... the tilth and health of the soil is not going to be seen as the
number one parameter affecting management decisions.... the bottom line is paramount when
you're a hired hand with a manager in another state or country who will fire you for not
planting on the date their matrix has scheduled.
This is the field the sand was blowing from. The hillsides
have been plowed, and now the unprotected soil can blow away when the wind whips up. In
this case, across the Freeway 101.
October 21, 2007
The Fog
The Central Coast of California is an area that has some
ranges in temperature and humidity due to the confluence of sea, shore and interior areas.
This can result in some weather phenomenon such as fog which we see here.
This fog will often be miles-long 'fingers' of moist warm air running over the cold
coastal valleys. The resulting dew-point changes will bring a fog that might run miles
inland from the shore. As the sun comes up and dries the air, the fog will dissipate,
first from the higher spots, then the moisture cooler lower areas. It might be
patchy fog which you run into on the road, and go from clarity to a deep fog in a matter
of seconds.
But it is an eerie yet beautiful thing to see entire small valleys drowning
in a sea of fog, the hills rising like islands out of the slowly creeping gray mass.
October 20, 2007
Hayfield in Nipomo
I took this photo a few months ago when the neighbors were harvesting,
curing and baling their hay.
October 19, 2007
Film 101
I come from a family with fine artists, poets and
storytellers on both sides. Yet sadly my own artistic abilities seldom come to the plane I
seek. Perhaps that is the reason I so love to see artists exhibiting their ability to a
high degree.
When I see the images some filmmakers have encapsulated in celluloid (or
nowadays in digital zeros and ones) on the screen, it makes me realize the creativity in
the human species.
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One such filmmaker is the director Bill Rice, he has made a new film called 'Destination Unknown'.
One of the promos is called 'Teaser'. I think this is probably going to be a fun film to
watch. It revolves around two kids who go on 'Walkabout' Oz style.
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Another is the director Brent Nowak, he has made a film called 'Harvest Moon'.
I've seen this film, and I tell you, it is really good.
RogueCinema.com said "(Harvest Moon) is one of the best indie horror movies of the
year"
Brent's film company 'Cedar
Street Productions' is selling
signed DVD copies of the film for $10.
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And for inspiration I have to look no further than the young. In this
case it is the young Lady from San Diego, Lisa Comrie. She
has made a great film called 'Sarah Landon and the Supernatural Hour'. This looks to be a fun
film, and it is opening in theaters tonight.
The wonder of this is not only the high degree of fine story and filmmaking that appears
in the trailer, it is also in the fact that Lisa is only 27 years old! I've heard
from so many people about how very hard it is to make a film...and now here we have such a
young lady making what appears to be a top-notch film. So if you see it in your
neighborhood, drop on in and see what promises to be a fine film.
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Yep, there's for sure a lot of talent in this world. And
when the talented share their art, they also share inspiration.
October 17, 2007
Tao Teh Ching Chapter 1
The Tao that is spoken of, cannot be truly explained.
The grandest eloquence cannot define it.
It has no name, and is the creator of Heaven and Earth.
Forced to name it, we can call it the Tao (the Way), and accept that it is great.
When we are lost in desire we can see only the outer manifestations of this greatness.
If we free ourselves from desire we can experience the unfathomable depths,
and know the mystery of the great Tao.
The Mystery and the Manifestations are separate, yet they arise from the same source.
This source is deep; so deep its depths cannot be plumbed.
Within its depths is darkness. The Great Mystery within the darkness,
it is the gateway to all understanding.
Sunrise, Hwy 1, Santa Barbara County
Mornings can sure be nice, but when you're in SB County,
it's hard for things to be going badly.
October 16, 2007
'Uneasy Rider'
~Charlie Daniels~
I was takin a trip out to L.A.
Toolin' along in my Chevrolet
Tokin' on a number and diggin' on the radio
Just as I crossed the Mississippi line
I heard that highway start to whine
And I knew that left rear tire was about to blow
Well the spare was flat and I got uptight
Cause there wasn't a filling station in sight
So I just limped on down the shoulder on the rim
I ran across this trailer with 'scalloped' wheels in Santa
Monica. This scalloping action happens when your tires go flat, but you continue to run
the machine and damage the rims.
