West Vista Urban Farm

Dog Fur' the Birds' Nests

2012-01-25T21:29:00.000-08:00

Honestly, I didn't realize how fast her fur would grow. Our Shih Tzu's grooming needs are high maintenance! Luckily, she doesn't shed; she is hypoallergenic and fortunately so small that it takes very little time to brush her and it's relaxing to do so.

I've been training our puppy, Georgie, to chill out by rewarding her with food when I brush her, trim the fur around her eyes and between the pads on her paws. Until I know she is comfortable being groomed, I plan to do it myself.

Georgie's first beach and camping trip at Bodega Bay, CA. Note her long and bushy fur.

When we were at the beach, burs got stuck to the fur under her chinny-chin-chin.

As you can see in the photo above, fur even grows into her mouth! The fur on her legs was making them look stumpy, and the fur on her body was heading towards the ground, so I decided to give her a haircut one evening when she was very sleepy. It probably took three hours spread out over a couple of days to trim her evenly.

Afterwards, I couldn't bare to throw the silkiness away. "It's for the birds." I thought to myself, for I had heard that birds use animal fur to make their nests.

This photo is one of the "in-between" cutting stages where Georgie looks butchered, but I got it looking much better. I promise.

I couldn't trim her all at once. She would get nippy, and so I let it go until the next time she was sleepy...

...and the next. Little by little I trimmed it.

Then I stuffed it into a mesh bag which previously held tangerines.

I am imagining that a bird will grasp the mesh with its feet and hold onto it while it plucks the fur out with its beak and flies away to weave it into its nest. Making use of the pre-sewn side and bottom of the bag, I simply cut it down to a third of its size and sewed the open side closed with raffia.

The question is: will the birds find and gather the fur from the mesh bag I've provided them? Being winter, it's too early to determine, but during the spring mating season, our family will watch the bag's contents to see if it dwindles.

Georgie seems to like her haircut. It makes her look thinner and she feels softer now. It's less maintenance when her fur is shorter, but in three months, it will be long again, just in time for me to supply more of her fur to the birds. No bother. Providing nesting material for the birds is a way to attract them to our yard.

Exhibition Without Walls: Desert Landscape Photography

2012-01-16T16:35:00.000-08:00

Picassa's editing features make it easy for anyone to alter and to improve their digital photographs. And that's what I've been up to. Editing photos from our visit to the Coachella Valley Fringe Toad Lizard Preserve in Desert Hot Springs, California with my family. That oasis surrounded by wilderness is where David and I did a seven mile hike one morning while the kids slept in. It's also where we visited at dusk on New Year's Eve, my birthday. I'm 45.

The usual tools: crop, straighten, sharpen, saturate,...

...add highlights, fill light, shadows, or soft focus and shading may be used to enhance an image.

Since my 2001 computer died, however, I uploaded a 3.9 version of Picasa onto my laptop and I've been messing around with many other photo-editing tools that come with Picnic including:

...museum matte and...

..."duo-tone."

This is my favorite desert image due to my angle-of-view and composition. Starting at the bottom right side of the photo, the rippling sand leads ones eye back to the chiseled mountain range, over to the right and up the mesquite. The "tint," "matte," and "pencil sketch" features produce an oil pastel look adding texture and more details than I noticed when I was actually there.

The "pencil sketch" feature delineates the spaces and forms in this desert image.

Simple delicate lines and a cobalt tint captures the grace of the hawk on the shrub.

Purists might say that a good photo doesn't need altercation. But I say, why not mess around, enhance, and have fun with your photographs? All ages may use their photography as a form of meditation; as a means to engage your brain creatively; or as art therapy.

View of an oasis from an arroyo,

b&w pencil sketch photograph

Seems like this image is a movie still and the hawk, featured in "vignette" will aloft shortly to capture its prey.

HDR-ish effect is like the sharpen feature stoked on Pete's coffee and it makes the subject have a three dimensional quality.

Blurry, the reflection of palm trees combined with the HDR-ish effect emphasizes contrasts and textures in the image above.

The "1960's" and "Lomo-ish" features combine to achieve an "Apocalypse Now" look visible in some scenes of Coppola's famed movie.

Sometimes involuntary movement of your camera creates a streak of light in low light situations. That mistake combined with the "Lomo-ish" effect and an altercation of the color, made this photo slightly different and more interesting than the same one above it.

It was getting dark in the park, past closing. Cecil and I ran to catch up with David and Chet. Apparently the Naturalist was hassling Young O, who had remained in the Eurovan obsessively reading. No worries. I got my desert fix for my birthday and more landscape art photography to play with.

Go West and Note the Changes

2012-01-13T12:10:00.000-08:00

Hello Regular Readers,

I've got benchmarks to share.

First and foremost I got rid of my tired old header and changed my background. (BTW: being born in 1966 may have something to do with my new look.)

'Been blogging for 3 years this February! Whoot! Whoot!

Recently rewrote my Blogger user profile to read:

For twenty-one years, David and I have been remodeling and landscaping a cracker-jack 60s home above the hood in a funky old neighborhood with telephone polls. We holler at but don't whip our three kids who've been schooled-at-home. In turn, they help me in my apiary; butcher poultry; travel to third-world countries; and eat my weird concoctions with at least one Slow Food ingredient. Go West and discover our alternative urban lifestyle, with still art photography and nature pics.

Dropped "school" from the name of my blog to: West Vista Urban Farm.

See list below for what I write about.

Curriculum ideas for homeschooling include:

science
art photography
history
family travel
math
language arts
music
sports

Beekeeping and products from the hive

Raising poultry (chickens and turkeys) for meat and eggs

Slow Food cooking and food as medicine

Gardening edibles, ornamentals, and decor

Visitor feedback has been most appreciated. Thanks for your generous, thoughtful, and regular comments.

I also want to let people who visit my blog from all over the world know that I'm thrilled to make a connection with you.

Here's a recent glimpse of visitors from this week.

United States

230

Russia

Germany

United Kingdom

Philippines

Canada

Ukraine

Finland

India

Spain

If you search and read "stories in my root cellar" (my archive on the right column of my blog) you may notice that my writing style has evolved. My blog is my creative outlet. I do it to tease my brain and hopefully others too.

Cheers!

Georgie Our Lion Dog

2012-01-04T18:23:00.000-08:00

Whose that little carpet at rest from flying all over?

Why it's Georgie, our five and a half pound pup at 18 weeks.

Cecil selected her from a litter of four.

Georgie is partially potty trained. She holds it until we take her outdoors but she hasn't learned to bark and tell us she needs to go outside yet. She sleeps in our bedroom in her doggy bed. Her itching and snoring sounds were noisy at first, but now I'm getting used to them.

Between six or seven in the morning, David or I get up and take her outside. Fortunately, the lack of rain has been good in that she doesn't get all wet and muddy on her underside.

Georgie likes to hop upon pillows; I think to get herself at the same level as us. When she is reclining on a purple velvet throne, it strikes me like she's been bred for aristocracy, and at one point in time, her ancestors were.

Chet-the-Jet poses as a tough guy while holding Georgie, our lion dog.

Shih Tzu: I've seen it pronounced as: sheet-soo or sheed-zoo; but shit-zoo is how people say it out of ignorance. It is believed that the dogs were originally bred by Tibetan monks who mixed the Lhasa Apso and the Pekingese and gifted the dogs to Chinese royalty who apparently revered them. The dogs represented the epitome of luxury. In places like Peking, perhaps their main purpose may have been to sooth the heart of the person petting their silken fur, like human hair; or perhaps they warmed someone's feet at the foot of a bed.

While I watch t.v., Georgie prefers to lie on my feet and it's really cozy; but I wonder: is it because of her breeding because that's wild.

I'd like to think that our Shih Tzu represents a living manifestation of the Buddhist lion god. This is pure folly, but I'd like to share how I arrived at this idea.

Getting Georgie inspired Cecil and I to learn more about the Himalayas and Tibet. Apparently, the name Shih Tzu, translates "as Lion Dog, so named because the dog was bred to resemble "the lion as depicted in traditional oriental art,"^[1] such as the Chinese guardian lions."

A Wiki article stated: "Reference to guardian lions as dogs in Western cultures may be due to the...misidentification of the guardian lion figures as representing certain Chinese dog breeds such as the... Shih Tzu."

Through my research (which I always share aloud with my family) I began to mistakenly associate the guardian lions in Asian and Indian art as representative of the Shih Tzu. Later, when I discovered that the lions are a symbol strength, power, and regality in the Buddhist religion; and that lions were revered like a god in both China and India, I jumped to the conclusion that Georgie is our Buddhist lion dog. My husband doesn't concur.

Awhile back Cecil and I visited the Asian Art Museum's special exhibition: The Marharaja: The Splendor of Indian Royal Courts in San Francisco. We specifically looked for lions in the art and artifacts and of course we saw them.

People often ask me how we went from owning a St. Bernard to a Shih Tzu. I don't have an exact answer. One day I spotted a man walking his two dogs in our neighborhood. I shouted to Cecil in the backseat of our VW Eurovan, "Those dogs look like little lions!" I stopped the car and pulled over and asked the fellow what kind of dogs they were while Cecil got out to greet them. Well, they turned out to be Georgie's parents. Who knows whether fate, Dharma, or coincidence brought us together that day. At some point I realized that I wanted a dog I could pick up, hold, move, and care for easily. Georgie gives back just as much or more than we give to her.

Although she's a dog, we have a new friend and family member; and whether she acts like royalty or is from royalty doesn't really matter. We love her.

A Mother and Brothers in Arms

2011-12-27T09:08:00.000-08:00

On my New Year's Eve birthday, I'll be with my whole family; that is if we can get our eldest to join us.

I can't imagine why hanging out in the desert and lookin' for critters wouldn't interest him. Once he would have jumped at going away with us, as it was an opportunity to shoot his bow and arrow.

Now, at 6'3," it's hard to get him to go places and to do what we'd like.

Lack of control in knowing who he's with; where he is; and whether he is safe are things I've learned to learn to deal with.

But lately I've been wondering where the Hell the time went? I'm middle-aged and I still think of myself in my twenties. And there's something else that's irritating me: the difference between when our eldest was a baby and now is irritating!

It was easier when our kids were little and I could pick them up and move them where I wanted.

Now our boys don't have much time to spend together, but they're still buds.

These brothers with a four-year age difference have had plenty of down-time together, due to homeschooling, but now that Young O is applying to college in Oregon, our family's dynamic and structure is changing.

Young O works diligently on his Civil Engineering prerequisites. He has been taking classes as a full-time community college student since he turned sixteen.

When he's not studying or playing soccer, producing music is his favorite pass-time. He pursues it like a second job, and his third ones are part-time, working for his Dad, and tutoring English once a week.

The 65' VW bug in the photo above is how Toot gets around. No anti-lock breaks nor air bags. And the air inside smells awful (just fixed). In this antique, life is a different pace. It forces him to drive slowly and defensively. His Pops bought it as transportation to and from school. His Dad wanted him to learn how to fix problems on his car himself. He thinks it will give him the confidence to fix other things, to be a 'doer'.

Awhile back at a Mom's Night Out I was talking out loud: "There comes a time when you don't have any control over your kids anymore."

The reality is that I don't have control over anything and now that our kids are grown, I feel old.
No worries. As a Capricorn (the zodiac sign is the goat) I'll keep on climbing.

BTW: I just asked Young O if he packed his swimming suit as a way to determine if he was going with us and he had. Yippee Skippy!

The 3 R's are now 4: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Refuse

2011-12-13T15:25:00.000-08:00

Awhile back, we were in a grocery store and Cecil pointed at croissants. They were big fresh gorgeous ones packed in a non-recyclable container, and because of that, I told her I wouldn't buy them. I wanted to eat one of those croissants badly, but it pissed me off that it was packaged that way.

For two decades we've been "reducing," "reusing," and "recycling" at home. We are not perfect by any means, but we continue to try and believe that doing so makes a difference.

When we were last at a free day school program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a docent told us about an additional key word to add to our efforts: "refusing" (to buy plastic, new products, or products which are so poorly made that they will break and become a hunk-of- junk in the landfill forever.)

As a parent, I feel like it's my job to model the 4 R's to our kids; and I view it as a way to help mankind not get swallowed up by its refuse.

Recently Cecil and I discussed what each of the 4 R's meant. Then we brainstormed a list (in no particular order) of how we are doing them. I invite you to read and figure out which one of the R's applies to our examples; sometimes more than one applies.

Composting our green waste: coffee grounds, egg shells, and veggies. I throw it all to the chickens who eat it, poop it, stomp and scratch it into great soil. I also have a couple of piles designated for compost and alternate between wet and dry layers (newspapers and leaves). Even when I don't turn it, it's still biodegrading.

Making dirt and using it in the garden.

Buying American-made products.

Buying whole grains, spices, pasta, cereal sugar and flour in bulk and storing in glassware at home.

Building a terrace wall in our yard using the concrete from the cracked foundation under our house.

Building a chicken coop using security bars that were 8 ft. tall that were on the backside of our house when we bought it.

Growing our own living tree; or cutting down trees and tall tree branches in our lot to use as our Christmas tree.

Using discarded plants at construction sites to landscape our own yard.

Incorporating interesting found objects into concrete structures throughout the yard.

Trying not to purchase items made in China because they are poorly made, non bio-degradable, and often made with toxic materials.

Picking up trash in our neighborhood.

Making high nitrogen fertilizer by soaking/stirring chicken manure and water.

Buying one big bottle of biodegradable soap and pouring it into preexisting hand-soap and dish-soap containers to eliminate purchasing more plastic.

When the kids were little, I'd buy used plastic toys, because the items never biodegrade and there are too many of them. (I prefer/collect wood and metal toys.)

Checking out books, audio tapes and DVDs from the library.

Buying used clothing.

Buying antiques or used furniture.

Building things using reclaimed wood.

Making cream, lip balm, candles, and soap.

Making homemade salad dressing.

Using stainless steel containers for water bottles instead of buying plastic containers.

Growing veggies and fruits.

Raising poultry for meat and eggs.

Beekeeping for honey, wax and propolis.

Buying food locally.

Buying organic food.

Making homemade baked goods.

Cooking from scratch.

Eating in restaurants vs. a fast food joints.

Avoiding take out meals.

Never buying antibacterial soap. (I explained why here.)

Washing zip-lock bags.

Bringing our own bags to stores.

Another example:

Once, I contacted the higher-ups at Trader Joe's to complain about the fact that their vegetables were being packed in a non-recyclable containers. I said, "In this day and age, when there are biodegradable options, there is absolutely no reason for vegetables or any products to be sold in non-recyclable packaging." The representative gave me excuses, but the end result is that I've noticed that they are using paper trays instead of plastic and Styrofoam ones to package many of their vegetables. This makes me smile every time I shop there.

The change was due to many people speaking up.

Ongoing effort:

Can you imagine the waste from all the theaters throughout the United States selling popcorn, drinks and candy in paper products that could be composted? AMC theaters won't provide recycling containers in their venues. I've called and written complaints about this and talked to managers on-sight who agree with me, but who say they are helpless to make changes. It makes no sense, especially when the cities the AMC theaters are in provide a green bin for compostable material, and a bin for plastic and metal recyclables. I hope others will complain about this too.

Heck, I've noticed that Delta's in-state flights are recycling and one may take action to get more airlines to do so here.

If we all keep trying to do the 4 R's, we'd help the planet and we'd improve our health.

Please leave a comment about other ways to participate in this environmental effort, the 4 R's.

This is science in action!

Slow Food West Vista Style

2011-12-05T17:27:00.000-08:00

The weather this December in the Bay Area of northern California has been fabulous. The bay, the urban sprawl, and especially the hills on the peninsula have been looking crisp and clean. Consistent, warm and sunny days have contributed to the continued growth of our summer vegetables. I wanted to share our recent harvests, however some of my readers may wish to skip the information about our poultry and scroll down to the veggies.

Our two turkeys are gone now. The weight of the white-breasted turkey was 31.6 lbs dressed and 22 lbs undressed. Ten people were lucky to eat that bird for Thanksgiving. The giblets made our gravy taste delicious. Later a mob of teen boys made themselves turkey sandwiches; and there was still enough turkey meat left for two more meals, tacos and tostadas. I made a huge pot of soup out of the carcass that fed us for dinner and I ate it for my lunch for a week.

The Bronze turkey was 28 lbs dressed and 20 lbs dressed. That bird is still in our freezer and we will be making turkey sausage and soup with that meat later.

People ask me if it's hard to kill our fowl. Of course it is difficult. It's no fun, but a task we must complete.

It went extremely smoothly this time. Our birds were never distraught because of the manner in which they were handled. Our eldest set up all the equipment while I cleaned all the surfaces and prepped all the supplies. Young O and I carried the birds over to David, Chet and his friend, who took turns cutting their carotid artery. Then I dunked the birds in boiling water and spun the feathers off of them. (David had to do the turkeys because they were too heavy to lift out of the boiling water.) Feathers still had to be hand-plucked off of the birds (by me). David and Chet gutted all of them. Then the boys were free to leave. I cleaned all innards and parts of the birds, weighed, bagged, and stored them in the deep freezer. David spent an additional two to three hours power cleaning the mess.

The next day their absence was felt. It was quieter and devoid of the birds' character.

My daughter, husband and I had a routine of interacting with them every day for many months and we enjoyed seeing them milling about the lot. They are very social and curious and they made silly little noises when they were near us. We tried not to, but we did get somewhat attached. A few things are certain in my mind: our turkeys had a splendid life while they were alive with plenty of space, food and shelter and warmth; we definitely didn't take our turkey dinner for granted; and I am grateful to the birds.

David is still picking cherry tomatoes. The ones in the photo above were used in habanero salsa that he canned.

David is still harvesting zucchini in December! We prefer to eat the smaller squash grilled. I had a humongous one that I made zucchini bread out of during the summer, and I still had enough left over to freeze six bags containing two-cups of grated zucchini for more bread later.

The habanero peppers that David planted are lethal.

I ate a dried habanero pepper by mistake (thinking it was a dehydrated cherry tomato). Picture my hands trembling and my eyes watering while I Googled, "what to do if eaten hot chili pepper." The answer: drink milk. In between gulps, my mouth burned like gasoline on fire. Now I love spicy food, but that pepper frightens me!

We now have five Bard Rock chickens. My niece (on the right) is gloating in her confidence of handling the fowl in the awesome sunset light. (The girls are wearing "Forever Lazies" which will be used in another one of our weird Christmas cards this year in a bizarre fashion that only David can imagine.) We harvested our other five Aricaunas on the day that we did the turkeys because they had stopped laying eggs and I don't want to pay to feed them expensive organic chicken food.

In my triangle garden their is a new crop of rainbow chard, romaine lettuce, and mustard greens from the plants I let go to seed and then transplanted. It works like a charm every time.

We've pruned our apricot, fig, and plum trees. Our lot looks naked and exposed, as it should. It's winter for crying out loud.

Shih Tzu "Georgie" visits the wetland

2011-11-30T13:23:00.000-08:00

It's quite endearing; a 6'2" man looking fondly at his stuffed-animal-like puppy. But David wasn't on board with me when I first mentioned that I was interested in the Shih Tzu breed, a toy dog. Both of us were used to big dogs, however, once he saw her, she gained his affection.

David, Cecil and I took Georgie outdoors in my workout bag since she can't walk on the ground until she has all of her shots.

Now he sweeps her off the ground and carries her with him to work in his office. I even heard him tell his cousin that "Georgie is impossibly cute." He also didn't like her name, but he wanted to call her peanut in Spanish, cacahuete, which I knew would have been abbreviated to caca, and that's not very nice. Now he calls her Georgie too, (but he and his cousin still think it's a ridiculous name).

Adding a puppy to our family has been challenging. We all, (well, mostly I do) take turns taking Georgie out to "go potty" morning, day and night. She has to be monitored indoors at all times until she is potty-trained and has stopped teething.

Anyway, David, Cecil, I took our 14 week-old dog to Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline which is managed by East Bay Regional Parks. It's a recreational area good for birding, kayaking, fishing, and biking. It's my favorite place to run and bike because of the fairly flat asphalt trails with a slight incline and water views. Native plants are thriving throughout the park.

The views of downtown Oakland from MLK Jr. Regional Shoreline are unique.

Over the years, it's been interesting to observe the return of the area to its natural wetland state. I've heard that burrowing owls have been sighted and I've seen hare there too.

There is an observatory with a telescope and Cecil, David, carrying the dog, raced up to it.

At this time of year, migratory and native birds are abundant and the pickle weed is a nice autumn color.

The water source is tidal and that day a powerful force of water was receding from the slough in the photo below.

From the bridge where we stood, water was drawn from a strong current back into estuary, to the bay, and perhaps eventually out as far as the Pacific Ocean.

I took a few photos of Georgie on her first outing. She didn't mind being in my bag at first, but she hated the cold wind. After a couple of miles, our pup became distraught and wanted out. I can't wait until we can take her on a real walk, but despite all of her apparent fur, she may actually need a little jacket.

I've got a lot of friends who knit. Maybe I could pay someone to design Georgie a wool sweater for Christmas.

Favorite breakfast of the year: at least one slow food ingredient

2011-11-23T14:46:00.000-08:00

So far, my favorite breakfast for the year was this meal (in the photo above) I randomly made one morning that included: one fried organic Aricauna egg, sauteed mushrooms in olive oil with cracked pepper and a pinch of pink Himalayan salt, and grilled prosciutto. Paired together, the food was simple and delicious. I licked the yolk off my plate and the richness was extremely pleasant and satisfying.

West Vista Urban Farm School: brain teaser

2011-11-16T09:41:00.000-08:00

When I was a little girl, I watched Sesame Street avidly. I particularly enjoyed the songs. If you recall the one below, sing the tune in your mind and play my juvenile game.

"One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is not the same. Can you tell me which thing is not like the other. Now it's time to play our game. It's time to play our game."

These images are from a summer visit to the San Francisco Zoo.

It's obvious there are three birds and the wacky human African deer is different.

This simplistic game is one example of discreet math. (Click my link to find many other examples.) If your child is or isn't interested in mathematics, he/she might be inclined to gain greater confidence and enjoyment of it by trying discreet math. In school, there is only time to teach arithmetic and parents may wish to provide more variety at home.

If kids were presented with fun games, like the math activity I shared here, we might have more people who enjoy it and who aren't afraid of it. This applies to adults as well. After many years of homeschooling our three kids, I've discovered new kinds of math I'm good at.

Thankful for monsoons in the Everglades

2011-11-09T11:38:00.000-08:00

In August 2011, we jumped at a last-minute family vacation before school started and grid-locked our schedules. David and I had always wanted to see the Everglades. Our teenage sons and their easy-going sister were cool with it, and off we went. I mentioned in an earlier post that the heat in Florida in August is deplorable, but with it came the monsoons, and they made us thankful.

Harimohan from Koch, Kerala, India wrote in his Monsoon Poem:

"Rains are like poems of nature wrapped in nostalgia as they bring the warmth of the earth to meld with the pregnant clouds.