I've done this myself to a trailer. I was coming down a steep hill when a
metal piece came off the trailer and 'popped' the tire. I decided it would be too much of
a safety hazard leaving the trailer parked disabled on the narrow road, so I went ahead
and limped on down the road on the rim, tweaking the rim as I went.
Sometimes life is that-a-way, you have to make judgement calls and those
little 'cost/benefit' calculations in your mind. Is the risk of a horrendous accident
worth the near-certain total damage to a rim that you destroy getting yourself off the
roadway? Always, safety must be the paramount factor when considering matters of material
and money. You can always work a bit more to make up the loss of revenue, but you can
never work hard enough to make up for loss of life, or personal injury.
October 15, 2007
Give me some water
'Give Me Some Water'
~Eddie Money~
Mama never understood what it's like for a losing man
When her number one son goes bad playing cards with the Devil's Hand
Daddy got real sick so quick - four walls never understand
I was the one who got good with the gun - took the money from the rich man's land
Give me some water 'cause I shot a man on the Mexican border
Cool, cool water
Give me some water
I need a little water
It's been an extremely dry couple of years for us.
The brush on the hillsides is getting mighty thin.
But, just as the tarantulas promised last month, we have rain coming our way.
This is the view a few mornings ago as the rain-clouds started moving in. We didn't get
much rain, just a quarter of an inch, but it is the second shower of the season now.
The leaves are washed of their summer accumulation of dust, the forest floor is
nice and quiet with moist leaves, and the seeds will soon be sprouting in that winter
cycle of renewal that we depend upon in the California Chaparral.
In many parts of the world the winter brings bitter cold, and a 'dig-in'
mentality wherein one will close oneself up, isolated in the cabin for months, waiting for
the snow to clear and the spring to come again. For us, that is more likely to happen in
the hot summer. The winter is the time many plants grow out leaves that were shed in the
heat of summer to reduce moisture loss. The young annual plants are likely to get their
initial start in the warm showers of Fall, and grow on the largesse of the winter rains.
It is also the time that many California animals bear their young, to live on the tender
succulent new growth of Autumn, and be large, healthy and wise enough to survive the hard
hot and dry summer of seven months with no rain.
It's different here, but we like it.
October 14, 2007
The Zen of Agriculture
Tao
Chapter 64
Peace and tranquility are easy to hold onto and keep.
It is best to deal with matters before they present themselves.
What is brittle shatters easily.
What is small is easy to disperse.
Deal with troubles before they have arisen.
Establish order before disorder has reared itself.
A large tree grows from a small twig.
A terrace nine levels high starts with a clod of earth.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
If you rush into action heedlessly you will rush into your own failure.
If you try to grasp things you will lose your grip.
Therefore the sage does not try to rush to completion, and he does not grasp all about for
things.
In this way he avoids failure and losing.
Often people fail in their endeavors on the verge of completion,
this is because they exercise care at the beginning, and then slacken near the end.
Take as full care of tasks at the end as at the beginning, this will ensure proper
completion.
Therefore the sage desires nothing so much as to be free from desire.
He does not treasure things that are difficult to procure.
He learns to not know.
He practices a return to the natural origin of all things without a practice to that end.
Deer, next to the cactus patch.
This mom and yearling are about thirty feet from the fence
we recently re-inforced and made taller to try to keep them out. They want to get back in
to the cactus patch. All that green cactus on the otherwise tan colored hillside seems
mighty inviting to them.
So far the fence seems to be keeping them out, we have new growth
coming out, and have been able to slowly increase production.
We expect to be back to full production within a month.
Then it will be the beginnings of winter, and the threat of frost.
That's the thing about agriculture, you never know what will come along the
pike in the coming seasons in the way of market prices, competition, draught, plague,
pestilence and war.
If it ain't the deer, it's the gophers.
If it ain't the heat and drought conditions, it is the cold and too much wet.
And if it ain't scale insect, it's ants.
Yeah, we get our share of troubles, but usually we have muddled through
alright the last few years, with just temporarily slowdowns or short curtailments in
picking and shipping.
But year by year we identify the troubles and work to reduce them to a point
where they aren't too much of a hindrance when it comes to production.
We've gotten the scale issue treated by an occasional spraying with Safer's
Insecticidal soap on the susceptible plants (only the Opuntia ficus-indica for us).
The ants are controlled by occasional baiting with Safer's Ant and Roach
Killer.