The aroma of the soil mingles with the wetness of the air and tingles our senses like the caress of a cool wind. ..."

On our drive from our Miami Beach to Naples, clouds shape-shifted.

The dichotomy of that geographical region baffled us. Who knew that the Temperate Deciduous Forest could co-exist adjacent to Tropical Grasslands and Swamp? I couldn't fathom being an early settler making my way through the dense prickly pear cactus and thorny trunks of the palms, not to mention the mosquitoes and venomous snakes; and yet there are many Seminole Indians who still live there.

We went thinking that the Everglades were a swamp and found out from our tour guide that it's a river and flood plane fed by Lake Okeechobee. In all, we found that it was a truly distinctive landscape, unique to the world, and so different from all the sub-tropical places we've visited in Mexico, South Africa and Central America.

During the second half of a guided tour in the Everglades, the skies broke. Big cold raindrops fell hard and the wildlife kept on. Alligators surfaced above the murky rivulets of the Kissimmee River to breath in what we both smelled, that delicious aroma of ozone that comes with the first onslaught of rain.

I hate to share this but due to the drought and all of the development, the whole area is threatened and so are it's creatures. But good souls are making a difference and you can watch a few videos about their efforts here.

On the way up to the look-out tower, Young O peered over a railing and discovered a monster. A big-old granddaddy alligator rested on the bank in the darkness. He must have been fifteen feet long and a foot and a half wide. He waited there silently, perhaps for a silly tourist to come into his territory. Luckily we were high above it in apparent safety, except for the lightning. In the Everglades, the wilderness felt more powerful than mankind, but they are both extremely vulnerable in their own ways.

Please watch my quickie-slideshow for a glimpse of our brief visit to the Everglades.

By the way, the gorgeous melody in John Anderson's song, "Seminole Wind" were on my mind often that trip. (Aside) I used to listen to it when I was twenty-five and had our first baby, Young O. I looked so young people asked me at the park if I was his Nanny and I had to explain that I was, in fact, his Momma.

You might like another post about our family trip to Florida at Miami Beach.

Dirty water attracts honey bees: true or false?

2011-11-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

This is a follow up post to the one I wrote last summer about how honey bees find water and use it.

Quick summary: I mentioned that I had noticed bees visiting the fountain above last winter and wondered why they disappeared. After research, I read that honey bees prefer stagnant water. I realized that I had been jet spraying out all the leaves and debris left from birds each time I added water to the fountain in an attempt to keep the water clean.

In an experiment for three months since July, I only added water to the existing amount in the fountain and never attempted to wash out the basin. I wanted to find out if my hypothesis: "Does dirty water attract honey bees?" was true or false.

I added a lot of highlight to the photo above in order for the dark murky water to be visible. The effect is quite abstract.

Well, it seems that the dirtier the water in the fountain, the more honey bees I found visiting it. (I tried to capture an image of the bees there, but they all came out blurry.)

I've concluded that if you want your own or someone's honey bees (to be attracted to your yard), provide a dirty water source. It's true.

Now I've marked that off my list off of things to figure out and I explained the whole process to our family during dinner. Sharing my beekeeping activities with our kids has been another way our kids learn "science."

Fall stills around the abode

2011-10-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

One day this fall, the Bay was placid.
The hills on the peninsula were reflected in the baby blue water.
Having never seen that happen before, I ran outside with my camera zoomed in and took the photo above.

Halloween stills from around our home have become a tradition on my blog.

In 2010, this collection of images made goblins giggle.

In 2009, these photographs made earthworms crawl out of the dirt.

Anyway, dress up for the Hell of it this Halloween.

P.S. My first photo of the little orange girl was a print rendered by my good buddy Patrice at Alameda Studio Time.

Food dehydrator: my new best friend

2011-10-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

Since August there's been a constant motor running outside our back door. It's my handy food dehydrator, lately my new best friend, that enables me to preserve the foods we grow and use them later in meals.

Scroll down to see that I dried our apricots and made fruit sticks.

Not shown are the grapes I dried to make two pounds of raisins specifically for oatmeal, raisin, walnut chocolate chip cookies. What I like about the dehydrator is that it concentrates the sugars in an item, for example, even unripened tart grapes taste sweet after being dried.

Also not pictured are the dried peppers used in pork chili verde.

These cherry tomatoes in the photo above are dried in the bowl in the photo below. They have spruced up pizza and pasta thus far.

And the herbs I dried and pulverized, basil and parsley, are my favorite spices for veggie lasagna or any Italian dish or soup.

Next up for dehydrating: Adriatic figs. There aren't as many due to all the rain and cold weather this last summer. They are good in the following: as a sauce to top pork tenderloin; with goat cheese on crackers or in Paninis; or in fabulous fig muffins.

It's really nice to have at least one Slow Food ingredient in a meal and thanks to my dehydrator, we can eat summer foods we have grown year-round. By the way, try using my search button on the top right side-bar of my blog. Enter "slow food" and you'll find more posts featuring local ingredients.

Positively Shih Tzu: puppy-slideshow

2011-10-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

Introducing our newest family member, Georgie.

I'll spare you the turkey talk from my last post and get to the fun stuff: PUPPY PHOTOS!

Friends from Facebook asked me to post photos of our new 8 week-old Shih Tzu, Georgie.

It's not easy to photograph a perpetually moving object, but I had fun trying.

By the way, on right side of my blog, there is an option to "Like" my Facebook Page or to become of "Fan" of it and if you do: Thank you very much!

Quickie-look @ the Toms' growth

2011-10-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's true that domestic turkeys are dim. So how did ours figure out how to escape their paddock, where they free-range?

I heard their barking sounds when I was getting ready to leave and had to stop everything I was
doing and quickly locate my faux Shepard's stick and herd them back down to their designated area.

I spotted the Bronze Turkey banging its beak against the orange plastic fencing and ripping it to shreds. "So that's how they got out." I surmised. Then they made their way up the hill to the chicken coop palace in the photo above and onto the terrace in the photo below.

I'm in awe of our Toms' growth since July but they're not big enough for a Thanksgiving dinner yet. We'll be harvesting the Bronze turkey in the foreground for that day. The Bronze is known for it's darker meat and richer flavor.

We'll continue to let the White Breasted Turkey grow until just before the weight of its breast becomes too heavy for its legs to support it. Beyond that, it would be cruel to keep it alive. It may never get as big as the White Breasted Turkey we raised in 2007 in the photo above.

The animal husbandry at West Vista including: turkeys, chickens, bees, a rabbit and soon a puppy often require immediate attention. The turkeys, for example, are totally dependent upon us for their livelihood. I worry they're wet when it is raining. If it's hot, I replenish their water to avoid seeing them pant. I like taking care of our animals and I have help from Cecil, who consistently secures the Toms inside their coop every day in the late afternoon.

Georgie sweet Georgie on my mind

2011-10-07T16:12:00.000-07:00

Cecil and I are beside ourselves with excitement.

We are getting a new puppy next week and I have to share the photos of her NOW!

Art Deco in South Beach Florida: una dia con mi familia

2011-09-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

Our family had one day to visit South Beach in Miami, Florida. Like Vegas, whether you like it or not (I really don't), it's a place we wanted to see at least once. I was especially interested in the reputed Art Deco there and I hoped that my enthusiasm for that architectural movement would inspire the rest of my family to recognize and to appreciate it.

We set out on a self-guided walk listed in our Moon guide book.

I should also mention that we visited Florida in THE HOTTEST season of the year, August.

Walking in that heat and humidity made our kids miserable and angry at me.

My cheerful remarks about the features we saw along the way were met with irritated glares as depicted by Cecil in the photo above.

But it was truly unique to see an entire community built in the Art Deco style!

Occasionally there were side streets that were Spanish Colonial Revival Style.

At the beach, I saw a gorgeous woman. She was remarkably lithe with a body like a teenager's, wearing huge black bug-eye glasses, a gigantic hat, and simple yet sophisticated attire. Her companion was a guy who looked like a model for Ralph Lauren. When she took off her glasses, I was shocked at her senior age and guessed she was in her sixties. Either she was a cougar or she was with her son or nephew. Who knows? My point is:

People watching was another main attraction for us, but especially our sons.

It was great to see women and men who embraced their bodies.

I invite you to view my slide show below. And by the way, I recommend visiting Florida in the fall, winter or spring, but never in August.

Our domestic turkeys prefer to free range

2011-09-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

Photo by Cecil

Every morning I climb a stile and enter our adjacent lot, the South Forty. I'm on my way to the backside of our poultry coop to release one Bronze and one White Breasted turkey. As I head down the slope, I pull out vines growing around our dwarf Meyer's Lemon and Orange citrus trees.

Once at the coop, I hoist a five-foot rod iron pole up through the wire fence, swing the hatch up, and acknowledge the two birds inside:

"Hey there! Are you ready to come out?"

I bend a wire from the fence over the latch to hold the hatch in an upright position until Cecil directs the turkeys back into the coop for the night and closes it again.

Photo by Cecil

Though our turkeys have shade and water and a bed of straw in their coop, they prefer to range in their paddock freely. Typically they spend their day pecking at ice plant, foraging for insects, and resting with their backs against the fence of a raised bed of asparagus.

Animal husbandry enables our family to imbibe a slower pace of living. In contrast to the honking and gun-shot blasts we hear in our urban environment, I share these quiet images that Cecil took with the hope of providing solace.

Cache Creek Wilderness family backpack trip

2011-09-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

How do we convince our kids to wear a heavy backpack, climb a mountain and camp?

After all, the effort it takes doesn't make sense to most people, so why would it be desirable to our offspring? Without words, our kids know we "expect" them to be able to hike to beautiful places, eat good food, and hang out together in nature because they can and because it's fun!

These factors have helped our kids backpack.

The distance we journey isn't too long (2-6 miles depending on whether it's their 1st or 3rd trip).

We select a destination that ends at water so there will be swimming, fishing or mud fights to look forward to (just joking).

We bring a treat to portion out during the hike like chocolate covered almonds if it's not too hot, or if it is, beef jerky, protein for energy.

There is plenty of good healthy food for them to eat during our stay.

One parent walks at a pace that works for the youngest, while the other parent keeps up with the older ones. Sometimes we let the older ones go ahead, when they know the way.

We always review what poison oak looks like; and how to recognize and how to avoid a rattlesnakes bite.

This is the largest Manzanita we've ever seen measuring about 1.5' in diameter.

We take our time along the way, resting in the shade and sipping water at regular intervals.

David found a perfect arrow head, at least 200 years old!

David and I check out each others stuff and...

A sizable alligator lizard clings to the trunk of an oak tree.

...we check out what the kids have found (unusual insects, reptiles); and we usually count the various flower species we see along our way to distract us from the distance we have to go.

We give them their own pocket knife so they can whittle sticks.

We all get a milkshake and the kids get to choose what they want for their first meal back in civilization.

Finally, we have a mentality about backpacking in our family and here it is: "That's just what we do." Call us weird but we like to backpack.

Last spring (2011) we did about a six mile hike (round trip) and camped for one night in the Cache Creek Wilderness. The hike starts out flat and then heads straight up over a mountain and down to a valley with a river in it.

I assured Cecil and Chet the Jet that all they had to do was make it to the top because the rest of the way was down hill.

Resting on the weight of a stick in a manzanita forest, our nine-year-old daughter shows signs of fatigue from the pack on her back. I waited with her until she was ready to walk some more.

They both did the hike easily although on the way back, our daughter was really tired and hot, but the promise of a milkshake gave her something to look forward to. "There's no way we can carry you." we told her. Newbie backpackers eventually realize that the key to backpacking is having strength, willpower and persistence; that's the glory in doing it.

If the slideshow has ended, hit the arrow in the center of the frame to start it again.

For more information about backpacking in the Cache Creek Wilderness read these links:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT

Maps and Misc.

Handy dandy egg timer: fun stuff

2011-09-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

I gotta shout about my handy-dandy egg timer given to me by my walking buddy and great neighbor from Ireland. You bet its a winner. It's purpose is for boiling eggs: hard, medium or soft, as the timer explains in the photo above.

My other timer is a hen that I twist with pleasure.

Into the pot goes the H2o out of my citron kettle. God I love that color.

All I do is note the color of the timer, the amount of shading. When the surface of the timer is entirely gray, you can bet that my organic free range eggs have been boiled perfectly.

Aside: I meant to post this last Easter, but who-yeah, it doesn't really matter.

After the eggs had been boiled, I chilled them. Later they were all died using PAAS basic colored tablets and some random tye-dye dying kit; after that, they were hidden in Grandma's house; collected; all were accounted for, refrigerated, and eaten in the course of a week-and- a- half. I share this because someone will need to know about this timer any time of year. I don't know where my good friend from Ireland bought it. This is no advertisement, just fun stuff.

An up and down image

2011-09-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

Cecil's doodle captures life's ups and downs.

Please excuse my toes...

The downer in her image above...

A balloon has popped before it was hit by the arrow; and it appears that another one is targeted.

The "up" lifting aspect in the image...

She's drawing another peppy, shiny, and flying balloon to replace the deflating one.

Let it go to seed

2011-08-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

There are plants that you definitely don't want to let go to seed, like the thistle in the photograph above.

I've taken to letting a few of my edibles such as: rainbow chard, mustard greens, parsley, radishes, and onions go to seed. I want to share my success with this method.

Clearly the vegetables and herbs that I have grown from seed stock, from a plant in my garden, are thriving. When I tried growing seeds in containers, the plants were weak stringy things compared to this new method.

Note the chard in the bottom right-hand corner of the photo above that I'm letting go to seed amidst the other producing plants. This method ensures an on-going crop, so I have to want to eat the plant again.

Here's my process:

*Select one healthy plant in the midst of the others in my Diamond Garden and let it go to seed. As far as amending the soil: once a crop has ended, pull most of the plants out, add compost, rabbit or chicken manure. Let the soil rest for a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, all the energy of that one plant is going up the stalk and into the seeds. Fold the seeded plant stalk. Bend it or lay it in the direction you want the seed to spread. It takes quite a while to age.

Shake the seeds where you want the plant to grow. Watch the seedlings sprout, and when they are 2-4 inches tall, transplant them adjacent to the maze of soaker-hose.

*Avoid selecting plants for seed stock that have obvious powder mildew.

Viewing the growth of my garden is something I look forward to every day. It's a visually rich activity and the bounty is delicious (sauteed in olive oil with ground pepper and pink salt):->

Backyard Movie Screen: Using Our Yard

2011-08-17T06:13:00.000-07:00

Whether it's a warm or a cool evening, you'll find us outside viewing movies in our backyard drive-in-like theater. Our kids and their friends enjoy playing video games out there as well.

It took a year of on-again-off-again work but my husband's latest project, an outdoor movie screen, is finito. Here is a brief description about how he made it.

As of late, Mr. Green Jeans purchased an eight by twelve canvas, smoothed out the wrinkles and placed it onto a large wooden backboard or screen made of pressure treated wood. The weight of the screen is supported by a twelve foot steel post anchored in concrete and meant to withstand the sometimes eighty mph winds we get during the winter on our hillside. He ran electricity up through the steel post and rigged an overhead light to brighten the lot if need be.

Recently, he framed the screen with redwood that he stained a green patina. Then he stenciled a sequence of copper images: a moth, a butterfly, a moon and a sun to the trim of the frame. Though he is an Engineer, his projects always have an artistic bent to them.

I appreciate all the ingenious ways that my hubby has made our property user-friendly for our family. And because of the things he's built: the chicken coops, the raised garden beds, the concrete couch, the terraces, and the honey extraction house, we spend a lot of time in our yard. He's given us reasons for using our yard and that's how we stay in touch with nature in our very urban environment.

Apricot Pie and Venus's Reaction

2011-08-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

Apricot pie with vanilla ice cream.

Let's just say I've been totally indulging with my family and enjoying the last days of our summer vacation together. Venus (in the background of the photo) is more embarrassed about it than I am.

Dave's Organic Red Potatoes

2011-08-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

These pictures are self explanatory. They provide a visual for what's been going on the South Forty lately. Afterwards, I'll explain a bit more.

The kids are digging up the potatoes. That has to be one of the funnest activities to do in the garden. As the dirt is removed, and your hand feels a huge lump, it's kind of like discovering gold (but without the cash value). "Eureka! I found a totally weird and huge potato!"

I like this photo of Cecil sitting on the outdoor concrete couch studying/reading the section in the gardening book about how to store the potatoes properly to prevent them from rotting. She's doing it for no reason other than the fact that she's interested. She helped her Dad plant them and so it makes sense that she'd want them to last until we roasted or mashed them for dinner.

My husband builds the terraces or raised boxes and structures in our yard, but I'm usually the one who plants and cares for the garden. When we bought the lot next door to us awhile back, he said he wanted a huge edible garden and I told him that I already had too much to take care of already, and I couldn't add more to it. He said he planned to plant and tend his own garden. I thought to myself that was a great idea. "Now he will finally get it. Now he will understand why I get so angry when a shovel is tossed too close to a plant and breaks a limb."

David has never really had much sympathy for me when I complained about issues like aphids, ants, rust, or powdery mildew. By experiencing his own plot, he's gained an awareness. Dave's red potatoes have been a huge success, however, he's had to deal with: aphids, chickens pecking the greenery, and seedlings drying out because they weren't watered or slugs ate them in one night.

It's been such a relief to have veggies growing, enough to feed our family and to share. And I haven't had to do the physical labor in yet another area of the yard. And David has so much more appreciation for the hard work it takes to grow edibles. It's not easy but it is rewarding.

Wild Turkey Invasion in Your Neighborhood

2011-08-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

While hiking/camping in the spring, my husband and I saw a Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) facing two tents and flaunting his feathers. Apparently, there were females out-of-our view who he was trying to impress, but we were amazed at his regalia.

Twenty years ago, I found it thrilling to see Wild Turkeys in a woodland habitat in the California Sierras. At the time, it was a rare sighting because I lived in the city and they lived in the country. In 2008, it was still uncommon to see a flock in an urban area, and when someone did they might exclaim, "Of all the places, I saw them next to the freeway!" Nowadays they are a common sight in many neighborhoods throughout the East Bay Hills of Northern California. They even live among the elephants at the Oakland Zoo!

If Wild Turkeys aren't in your neighborhood already, I predict they will be. In fact, I think we're on our way (some are already there) to having an invasion of Wild Turkeys in our neighborhoods, which will be problematic for residents. This post contains information and links about Wild Turkeys and their behaviors. With knowledge we can hopefully prevent or know how to deal with problems when we eventually encounter them in our backyards.

While some find the game birds fascinating, others view them as a nuisance. They aren't native to California and they're considered an invasive species. When flocks scratch at a hillside, what remains is dirt; native plants don't get a chance to grow; and native insects, reptiles and bird eggs get eaten by them. According to National Geographic, "in the wild, turkeys typically forage on forest floors, but can also be found in grasslands and swamps. They feed on nuts, seeds, fruits, insects, and salamanders." They live three to four years. Females lay four to seventeen eggs, and feed their chicks after they hatch—but only for a few days. Young turkeys quickly learn to fend for themselves as part of mother/child flocks that can include dozens of animals. Males take no role in the care of young turkeys."

Interestingly, there was a time when Wild Turkeys were terribly threatened and efforts to protect them have been going on since 1905. It's ironic that their loss of habitat, forests, in particular, due to deforestation by humans for wood buildings and farming, as well as hunting, nearly eradicated them, and yet now, perhaps still due to loss of habitat from population growth and development, they've found a way to be successful in the city. My husband's client had a clutch of Wild Turkey eggs in their backyard in Piedmont. So though at one point, while they could be only found in inaccessible niches rurally, the National Hunting and Fishing Day website stated that "the (Wild Turkey) game bird has populations that outnumber more square miles of habitat than any other game bird in North America."

Wild Turkeys have no natural predators in the city, except maybe cars and it's illegal for a layperson to kill them. In an urban environment, their opportunistic feeding tendencies have made them highly successful. They eat plants (your garden) and insects, dog food, cat food, compost scraps, trash remains, basically anything green and or protein. People make the mistake of feeding them and like all wildlife that interacts with humans, while the creatures may seem friendly, they have the ability (especially the juvenile males in the mating season) to be highly aggressive and threatening towards people. Their strong legs enable them to run up to thirty miles per hour. Males have a spur on their legs and sharp nails on their feet. They can fly straight up with ease, and fly thirty miles per hour. Unless they die from natural causes or disease, their numbers will continue to grow.

If you've got a Wild Turkey Invasion, the following resources may be helpful:

According to the "Keep Me Wild" website sponsored by the CA Dept. of Fish and Game, discourage Wild Turkeys from residing on your property. Here are their suggestions:

If turkeys begin feeding under hanging bird feeders, remove the feeders until the turkeys leave the area.
If turkeys are causing problems in your yard (feces), install motion-detecting sprinklers.
Wild turkeys typically will not enter yards with dogs.
If confronted by a wild turkey that has lost its fear of humans, an open umbrella may help steer it out of your path.
Depredation permits are required to kill wild turkeys that are causing property damage. To get a depredation permit, contact your local Department of Fish & Game office General phone number: (916) 653-7664 (it will take time to find the proper # and contact to obtain a permit).

Aside: we're raising domesticated turkeys for meat.

In 2009, Gary Bogue posted a survey on his blog. While not to many people have commented since then, I'm hoping that my local readers can join in and provide feedback. Please take a moment to share the location of Wild Turkeys that you've seen in the East Bay Area.

Wild Turkey Hunting:

To hunt wild turkey, you must possess a valid California hunting license and an upland game bird stamp. Hunters under the age of 12 may hunt if they have taken and passed a hunter safety course and possess a valid California hunting license.

Fall Season
The Fall season shall open on the second Saturday in November and extend for 16 consecutive days (Nov 13 - 28, 2010).

Bag Limit: 1 either-sex turkey per day.
Possession Limit: 1 per season.

Shoot Time - Fall/Spring Season:
Ends one half-hour before sunrise to sunset.

Map with private and public places to hunt turkey in CA.

Turkey Hunting Tactics

A detailed history can be found in The Wild Turkey Biology and Management edited by J. G. Dickson in 1992 and published by the National Wild Turkey Federation, USDA Forest Service and Stackpole Books.

Wild Turkeys pdf.

Here's an article about a community that obtained a Depredation Permit to have the Wild Turkeys hunted legally in a neighborhood: Danville Patch's Neighborhood Files, "Plans to Kill Wild Turkeys Ruffle Feathers in Crow Canyon Country Club Community," by Elizabeth Shemaria, January 20th 2011.

Black-and-white collage

2011-07-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

I was having fun taking photos of black-and-white things while I was with my sister at the Fillmore Street Fair in San Francisco. Then I remembered. Our rabbit is black-and-white.

Pedro from East L.A. loves apples. Click arrow in video below & watch Pedro nibbling one.

House with a Bird in it

2011-07-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

A curious little bird hop-hopped through our front door and toured our home.

Cecil looked up the species in the Peterson Field Guide, Western Birds book.