We trap gophers, got some 25 by April when it seemed too morbid to continue
counting.
Frost is an occasional problem, some years it gets us, and other years not,
I'm hoping for Global Warming to solve the problem for us.
Too much water usually happens here when it is also cold. For the most part,
cactus is better off if the soil dries between waterings. But if it stays cold while it is
wet, that is a double whammy.
Hot and dry is solved by watering when it's hot. The cactus likes moisture
and decent soil to flourish while it is hot. When it's hot, and the cactus gets regular
waterings, production can be greatly increased. The well provides the water in the summer,
which we then spray onto the plants with overhead sprklers.
The deer are now the big problem. They have busted in on occasion, but
usually seemed to be held back by the fence at it's usual five and a half foot height. But
now that they are nearly starving, and have gotten over the fence due to it's coming down
by fallen limb, they are more difficult to control. They got over the fence on a regular
basis until the last two weeks. So far, we detect no new deer activity in that time. We
will continue fence building, adding a double fence to more heavily insulate the cactus
patch from deer predation. By next summer when deer pressure is again high, we might have
a fence that will be an adequate protection against deer.
October 13, 2007
Fruit of the Desert
Rivenrock Cactus Fruits
Here we have cactus fruits from two types of cactus, ready
to be capped and sent off.
We sell these fruits to a processor. They are very tasty and sweet and juicy.
A refreshing surprise to come from a desert plant that does not get that much water.
October 12, 2007
The Creation of Man and Woman
I got this little joke some time ago in an e-mail, but found
it recently also on the site Gates
of Vienna and thought it a fun joke to poke fun at both sexes.
Creation of man
Eve chats with God. “Lord, I have a problem.”
“What’s the problem, Eve?”
“I know that you created me and provided this beautiful garden and all of these
wonderful animals, as well as that hilarious comedic snake, but I’m just not
happy.”
“And why is that Eve?”
“Lord, I am lonely, and I’m sick to death of apples.”
“Well, Eve, in that case, I have a solution. I shall create a man for you.”
“Man? What is that Lord?”
“A flawed creature, with many bad traits. He’ll lie, cheat and be vain; all in
all, he’ll give you a hard time. But he’ll be bigger, faster and will like to
hunt and kill things. I’ll create him in such a way that he will satisfy your
physical needs. He will be witless and will revel in childish things like fighting and
hitting a ball about. He won’t be as smart as you, so he will also need your advice
to think properly.”
“Sounds great,” says Eve, with ironically raised eyebrows, “but what’s
the catch Lord?”
“Well …you can have him on one condition.”
“And what’s that Lord?”
“As I said he’ll be proud, arrogant and self-admiring…..so you’ll have
to let him believe that I made him first. And it will have to be our little secret…
you know, woman to woman.”
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Creation of Woman
One day, after a near eternity in the Garden of Eden, Adam calls out to
God, ‘Lord, I have a problem.’
‘What’s the problem, Adam?’, God replies…
‘Lord, I know you created me and have provided for me and surrounded me with this
beautiful garden and all of these wonderful animals, but I’m just not happy’
‘Why is that, Adam?’, comes the reply from the heavens.
‘Lord, I know you created this place for me,
with all this lovely food and all of the beautiful animals, but I am lonely.’
‘Well Adam, in that case I have the perfect solution. I shall create a
‘woman’ for you.’
‘What’s a ‘woman’, Lord?’
‘This ‘woman’ will be the most intelligent, sensitive, caring, and
beautiful creature I have ever created. She will be so intelligent that she can figure out
what you want before you want it. She will be so sensitive and caring that she will know
your every mood and how to make you happy. Her beauty will rival that of the heavens and
earth. She will unquestioningly care for your every need and desire. She will be the
perfect companion for you.’, replies the heavenly voice.
‘Sounds great.’
‘She will be, but this is going to cost you, Adam.’
‘How much will this ‘woman’ cost me Lord?’, Adam replies.
‘She’ll cost you your right arm, your right leg, an eye, an ear, and your left
testicle.’
Adam ponders this for some time, with a look of deep thought and concern on his face.
Finally Adam says to God, ‘Ehhh, what can I get for a rib?’
The rest, as they say, is history.
October 11, 2007
"...Where the Alligators Dance..."
Alligator Lizard (Elgaria multicarinata), San Luis Obispo County
California
I saw this fellow sunning himself on a nice fall afternoon.