It was a Towhee.

Cecil found the bird in the living room.

She tried unsuccessfully to get it to fly out a window.

When it flew across the room, it landed on the world.

Than the Towhee landed on the branch of a palm.

Finally, it hopped back out the front door it came in.

It was a flourish of activity.

Check out the Independent Film Channel's (IFC) witty episode: "Portlandia: Put a bird on it."

Six Portions of Basil Pesto: Future Summertime

2011-07-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

Six portions of basil pesto.

Get your "hands-on the merchandise!" Summertime means basil.

Don't falter. Go out into the garden
(or buy local organic bunches at the Farmer's Market).

Basil plants need regular snipping to continue producing
(before they send up a flower shoot) .

Take your bunches into the kitchen. Wash and pat basil dry.

Portion the basil onto towels
(like in the photo above).

Aside: employ your basil quickly
(to prevent the edges of the leaves from browning).

Have the ingredients below ready to put into a food processor.

Decide your own amounts of:

Basil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pinons
Garlic
Parmesan Cheese
Lemon Juice
Cayenne
Himalayan or Sea Salt

Glob and dribble plenty of extra virgin olive oil onto the mixture.
Puree ingredients until smooth.
Freeze portions.

Later the Basil Pesto will be the perfect accompaniment for: pasta, ciabatta, fish, grilled vegetables, roasted potatoes, panini, or quiche.

Basil Pesto will remind you of summertime.

More pesto.

Explore drying herbs.

What other kinds of Pesto do you make?

How Honey Bees Find Water and Use it

2011-07-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

After four years, our honey bees finally discovered the water source I've kept adjacent to their hives. About every three days, all year-long, I've refilled three concrete basins, separated by sea horses between each of the tiers, with fresh water. I've seen ravens cleaning their food in the water, and even three baby raccoons at water play, but never our honey bees until this last spring. What I can't understand is why it took them so long to find it, and even more confusing is why they aren't visiting it anymore. I wanted to understand more about how honeybees find water and how they use it.

In my research, I've discovered the many uses of water for honeybees, but how they find water, is information that came from The Backyard Beekeeper by Kim Flottum, which stated that water scout bees seek water sources that are scented. In other words, they smell water and fly to it. That's why you'll see bees at swimming pools or stagnant puddles, vs. fresh water. Once they've found it, the bees use a pheromone, Nasonov, to mark it as a source for other bees to find. I suspected that scent played a more significant role than sight to guide the honeybees to water and my research confirmed that. Just because we see the fountain in the photo above near the hives doesn't mean the bees have seen the fountain.

I've known that not only is it important to have a constant and nearby water source for honeybees, but a beekeeper should take measures that when they visit it they won't drown. All my literature sources recommend the following be placed into the water to prevent the bees from slipping into it: wood chips, sand, water plants, or rocks.

I read in First Lessons in Beekeeping, by C.P. Dadant, that in the spring, bees will seek water in close proximity to the hive. Because the weather is colder and more unpredictable in that season, they may not want to risk being chilled to death; and they need water for the upsurge in brood, so they look for it nearby. (And that's when I noticed the bees at our fountain.)

Apparently, water isn't stored in the cells like nectar and pollen. In Kim Flottum’s, The Backyard Beekeeper, it states that the bees collect water and add it to the top of uncapped honey cells to de-crystallize honey; they place it in larvae cells to keep the brood moist; they add it to honey to thin it and feed the larvae (especially in the spring); or, they add water drops onto the top of the bee frames, and when they fan it, the water evaporates and cools the hive.

My bees were frequenting our fountain for a short duration; perhaps because it was spring the water foragers didn't want to venture to their normal source, farther away. Currently, the bees have stopped visiting our fountain, and that means they are flying elsewhere for water. I have no idea where, but I'll continue to supply water in the fountain. I may need to scent it with almond extract because they aren't attracted to the fresh water I've been supplying them. I also plan to add another water source as well, a chicken water feeder. I'll go to all of this effort because it's better that they get water from my yard than irritate or frighten a neighbor (who might resort to poisoning them).

On another note, with the help of my husband, I finally got into my two hives. It appears that honey is still in the making. I don't think my queens in either hive are strong ones. This is obvious by the lack of brood and irregularity of their brood laying pattern. Anyway, I dusted each hive box with powdered sugar to control the Varroa Mite infestation, which invariably take off in the summer. In other words, I did what I could to help them along, but it may not be enough. I flipped boxes and frames and moved one frame of larvae to my weaker hive to give them the opportunity to make a new queen, but time will tell.

One by one, I've been pulling out deep frames of capped honey since February. I've been storing them in my extra freezer until late summer, when I plan to extract them. But first I will need to convert my yoga room into a honey house.

I don't suppose I'll ever know as much about the bees as they know, innately, but the bits I've gleaned are sure fascinating and give me a sense of wonder about life--and that's what keeps me humble.

Jack London Coined "Dinky Gardening Farming" and That's What We Do

2011-07-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

It's nothing new but we just wanted to try it this. We bought ladybugs and released them on a few plants that were covered with aphids. In an effort to avoid using poison, I usually smash aphids with my fingers; jet spray them with my hose; or use soap and water on them. But this time my daughter and I wanted to see if the ladybugs would use their natural adaptation of eating them to effectively banish the aphids, or at least to control them.

Ladybugs are darling. I hope you enjoy a few photos of the ladybugs we released back in April upon our artichokes and in our watercress and below that, I explain the rational of our urban farm.

The artichoke in the photo above was infested with aphids and the ladybugs are eating them.

"Plants and animals are like fragile little babies" I explained to my husband David who is newly caring for his own garden plot. "You've got to observe them every day to make sure they're okay."

On this Independence day, I'm grateful I get to dabble in dinky farming. Here we have the luxury to play in the dirt and to smell the earth, and yet we still have access to the amenities that city-living offers.

In these times of environmental hazards all over the world,
wracking people with worry and fear, I'm simply offering another perspective.

What brings me to this was a post I read with a negative attitude towards all urban farmers. The post was a result of information the author read about some rabbits that were being raised for meat (in city limits), who were being cared for improperly. But the blogger blames all urban farmers for that unfortunate situation. She chalks the movement to raise livestock in the city as merely a trendy endeavor and questions whether the conditions during the slaughter are sanitary and warrant regulation. There was no mention about the conditions of animals being raised in Big Ag business in a factory-like manner (as if animals are car parts); or butchers, who have become subjected to a very dangerous bacteria strain that can kill them. Regulation isn't helping those animals or people.

In response to her post I'd like to explain another viewpoint. Urban farming provides a means of finding connection with the earth. In general, people who grow and care for living things are kind, humble and peaceful types; and society benefits from having individuals with those qualities. Our kids may beg to differ, but our dinky-garden farming efforts have improved our quality of life. We derive pleasure from caring for our animals. We've had chickens for twenty-two years and that's no passing fancy. Furthermore, we are giving the livestock we raise a great life and by that I mean: proper and regular food, gentle handling, shelter, and adequate space. And when we slaughter our poultry, it is done humanely and in a sanitary manner, and always with a sadness for our act of killing for our food. Killing is nothing to gloat about, but like sharks and lions, we eat meat, unabashedly. In essence we are modeling how to stay in touch with nature, not only to our kids, but through my blog, I'm able to share what we've learned so others don't have to "reinvent the wheel."

Currently I'm reading a novel by Jack London called Valley of the Moon, set in Oakland, CA at the turn-of-the-century. The main protagonists in the book, a husband and wife, decide to leave the city of Oakland, California. The couple seek to live in the country with the hope of finding a place to farm; they want to be their own boss. The husband coins the phrase: "dinky gardening farming" as they view small plots of land being farmed by the Portuguese families in San Leandro. The wife explains to him why the smaller farms near the city are better than the bigger ones. I invite you to read this well-written book (It's considered London's best work) to discover her reasoning. Anyway, the phrase "dinky gardening farming" is what we do.

Stay tuned...

Happy 4th of July Folks and thanks very much for reading. Kaboom!

Replacing Honey Bee Frames

2011-06-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

Inevitably, honey bee frames need replacing. Awhile back I made a solid effort to clean and reuse the dirty plastic cell foundations in my frames in order to prevent having to throw the non-biodegradable plastic junk in the landfill, but all of my attempts failed.

First I scraped the old frames with a hive tool. That method worked partially on the frame in the photo above. You can see the small section of clean cell foundation in the foreground, but I had areas in that frame that were particularly sticky with black crud, bee scat. I tried using a metal scrub brush with soap and water, but to no avail. My final approach was to soak them in bleach and even that toxic method didn't work. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I had to toss those frames in the trash. Daw-gone-it; what a waste!

Rather than buy new frames, what I resorted to was an idea my friend at Wonderfarm shared with me, which enabled me to salvage my old frames. It involved letting the bees fill the frames themselves with solid wax foundation, rather than using a plastic wax coated foundation.

I got our daughter involved with the simple task of prepping the frames and explained to her how she was helping with the methodology of a simple experiment. The questions we were trying to discover an answer to were: will the bees fill the frames themselves, and will the frames be strong enough to withstand extraction?

First we gathered extra jumbo Popsicle sticks. (Unpainted would be best, but I'm a color freak.) You'll also need empty frames, new or used.

Squirt wood glue into the slot of the upper frame. Press the Popsicle sticks into the slot and straighten them in a row and let them dry.

Pure bees wax will need to be painted onto the edge of the Popsicle sticks. The purpose of the wax is to provide the scent and the incentive for the bees to want to draw out the comb from the edge of the Popsicle sticks. It gives them a starting point.

Melt beeswax over low heat (never leave unattended as the wax can ignite if it gets too hot) in a double boiler.

Take an old paint brush and dip it into the melted wax.

Paint the Popsicle sticks with the beeswax.

(Option) Get your kids involved with painting the beeswax onto the Popsicle sticks. The activity may put them in a Zen-like trance for awhile.

In the photo above, observe the eleven deep frames Cecil prepped using the method I've described. But did they work?

Here is an example of a frame partially filled with beeswax by the bees. It's a gorgeous, seemingly miraculous example, of the bees' natural adaptation. The thing I like best about this method is that there will be no waste. The comb is larger, however, and there are people who believe that the larger cells foster the growth of the Varroa mite.

In the photo above, view a completed frame filled with nectar that will eventually be capped by the bees when they deem it's ready to be sealed. As you can see, the bees continued building the wax foundation below the base of the frame. A beekeeper's role is to scrape off that overlapping section and expose the base of the frame; and to keep the frame clean of wax and resin on all sides of the frame except the center. If this isn't done regularly, the hive becomes impossible to inspect mainly due to the fact that the frames can't be removed easily. The extended wax from a frame has to be forcefully pulled apart from its connection to the top of another frame in the hive box below. As a result, the honey or brood below the frame gets ripped apart. It's a sticky disaster. Regular inspections of the hive keep the frames neat and tidy and movable and are necessary to the proper management of the hive.

Look how exquisitely the bees have filled the frame. As you can see, there is no need for the plastic cell foundation. In the photo above, the honey has been capped and it is ready for extraction. We won't know if the frame will be able to withstand the centrifugal force upon it. But we'll find out once we put the foundation-less frames into the extractor and spin them (in the late summer). In this way, beekeeping with kids has been an interactive and an on-going science curriculum.

Notice the delivery inside of our front gate? It's my new electric extractor. I'm sick of renting the one from the bee club and I'm setting up shop for a permanent extraction area in my former yoga room, a greenhouse outdoors. Now I won't have to do the messy business of extracting in our bedroom. Thank goodness.

The hairs on head and thorax on the honey bee in the photo above look like a lion's mane. That scout was visiting our water fountain.