He is a bit unusual in that he still has his entire tail, you can see it's never been lost
and re-grown because they come back a different shade and texture and usually seem always
'stubby'. I didn't have a tape measure, but I'd guess him to be some fifteen inches
from snout to tail tip.
I remember in Spain we used to find these really huge lizards. Now granted, I
was a kid, and the 'over-my-head' snowdrifts I remember from North Dakota a few years
earlier were probably really just four feet high, and the 'giant lizards' I remember as an
eight year old in Spain were probably two feet long. But at any rate, it is fun to travel
around some and see the variations in life we have on Earth.
October 10, 2007
Grape crush
We got invited to a neighboring canyon for a grape harvest
and crushing from a small backyard vineyard in a local canyon.
The people were great, the potluck was fine, the entire afternoon was a
blast. To be in the country on a plot of land surrounded by oak forests and quiet,
while a crowd of people pick grapes, exchange recipes, talk about the kids and eat; well,
what can ya say...."It don't get much better than this".
We have this wonderful planet, we have this great country, and we have some
fine people in this land, we are indeed blessed.
A neighbor holds the basket while I pluck grapes (and too many leaves)
from the overhead arbor.
A couple of the neighborhood girls squish the grapes to get the juice.
The aroma of the freshly squeezed 'concord' juice is heady and intoxicating.
I suppose it's fair to say that there is nothing like it.
We used to be a nation of yeoman landowners. People who are
trying to make their food from the ground are a bit more likely to understand the depth of
our dependence on nature and the natural cycles of the earth. Perhaps too many people have
moved from the 'cradle of life support' to the cities. The Founding Fathers had the idea
that the average American would continue to be small family farmers eking out a living
from the ground. But my, how things have changed.
October 09, 2007
Just my luck
We were invited to an informal pot-luck meal in a neighboring canyon.
This is some of the food that was there.
It was all tasty, but dang, them stuffed peppers sure were really, really good!
October 08, 2007
If you build it, they will come
(or maybe not, who knows?)
L.A. Freeway in May
Heading to the 405 from the 310 in Santa Monica
The 310 is often referred to as 'America's Busiest Highway'
The 405 is referred to as America's Largest Parking Lot
And the 405 101 interchange is among the busiest highway interchanges in the land.
Have you ever wondered why there is such a shortage of concrete for the
millions of tires this area rolls on? The Santa Monica Mirror has an article called 'Who Framed the 405?' which details the abundance of highways (3) that
were originally designed to serve this area, but were nixed for political and other
reasons. So the 405 is now carrying not only the projected load of traffic it would have
before, it is also carrying much of the traffic that the three other highways would have
taken if they had been built.
A similar situation exists in Santa Barbara; north and south of that
most beautiful of American cities the 101 Freeway is three lanes. Just as you
get to the middle of Santa Barbara it chokes down to two. The two lanes carry not only the
same traffic as was on the three lanes north and south, the two lanes also carry the load
of Santa Barbarans moving across their fair city. This results in a huge amount of traffic
slowing in the middle of town.
The State has tried to get the highway widened, but there is a core group of
townspeople who resist such a move, they think that if the highway is widened it will
encourage more traffic, so instead of traffic moving swiftly, they get gridlock. That is
erroneous thinking it seems to me. I travel through SB because I need to get north or
south, not because it's a nice day to drive. But I am sure I'd pollute the SB air a
lot less if I were travelling through quickly and not sitting and idling from Milpas to
Montecito. Oh well, what'cha gonna do?
I believe their logic actually illustrates the "Law of unexpected
Consequences', although a small highway trying to carry too much traffic cannot be
considered to be 'unexpectedly' overloaded.
October 07, 2007
Morro Bay Highway
“ The grass is not in fact always greener on the other side of
the fence.
Not at all. Fences have nothing to do with it.
The grass is greenest where it is watered."
~W. Somerset Maugham~
Hwy 1, South East of Morro Bay California
This shot was taken in Springtime, the weather has now
returned back to the cool cloudy and breezy conditions of Spring. So the photo could be
taken in October, but....the grass in green in this photo. Right now, the
grass is tan and dormant or dead.
Speaking of Springtime...uh, I never ever thought I'd ever
have anything good to say in the same sentence with Hitler and Nazis, but Mel Brooks came
up with a strange zinger (that man's a genius) that pokes fun at Hitler in the oddest way
ever.