Sure beekeeping is a lot of work, but the little creatures' behaviors are fascinating. The longer I keep bees, the more I'm amazed by them; and our kids and my husband have learned along with me too.

Tools of the Trade

2011-06-24T14:21:00.000-07:00

The day before I left our home to take our boys to visit a college in Oregon, I ventured into my three hives and discovered that two of them are kaput and the last one in the photo above seemed to have only drones as brood, although I didn't get to examine them below the second box from the top. The hive boxes are too blasted heavy for me to lift now; and I need my husband's and sons' help, and of course they're always too busy with their own activities. It's terribly disappointing not to be able to care for them the way I used to, after all, you're not a beekeeper unless you are actually monitoring and caring for the health of your colony. I do what I can. I don't expect much honey this season. Boo hoo.

The Works by OSO

2011-06-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been busy helping our eldest in the photo above. I recently got back from taking our 6'3" eighteen year-old to visit a university in Oregon. My it's beautiful there.

OSO (this is not his name, but he has asked me not to use his name on my blog) has been playing guitar since age nine which leads me to the point of this post.

On June 18th he was in a live performance put on by BUMP Records @

Eastside Arts Alliance

2277 International

Oakland, CA 94606

It was free and all ages were welcome! Doors Opened at 7PM and the show started at 8:30PM.

At the show, he and two other musicians, performed a few songs from his first C.D. called, "The Works," containing twenty-eight self-produced "Beats."

I don't want to give you the impression that he was the star of the show. All of the acts that night were fantastic! (Find all the performers C.D.'s here.)

Contact me if you are interested in purchasing one or more of his C.D.'s. His "Beats" are an artistic blend of sounds containing: a strong beat; a distinct often "retro" melody; and each one is often inter-cut with interesting dialogue. I think his music would be great for a party as background sound. Filmmakers might find it useful for a scene. It's pretty cool chill music.

This is an old picture of OSO and I years ago in Yellowstone having a nice moment together. We've been connecting well lately because we both know he won't always be around.

He's growing up fast. This happens, fortunately and unfortunately.

Hike the Spit at Limantour Beach, Pt. Reyes

2011-06-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

Press the arrow in the ctr. of the photo above to activate a slideshow of our route at Limantour.

It's rare for it to be warm at a Northern California beach and yet back in March, David, Cecil and I lucked into a sunny day on our visit to Point Reyes National Seashore. David had always wanted to hike the two miles around the long narrow spit at Limantour Beach, and though I've been to that beach many times, I never knew that if you face the ocean and hang a right, you can walk all the way down to the end and find dunes; hang another right by Drakes Bay, and return back along an estuary. (See map)

Note: we took that rectangular route opposite from what I described above. The scenery was stunning, at times very planetary.

By the late afternoon, heavy winds picked up and forced us to fashion head coverings to protect our ears, and we had to make capes to wrap around ourselves and shield us from the stinging sand. We saw various birds stabbing their beaks into the shoreline or diving for aquatic life.

Harbor seals lolled on their own private Caye in Drakes Bay.

details...
Bring food and water as there is nothing but pristine wilderness. Binoculars and a bird field guide would be useful. The beach is a 20 minute drive from Bear Valley. From the parking lot, head about 100 yards toward the ocean and hang a right.

P.S.
I'll be visiting a college in Oregon with my two sons (Go Beavers!), so I will respond to your comments when I get back and thank you in advance if you leave one.

Don't Forget the Tooth Fairy

2011-06-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

When the Tooth Fairy heard, "I can't bite into an apple because of my wiggle tooth." she couldn't help but smile and it didn't worry her that one of the girl's teeth hadn't been offered to her yet and was left in a jar.

She waited patiently and was rewarded when she heard again the words the girl had coined, "my wiggle teeth are very loose." And the child's words filled her with nostalgia and a romantic view of youth for she knew the girl would eventually grow up and forget the Tooth Fairy until the day her own child lost a tooth.

It seemed like Cecil had forgotten about the Tooth Fairy until her pearly teeth with bloody sharp edges fell out and she mentioned her again; and when she did, my heart lifted.

The Tooth Fairy couldn't miss the sign which pointed to the teeth as a reminder of the expected exchange: teeth for money.

It took a long time for those last two "wiggle teeth" to fall out of our daughter's mouth. And there was still another tooth of hers that had split into two pieces which she'd left in a container, seemingly forgotten. All of them had been placed into a cloisonne cobalt blue box, not under a pillow, but out in the open, strategically placed so the Fairy wouldn't forget her duty to take the teeth and replace them with money. The teeth were an offering, really an inequitable bribe, to the Tooth Fairy.

But the Tooth Fairy didn't care about the money she was giving the girl. The value of the exchange for her was not about the money or the teeth.

Her reward was the view of the sleeping child's innocence and purity.

There Cecil lay curled up and swaddled in blankets like an exhausted wet puppy wrapped in towels and sleeping after a bath. She rested with the knowledge that she had prepped all the necessary arrangements for the Tooth Fairy's visit.

And the Tooth Fairy delivered quarters in a satchel that would be useful to her daughter at the homeschooling fair she planned to attend the next day.

What an awesome tradition and apparently the Tooth Fairy is one of America's original fables which I just read about to Cecil here. In that history it states that "All children grew to love this rite of passage, and the coming of the Tooth Fairy." But I think parents love it even more.

Absurd Photo Montage #1

2011-05-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Absurd Photo-Montage #1

Forms in Photo Montage

Man is a vertical shape on the wide horizontal beach. Irregular edges on rounded circles.

Content of Montage
Man wearing a turban at the beach and pink roses. PEACE.

Space/Perspective
Pronounce the illusion of depth by emphasizing the foreground, middle ground and background at a beach and provide a distinct vanishing point by considering your angle-of-view.

Color Hue: tan, dark gray, light blue, pink and peach

Value: bright and dim diffuse light

Texture

Granular, wispy

If you use Blogger, Picasa2 has an option to create a collage instantly.

If you'd like to try this, leave me a link to your photo montage in my comment section.

Next Week's Photo Montage: Absurd juxtaposition #2

On another note:

Just back from a weekend of backpacking in the Cache Creek Wilderness. There were problems with my blog while I was away. I had Facebook notifications that my comment section wasn't working on Blogger in my last post. Thanks Kendall and Kim for leaving me feedback on FB! Friend me there.

Also, I discovered that my Followers can't be seen! I've got new blogs I follow to boast about and blasted Blogger...is free!

BTW: You may now Like" West Vista Urban Farm School on Facebook and leave me feedback or get my latest posts there. (I provide that option because some people prefer hanging out on Facebook in contact with people and friends' F.Y.I. links.

P.S. At the bottom of the blog, I've grouped Amazon items into educational kits for all ages.

P.S.S. Or, at the bottom right-hand of the sidebar, find the Search Button and select your own items new or used.

A Pheromone to Catch a Mate or a Swarm

2011-05-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

Some scientists know how to separate particles of sweat into an unscented liquid that when worn will attract a person to you. Let me reiterate. One may buy pheromones to attract a person!

"Fanning honeybee exposes Nasonov gland (white-at tip of abdomen) releasing pheromone to entice swarm into an empty hive." Wikipedia

Nasinov_9024.JPG‎ (260 × 284 pixels, file size: 19 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Bee geek that I am, I only knew that I could buy a pheromone to attract a swarm of bees. And that's what Cecil and I did as a science project recently. We had a swarm of bees in an apricot tree in our lot and we wanted to see if the pheromone I had purchased would draw the bees into the empty hive box we had placed below them.

Here's the pheromone we used to attract the worker bees.

Before we work with bees, we always suit up. Little Miss struggles with the over-sized gloves.

The legs of the suit bag at her ankles.

On a hot day, Cecil patiently struggles to put on a humongous white pantsuit.

Sitting in the cool ice plant, Cecil examines the container of scent.

The same pheromone that honey bees release to attract worker bees back to their hive will hopefully draw the swarm into this empty box.

I pinned the pheromone into the empty hive box.

The swarm of bees was practically in the same place as the one Chet captured in August last year. With the pheromone in the empty hive box, we waited and watched the bees to see if they detected the smell. Then we noticed that the wind was blowing up hill from the swarm towards the box. We realized we had positioned the scent in the wrong place. But the hillside was too steep to place the box below the bees so we left it there with the hope that they might still detect it.

That same day I called my friend at Wonderfarm who I knew wanted to catch a swarm. I figured if our little experiment with the pheromone didn't work, I wouldn't risk loosing that easily accessible colony of gals. She came over at dusk and collected the bees and has since told me they are happy in their new home. (Why wouldn't they be with all the lavender in her front yard.) And so our experiment to use a scent to attract the bees into the empty hive box didn't work this time. I put it back in the freezer to try it on another occasion.

I was once advised at a homeschool conference lecture that a great way for kids to learn about science is to let them discover it informally, mostly through observation. In our collaborative investigation, we didn't use the scientific method formally, and yet elements of it were certainly present. Our hypothesis or question was: will this pheromone lure the swarm into our hive box? Our methodology was to suit up, to set up the equipment, and to wait and watch. It became apparent that elements such as the wind and the slope of the hill had obstructed our plan. Rather than modify our process, I opted out of our trial. In the future when we try it again, we'll be wiser. We don't know have a conclusion yet, but I've formed other questions, which is what science is all about, discovery.

How is it that a queen honey bee's pheromone unites her workers unto her and their only benefit is to exist as part of a colony and work until they die? Is it possible to invent a scent that would attract thousands of people to work for you for free? (I'm joking.) Using nature as inspiration for inventing things that help people is a fascinating field called biomimcry.

I'm Drying my Herbs Mon'

2011-05-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

I aim for at least one *slow food ingredient in my meals.

(*My definition of slow food: Certified Organically grown within a sixty mile radius of your home.)

Washed fresh Sage leaves ready to be dried.

Often that one ingredient I use to make an element of my dish local is a dried herb.

Oregano Leaves

Parsley, sage, oregano, lemon verbena, lavender and mint grow well in the partial shade of the Monterrey Pines, Live Oak, Bay Laurel, and Azalea trees in our backyard.

I keep the herbs reproducing by snipping them in the morning, when they are damp from the nights' moisture. Then I dry them overnight with my favorite tool: a NASCO Professional Dehydrator (See Amazon link below for details).

Next I clean the stems off of them and...

...store them in weighed and marked baggies in the freezer for use in

the coconut fish soup I concocted, or

the homemade split pea soup with raw cashews, mustard seeds, parsley, and celery, or,

meat loaf

Recently I used a coffee blender to shred the oregano leaves into a powder. Interestingly, the herb in the bowl on the left is a dark shade of green while the herb on the right plate is the color of sienna. The taste of my homegrown oregano powder on the left was completely different from the generic store-bought one, which tasted like it had sawdust or some kind of filler in it. Now I'm convinced that growing and drying my own herbs tastes superior. I'm totally into drying my herbs Mon' (spoken like a Rastafarian). Try it.

Vanishing Points at the Beach: A Photo Collage

2011-05-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Photo-Montage, a deviation from SouleMama's "This Moment" except I'm capturing moments throughout the year joined thematically by a few selected elements of art including:

Content
Beach landscape
Space/Perspective
Pronounce the illusion of depth by emphasizing the foreground, middle ground and background at a beach and provide a distinct vanishing point, if possible.

Color
Hue: tan, brown, red, white, blue, dark gray, and citron
Intensity: diffuse
Value: bright light

Texture

Actually granular, wispy

Form
Skinny verticals and wide horizontal shapes, mounds too

If you use Blogger, Picasa2 has an option to create a collage instantly.

If you'd like to try this, leave me a link to your weekend photo montage in my comment section.

Next Week's Photo Montage
Absurd juxtapositions: roses and a head shot of a person wearing a turban

On another note:

Please scroll to the bottom of my blog and check out my Amazon store items featuring fantastic learning resources for all ages about: art, Italy, Mexico, literature, learning theory, science, and Native Americans.

Or, select your own items (for gifts, a book club, and on-going knowledge) with the Amazon search button on the very bottom right-hand of blog sidebar.

Panama: From the Bull's Mouth to the Dragon's

2011-05-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

Fantastic Tropical Getaway

Guest: Kristin(Northern CA)
Date of Stay: 01/12/11 Review Submitted: 02/09/11

Stayed with our family of five, children ages 18, 14, and 9 in mid-January 2011. The house was in a remote part of the island; but that made it wonderfully pristine. The house was kind of dark inside, but gorgeous, because everything was hand-crafted in natural wood and tile. BTW: ample water and towels.

All the shutters (even the doors are shutters) open to an enormous panoramic view of the garden down and Bird Island in the Caribbean Sea. Never tired of looking at that view. The grounds were stunning and there were edible foods on it.

We stayed there for six nights. What did we do? We practiced the art of doing nothing. Cooked Panamanian meals. Hiked to a sea-side restaurant. Body-surfed in the cracking waves. Our boys kayaked in the rough waves (at that time of year). We all did: a snorkel trip, read in the hammock, wrote in our journal, played games and went to town for a second run of groceries.

The owners were helpful. Their dogs were scary looking, but friendly, and fun to have around. Animals (sloths, vine snake, frogs, geckos and parrots) were visible from the porch so bring your binoculars and camera. If you want pristine surroundings, peace and quiet, this place is truly awesome.

Recommended for: Age 30+, adventure seekers, girls or guys getaway, tourists who don't want to drive but hang out, families with teenagers, families with young children, couples romantic getaway.

Scroll down to see the surrounds and the activities. At the end, there are other posts related to this one, which focus on the foods and the animals we saw during our stay.

Caught a ride to town for groceries, and pick-up arranged from restaurant using this typical Panamanian Island truck, weathered by salty air and sandy terrain.

Ginger.

We all wrote in our family journal, a tradition to help us remember.

After getting flipped and flopped upside-down onto the sand, Cecil gave up body surfing. She wasn't catching the wave right. It was rough water.

Pristine beach around the top of the Isla Colon.

David's pretends to row in an old wood dug out canoe abandoned by an indigenous family.

As soon as you leave it, the jungle devours man-made items.

My other posts about Panama and foreign travel with your family:

When People Think of Panama

Wacky Moments in Panama

Casco Viejo in Panama City: A World Heritage Site

Animals (we saw) in Panama

Panama City's SkyscrapersSlow Food Panama Style I

Slow Food Panama Style II

Bocas Del Toro Panama: Part I

Cut and paste elements from this list to plan a foreign trip with your own family.
Foreign Travel Packing List for Families

Multi-Exposure Photo

2011-05-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Saturday Photo-Montage, a deviation from SouleMama's "This Moment" except I'm capturing moments throughout the year joined thematically by a few selected elements of art. This time the...

Content is
landscape and multi-exposure

Colors are
pink, purple, citron, green, blue and a hint of brown

Next Week's Photo Montage
try close-ups and long shots, focusing on form, shading, and the subtle colors of pink, beige, white, dark gray and sky blue

Or, share your own concept.

If you use Blogger, Picasa2 has an option to create a multi-exposure (overlay) instantly.

If you'd like to try this, leave me a link to your weekend photo montage in my comment section.

On another note:

Please scroll to the bottom of my blog and see my Amazon store items. It's West Vista Urban Farm School's collection of learning for all ages about: art, Italy, Mexico, literature, learning theory, science, Native Americans, science experiments.

Or, select your own items (for gifts, book club, and on-going knowledge) with the Amazon search button on the very bottom right-hand of blog sidebar.

(Aside: I have a background in designing educational kits for museums and have found it useful in developing curriculum or educational kits for our homeschooling.)

Lovin' My Romaine

2011-05-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

Just outside of our bedroom door, behind and below the copper railing David fashioned from a pipe-bender...(Notice the moon a friend gave us for our wedding that he incorporated into the copper fence--for a Civil Engineer, he is quite artistic.)

...is the triangle garden David built for me there, because it's the only patch of sun in our oak and pine forested backyard.

I've hacked off a couple of heads of romaine, but my triangle garden in fruition makes me happy as it is, and I'm lovin' it from various angles.

Just in case I forgot what I planted, I hung a label to remind me.

My reluctance to eat my vegetables is reminiscent of a post awhile back.

It is interesting to note that this abundance of greens grew from a head of lettuce I permitted to bloom and to go to seed.

In the fall, I shook the seeds all over and let the seedlings sprout as they may. I transplanted a few seedlings, but for the most part, I just added compost and a slow release fertilizer and let it flourish from our rains and intermittent sunshine.

Now if I only ate this lettuce for my lunch every day, I could drop the weight I've gained from eating homemade nachos! You know I love salt, hot sauce, melted cheese and tortilla chips as much as gardening; good thing, so I can work it off.

Weekend Photo-Montage: Beachy Tans, Blues & Yellow Hues

2011-04-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Saturday Photo-Montage, a deviation from SouleMama's "This Moment" except I'm capturing moments throughout the year joined thematically by a few selected elements of art.

This time the content is beaches. The colors featured are tan, brown, white, blue, and yellow.

If you use Blogger, Picasa2 has an option to create a photo montage instantly. (Much to my chagrin, Picasa2 doesn't let you control the sequence of the photos in your montage.)

Next weekend will be a multi-exposure montage in which I've taken a series of photos and placed them on top of each other for effect, also an automatic function on Picasa2.

If you'd like to try this, leave me a link to your montage in my comment section.

Get a Girl to Garden

2011-04-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

She got busy and Ding! The timer went off. But she was in a flow, so I set the ticker again for fifteen more minutes and Ding! Now it was time to release the ladybugs.

Fifteen minute increments, a new pair of gardening gloves, my handy-dandy hen timer, and bug distraction was how I got our daughter Cecil to work in the garden on Easter. Not all kids derive pleasure from dirt unless they can throw it or shape it into pies. It's an art to get them to help outdoors.

In anticipation of the work I knew she would have to do, I made a big deal about the importance of having good gloves to protect her hands from the dryness. We had bought a pair the afternoon before at Evergreen Nursery, a wonderful store with fantastic garden decor.

Well, Cecil got started and faded quickly. The sounds of her brothers' laughter coming from the street were too much. She started to fizzle. Her posture slumped. Her voice quavered and before she threw a bawling fit, I suggested that she work in fifteen minute increments with short breaks in between to swing on the rope, and also, to help me release ladybugs. I knew that would give her the feeling of more control. Plus, it made the time go faster.

Her Dad seemed pessimistic about the idea, but thankfully, he condoned my suggestion by not saying anything at all. This is the sort of thing he balks at; the fact that she gets it easier. He thinks she should be able to buckle down and work for an hour without complaint. I explained to both of them in a cheerful simplistic manner that the same amount of work would be done, just broken up into "bite-size" pieces. (I've used this approach with writing. I ask them to write down a few ideas and let them shake out their hand and move a little; all the while, they continue thinking about what will happen next in their story, and when they sit down again, they're ready to go. It works.

She got busy and Ding! The timer went off. But she was in a flow, so I set the ticker again for fifteen more minutes and Ding! Now it was time to release the ladybugs.

On the way, we stopped for frequency data counts. We do this together informally every year. When the Echium, also known as the Pride of Madera, is in full bloom, the honey bees and the native bees go crazy! We marvel at the variety of pollinators the plant attracts.

Cecil is holding a pint of ladybugs. I'll share a post about using ladybugs as a natural pest control later. It's not a new concept, but I took a few great snaps of the red ladies.

This is Cecil's classic look of apprehension bordering on unwillingness. No worries. As a homeschooling parent (or a parent in general) it means being twinkly, lighthearted, chirpy, perky, cheery, sunny, chipper, debonair and jaunty, even when I don't feel like it. And through my act of enthusiasm, I change not only my own perception but others.

Trust me. It's fun to watch ladybugs move around on flowers. It's color therapy.

Thirty minutes of work. A ladybug fix. A swing on the rope and it was time for her to plant the sweet peas. Thirty more minutes passed without complaint and her tasks were done.

David kept on working. He's a true model of the American work ethic, always in motion, rarely tiring or sitting still. I can't keep up with him, but I do my best to keep busy too.

Peppers, potatoes, onions, squash, spinach, basil, beans, sweet pees, and tomatoes were planted that Easter day. It's the biggest garden we've ever had. It's young and fragile now. David said he can't wait to watch it grow. And Cecil will have the pleasure of knowing that she helped him make it happen.

Friday Photo-Montage: Nature's Pinks and Purples

2011-04-22T12:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Friday Photo-Montage--capturing many moments throughout the year joined thematically by color, today, pinks and purples. If you'd like to try this, leave me a link to your montage in my comment section.

BTW: this is a deviation from Soulemama's "This Moment."

Through the medium of photography, I think I've simulated a gouache look. I know that gouache refers to watercolors, but my photos kind of look like that medium, especially the beach scene.

On another note, I've always been fascinated by the juxtaposition of images together to form meaning. I think there's more of a mood (with no apparent meaning) in my montage--and this could be because there are too many varied images.

If you see a photo that you like, click on it for a close-up. As always, please give me credit if you use one of my images.

Our Checkered Giant Rabbit, Pedro from East L.A.

2011-04-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

It's obvious why I'm posting photos of our adopted rabbit, Pedro from East L.A..

He's so darn cute and incredibly gentle, and we adore him. Perhaps he'll be escaping his bunny penthouse to deliver some Easter Eggs this Sunday. Viva la Raza Pedro!

Spring Cleaning Childhood Books

2011-04-13T18:12:00.000-07:00

I've been spring cleaning early childhood books that our kids have outgrown.

Our two boys, eighteen and fourteen, and our little girl, nine, heard many wonderful stories. Some of the adventures we read to them dated back to my Dad's youth in the 1940's. It makes me feel old, seeing the stacks of books on the floor, all done with. I'm also feeling kind of sad that we're through with this phase of their childhood.

I'm saving our favorite tales to read to our grand-kids. At this point, I can't even imagine reading these books to our kids' children. I still feel like I'm in my twenties, but I'm twice that age! Honestly, even though I've been with all three of them practically every day, since the day they were born, I hate to use such a trite expression but, "I don't know where the time went."

I'm looking forward to donating books I won't be saving to a charity. I looked at the Berkeley Parents Network for some ideas and decided on this organization:
The East Bay Children's Book Project.

The Case of the Sod-Roof Root Cellar

2011-04-04T14:38:00.001-07:00

I think that my husband, David, and I communicate very well with each other--or do we?

If we do, then how is it that he's building me a root cellar, and I have no recollection whatsoever of asking him to do that. You'd think I'd remember. It's not a common request.

He must have heard me say that I wanted a "sod-roof" structure, because I've been talking about how cool that would be, since I read The Little House on the Prairie to the boys. Seriously. Imagine a structure with a dirt roof and native plants like: wild strawberries, yarrow and bunch grass on top. It's a blissful image in my mind's eye.

Perhaps I may have said that I couldn't find a proper storage place for our potatoes. Everywhere I put them, they're either rotting or sprouting.

Maybe he thought I wanted one because I bought him a "how-to-build a root cellar" book. Was that before or after the project started? I don't recall.