I'm not a fan of Hitler, Nazis or musicals, but this is one film that
wraps all of these 'non-fun' things into one amusing little 'play within a film' a part of
which you can see in the clip below.
October 06, 2007
You Got a Beef with McDonald's?
I'm not a big fan of McDonald's. Nothing personal,
it's just that I like my one dollar Spicy Chicken Sam'ich and the one dollar burger from
two other folks who sell through huge chains. And those are a once-a-month indulgence (I
have plenty of reserve food with me at all times). But when I got an e-mail from
some beef people I know that said that McDonald's was importing beef from South America in
order to get it cheaper, I knew I'd have to check into this a bit before mentioning it.
Initially the mail seemed to make sense, I'd heard for decades that the rain
forest is cut down to grow vegetables for a few years until it can't sustain that level of
production on the thin jungle soils, then they let it go to grass and grow lean beef until
the soil becomes so weak it transitions to semi-desert. And the mention of less
rigorous cultivation and husbandry techniques seemed to indicate that the nation's food
supply was imperiled.
I'm a fan of our American agricultural system; not only have we successfully
merged modern cultivation and mechanical techniques, we have also reduced pollution of
both soil, waterways and air with our implementation of severe (some say draconian)
environmental regulations. Progressive requirements regarding working conditions and
safety issues have had a positive effect on the farm worker. And a nationwide system of
food safety checks has resulted in what is arguably the safest (but perhaps not the
tastiest nor healthiest) food supply in the world.
That being said, I understand why people would want to import foodstuffs from
other countries: one reason would be to obtain foods not regularly available in this
country. This is usually remedied in the indomitable spirit of this new land wherein
someone will begin to produce the new food domestically if it can at all be done (witness
the domestic marijuana crop; you make it harder to import, you get more local production).
Another reason one would import would be due to the food being less expensive, and the
third reason is the unavailability in certain times of the year for seasonal produce i.e.:
summer fruit in winter from the southern hemisphere, or early fruit grown in Mexico.
There are hazards with importation of foods from other countries. For all the
beating the good ol' USA gets on the world stage for being a polluting money-hungry
oppressively capitalistic regime, we actually have among the highest (if not the highest
outright) environmental, social, and economic standards in the world. And the growers of
food in other countries will often use near-slave labor, chemicals banned in the USA, and
improper application techniques by unlicensed persons who are not properly equipped
safety-wise.
While SNOPES pointed out to me that the e-mail I got is not correct, it does
drive home the fact that there is no national standard requiring country-of-origin to be
revealed to the food purchaser. We are proud both of the cactus we grow, and the fact that
it is produced solely in our own lovely county of San Luis Obispo California, and
untouched other than by American citizens. We're proud of our country, and we're proud of
our family and our cactus.
October 05, 2007
Peruvian Torch, in California
John, peeking through a Cereus peruvianus
plant at a friend's house.
October 04, 2007
Vertical Strata in the Canyon
The earth moves and heaves under our feet.
Layers of soil are laid down by the waters, and deposited as new seabed, only
to be heaved high by subducting
plates of the earth. These plates which are pushed high then become dry land with the
strata layered like a chocolate cake. When the plates collide with great force the layers
(called strata) can be pushed and pulled in many directions. In this case they have been
pushed to a nearly vertical position. What huge amounts of force is needed to accomplish
this task.
The crevices in the rock will sometimes allow surface water to be taken deep
into the ground to be held as geologic impoundment water, available for the few springs to draw
from, providing the wildlife with a slow but steady water supply.
October 03, 2007
San Luis Obispo Peaks
There is a series of granite outcroppings in the San Luis
Obispo area. These are the result of lava forcing it's way through the soil as the Earth's
crust moves over a 'hotspot' underneath. In time some of the soil eroded away, leaving
these granite caps exposed.
There is a ranch at the base of this one. The rock makes the ground
unsuitable for farming, and even beef has a hard time in such an area. But what a
natural beauty to live at the base of.
What a beautiful little planet we have to call home.
October 02, 2007
Garbage Man
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
not with a bang, but with a whimper
~T.S. Elliot~
I saw this Garbage Man at a neighbor's front yard.
The story I heard on this is the Garbage Man was
built as a project at the local High School, and the Aggie Kids (that'd be Canyon kids and
others) liberated (stole) him as an ongoing rivalry they have. He has now been safely
secreted into a secret spot in the hills.
Thirteen minutes of Stephen King's 'The Stand', the beginning of this
segment begins with 'Trash Man' wandering in the desert, suffering from radiation
sickness.
I think The Stand was the best of Stephen King's books. And other than Carrie, it was the
only one that really made a good film. His writing style just does not translate well into
film, but for reading, oh yes, they are good books.
October 01, 2007
Old Houses in the Canyon
This canyon first started getting people moving in and
staying in it during the 1880's. Many of the people in the canyon are descendents of the
selfsame settlers that put down roots here over one hundred and twenty years ago.
As such, there are a few old houses here, that still stand as monuments to
the self-sufficient pioneers, the same kinds of folks who helped open this country up to
it's potentials.
Probably the oldest house in the canyon is this stone one
room house that was mainly used as a line shack for cowboys who would come into the canyon
to round up the cattle that had wandered in for the water and greenery that exists in this
canyon. The cattle would be rounded up and corralled on the flat spot nearby, and then
when they had done the branding and separating out, they would drive the market steers
down the canyon, to the mouth where they would be driven further on to market, the docks,
or the trainyards.
This small stone cabin is made of the native stone in the canyon. Much of it
appears to have been dug out from a spot behind the cabin. The dug out earth area has a
very square shape to it. I suspect that it was also one time walled in and covered with
dirt, to make a dark and cool cellar in which to store perishables.
One women in the canyon once told me that her grandfather along with some
other young cowboys about 1910 were spending a week or so in this cabin and were drinking
one night after the roundup. The grandpa and another cowboy took to fighting (fueled by
local liquor no doubt), in the end, her grandfather had knocked the other fellow out and
had to be restrained as he was trying to stuff the other fellow into the chimney.
This grandfather was also the same fellow who once had someone snatch his hat off
his head in a saloon in town and toss it onto the antlers of a deer mount high on the
wall. He got angry, took out his pistol and shot the antler off the deer mount to retrieve
his hat.
And there is another story of him and the revenuers some years later. He
escaped on a horse and they were afraid to pursue him into the woods, since he knew the
area so well, and was known to be a bit lawless and ruthless. His still was destroyed but
they never tried to prosecute him.
Even to this day, the police seldom come into this canyon. Their radios do
not work due to the steep and high canyon walls. Recently two neighbors took to displaying
firearms and shouting, someone called the police who came and simmered them down. In the
end as they left the officers said "you all in this canyon have got a reputation of
handling things yourselves without any outside interference, lets get it back to that,
OK".
Yes, we like our sense of isolation and separation from society. (I don't
think those neighbors are talking yet though, but at least the shouting is done).
Here's another view of the stone cabin. notice the 'Neighborhood
Watch' sign to the side. Yes, we consider this a neighborhood even though hardly anyone in
the canyon can see or hear their neighbor's houses. But when we're driving around, we know
the cars and trucks that are usually here. Don't go into rural areas with the aim of
taking things from remote houses. This would be a very dangerous thing to do.
We have also had a few meth labs that have set up for a while. But they never
last long. Once the neighbors find out what's going on, they put a stop to it, and the
offenders end up leaving their rented rural house in the middle of the night, never to
return. We don't want the police to have to come here, we try to take care of our
neighborhood ourselves, the same way it's been done here for a century.
I'd guess this little green House to be perhaps eighty years
old. It has an outhouse nearby, that is rotting, but still standing (we had an outhouse
until fifteen years ago ourselves, eventually our son blasted it all to pieces with a
shotgun). This house was originally built without electricity (power came here in the
fifties). Someone wired the little house with exposed Romex cable for power, and there are
some outlets and switches. But my guess is there has never been a telephone or television
in this house. The Telephone cables were strung into here in 1972. If we want television
it has to be satellite since the high canyon walls block airborne TV reception, and at
this spot, my guess is satellite would not work either, the hill is too close to the
house. This house has been empty some twenty years now.
Here's another little house. This one is occupied
intermittently, but my suspicion is that no one will live in it ever again. It's just too
tiny and cold in winter in this spot where the sun hardly ever shines due to the high
canyon walls. It has been unoccupied for half a year or more.
There is an outhouse behind this house also.