Update: our eldest, Young O, is still hecka-skinny at 6'2"

For whatever reason, this has been the main project going on in the South Forty for months. I'm not complaining. In five to ten years from now, when our avocado, apple, persimmon, lemon, orange, mandarin, olive and guava trees have reached maturity, I'll have a place to store the fruit.

Maybe we don't always communicate effectively with each other, but in the case of the sod-roof root cellar, his actions clearly demonstrate his love.

Rockin' in Eggs Again

2011-04-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

Rockin' in 'da eggs again. Finally!

"Fowl caca white an tink e lay egg."

"Literally: The fowl shits white and thinks it has lain an egg.

Quoted to describe a person who is self-important." --Young and Phil, Creole Proverbs of Belize

Yep. That's me in the center photo of the egg montage takin' all the credit. Wink

You know...I shared this slide-show in January 2011, and this post is an update to that one. Cecil was so cute in her new rubber boots and helpful. She demonstrated the steps we take to train our fowl to lay eggs in there designated location in the chicken coop palace David built. We used a glass egg to get them started.

Here's a flashback.

Avant-guard photo of a glass egg in blue light with a young girl's hand and a rooster watching.

We suspected the bird in the photo above that Cecil was training to lay might be a rooster. At the time, it was really young and the only thing that separated it from the others was its crest, significantly larger. That Barred Rock grew two feet; and next we heard an odd feeble crow that became louder and more irritating and worrisome, because every time it crowed, I thought we would be reported; I imagined we were pissing off all of our neighbors, so its crow was like an alarm, and it was alarming me; and one night when it crowed at 3:00 A.M. David and I made a decision. That weekend we pulled out the Featherman and demonstrated it to David's Dad, who was visiting from Alaska. Later that evening we ate our rooster, which is not permitted in our city limits, for dinner that night.

This is the flock of Barred Rocks who are currently our main egg layers. Baldy, the Aricauna on the right, isn't bald anymore, and the other birds put up with her. I tried to put her back with her original flock, but they attacked her again. What is their problem?

"Man order monkey, monkey order e tail."

"The Creole equivalent of the expression "pecking order."--Young and Phil, Creole Proverbs of Belize

When chickens begin to lay, their eggs are tiny. Notice the one in the top left of the photo? We're still getting small eggs from some of the birds, and a few have been laying normal-sized eggs for their breed. The light blue one on the left is from an Aricauna. The white one on the right is a store-bought extra large egg. It's not that much bigger than our littlest one.

"Food weh no killing, fattening."

"Literally: Food that doesn't kill must be nourishing.

Meaning: Don't be fussy about food." --Young and Phil, Creole Proverbs of Belize

You can find more amusing proverbs from Belize in the book below.

Dog Gone It I Miss Our St. Bernard

2011-03-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

Dog gone it I really miss our short-haired St. Bernard, K.D.

Last October I called a vet to our house and he put our gentle giant to sleep because she couldn't stand up on her own anymore and lifting her was out of the question for me. She was eleven and a half years, old for her breed, and she weighed 120 pounds. She couldn't go up or down the stairs anymore, which are all over our yard because we live on a slope, and that made relieving herself a problem too.

Lately I've been lamenting her absence and I feel guilty remembering how the kids and I all watched her die on our front porch from a lethal injection--because I had decided it was her time. The fact that I even had the option to make the decision to end her life now seems odd and weird. (Though I would do it again to put her out of her misery.)

She left us peacefully. First, she was put to sleep and after ten minutes of tears from everyone, it became obvious she had passed because her pink tongue became rigid and hung oddly outside her mouth. It pains me to remember her that way, so I thought I'd share a few more pictures of her when she was alive and thriving.

Of course she was in her element in the snow at Mt. Shasta, CA. She loved to dig in it as well as sand at the beach.

We used to bring her with us in our Eurovan, when we'd go camping, and boy was that van filled with all of five of us, our supplies and her in it, and sometimes a canoe on the roof!

Those who met her could tell right away that she had the sweetest disposition. She didn't demand to be petted. She didn't bark much, and when she did, there was good reason. She liked to press her weight against me to show her affection; or she'd put her huge paw on my foot to keep me nearby.

I think my fuss is erupting because I've been thinking about getting a new dog. I must not be ready to do that because it doesn't seem like there is a breed or a mutt that has attracted my attention. My sister just got the most adorable puppy, a golden-doodle and it's perfect for her, but I can't picture owning one.

I'm hoping that my readers might have some suggestions. Here are my impossible requirements. We'd like a dog that looks intimidating (for security reasons). We don't want a shedder, digger, or constant barker. I want a dog that doesn't follow me everywhere and expect constant touching. It needs to be trainable and smart. Don't want to deal with loads of fur, regular ear cleaning, and constant brushing. What kind of dog will work for our family?

Heck, we were very lucky that K.D. was a dry-mouth and we didn't have to deal with her drool being slopped all over. I guess I'm still pining for her.

Take A Poll On It

2011-03-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

That's me elevating myself out of the gray and into some color, "with a little help from my friends."

Being a fair weather gal stuck in forty days and nights of rain isn't my idea of fun. Gray weather again. Poop. I'm one of those middle-aged wrinkly pink white things that worships the sun. And oh lookie, here it is once again, pouring buckets.

I'm not denying that I'm fighting a slumpy mood. The world news on an economic, political, and environmental level frankly sucks. I'm not sure if the worry lines which have deepened on my face are due to aging or to the news.

And then there's my blog. It's pissing me off.

I'm fed up with Blogger because it has me locked into my color scheme; and I'm sick of my template and header. I want a totally professional looking blog.

Oh yeah, and did you hear me mention that I want more followers? (Just got a new one--danno555, a high school buddy I've reconnected with on Facebook--and what a sweetie-pie to reconnect and show support by following me.) After two years of blogging, I think I should have way more followers! What the heck? I explained how to follow my blog here. Use a fake name if you don't want to be associated with me because of my "radical" lifestyle. I don't care. I just want to see more numbers because it makes me feel good. Would you also recommend a few blog networks or backlink to me?

I think part of my problem is that I write about too many topics so it's hard for me to grow my readership. The blog that comes to mind that gets away with many categories is The Pioneer Woman. I bow down to Ree and commend her writing style and admit I've got blog envy.

What can I do? How can I deceive myself into believing I have control over the world wide web? I'll tell you. I'm going to "Take a poll on it." (Aside. Not to be confused with the hilarious Independent Film Channel's, Portlandia's show "Put a bird on it." but along the same vein.)

Yeah I'm pulling myself out of the muck. I'm asking for help from my readership. You tell me. Take a look at the right sidebar of my blog and answer my poll questions. You have until March 28th folks.

Here's what I want to know:

Help me pick the name of my blog.

Let me know if you think I should separate my blog post threads about:

Homeschooling;

Beekeeping and things I make from our hives;

Raising poultry for meat and eggs;

Gardening edibles and California natives;

Family travel abroad in the good ol' U.S.A.;

Slow food cooking; and...

My homespun curriculum ideas--

What I want to know is:

Do you think I should separate these topics into separate tabs on the same blog, or turn them into separate blogs?
Tell me what your favorite style of post on my blog is.
Pick your favorite background color for my blog.

Finally, leave a comment describing what you think works and doesn't work with my writing style.

Gosh I'm brave asking for writing feedback. I couldn't take what my husband had to say so I'm not sure I can take it unless it's constructive feedback and kind. Send me an email if you'd prefer at kshermolnes@yahoo.com.

I've got nothing to loose though. I'm sitting here in Jay's hiding from the rain expanding from the croissant with ham and cheese I just ate and waiting for you to take a poll on it. Please. And thanks in advance.

Honest Rewrite: And the Ladybug Treks On

2011-03-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

Despite life's challenges, even a ladybug treks on.

The little beetle in the photo montage above was the most darling one I've ever encountered. Huge. Crawling in the fennel where I was weeding. Big black dots. Deep red body. And the insect kept on truckin' around relentlessly. I'm using that ladybug's perseverance as a metaphor for me to get my ass moving and ignore my current doldrums. BTW: when I see a ladybug, I am always reminded of my youngest sister, a loving and wise beyond-her-years woman. I don't get to see her enough and I miss her dearly.

In light of the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, I've felt awkward posting anything; it's all trivial by comparison. Lately it's seems like horrible images are continually flying around in my mind since I'm visual. I picture flooding waters. Nuclear explosions. Frantic Libyans. And worse yet, the show at the Berkeley Rep, that took place in the Congo in Africa, "Ruined," which David and I went to for our "fun night out" left me with an image of a woman being mercilessly raped by many men and then brutally stabbed with a knife in her uterus.

This sounds ridiculous but I just have to hold on to the fact that despite everything awful in this world, even a ladybug keeps trekking around. I put on a happy face, wear something that makes me look good, eat a healthy meal and I make myself move on. It's been raining for days and I hate the gray, but I take a little time to rest on the couch or in our bed and then I feel better and I have a bit of energy to clean up.

Recently, I received a parcel. It was my blog, a virtual expression turned into two books from two years of blogging. If interested, check out the company I used to turn my blog into a book. I had worried that I might loose all of my content and I desperately wanted a record of it. When I got it, I felt elated to have something tangible which was proof of all of my time and effort. David and our boys, normally nonchalant about my blog, were impressed by the thickness of the books and congratulated me. In fact, my husband is finally reading my blog now that it's printed. I wish he hadn't read it though, because his criticism about my writing put me in the dumps for two days. The thought "I'm done with it." occurred more than once. And later another one, "Am I really done?"

Charles Frazier's character's words in his book Thirteen Moons conveys my insecurity about my writing when he wrote:

"I cannot decide whether it is an illness or a sin, the need to write things down and fix the flowing world in one rigid form. ...After they've passed, events are only as your memory makes them, and they shift shapes over time. ...Writing a thing down fixes it in place as surely as a rattlesnake skin stripped from the meat and stretched and tacked to a barn wall. Every bit as stationary, and every bit as false to the original thing. Flat and still and harmless."

I'd like to think that many of my posts have been helpful to women seeking information about homeschooling, beekeeping, raising poultry, gardening, slow food meal ideas, and family travel. But the truth is, more people are drawn to my blog because of my images than my words. I'm going to keep on working on my writing and pretend that I know what the hell I'm doing and maybe one day I will have convinced myself that I do and my writing will be better, maybe great.

At least my blog books are evidence of all the writing I've accomplished instead of watching television every evening (what I used to do and still do upon occasion) for two years. It seems to me like writing is one of the only activities I have to engage my brain, and though I struggle with it, it's a welcome break from spot cleaning the laundry with ZOUT. I love/hate blogging because I find juxtaposing my images and words interesting, and yet I worry that the act of blogging is narcissistic, false and embellished because let's face it, it is.

No, I'm not done with my blog, but I've got to make changes. I'm tired of my header, for example. Blogger has me locked into my color scheme and won't let me change it and I'm sick of my format and the way it all looks. I want buttons for my topics. I want a totally new look. I want more followers too. Just got a new one--Yippee! Show me your support folks. Please keep your comments coming. I enjoy hearing from my readers, especially during this slump I'm in.

Slow Food Panama Style II

2011-03-07T20:59:00.000-08:00

I get a kick out of sharing our meals that use "At Least One Slow Food Ingredient," but often more from our yard. Check out my photos below from Boquete and Isla Colon, Panama, where the slow food items are plenty exotic; and that's one of things I really loved about visiting that country. Scroll and enjoy.

These four inch bananas were provided by our hosts in an outside cooler. We were asked to "Eat them fast or they'll rot;" and to "Secure the lid, or the bats will get them." We ate them fresh and made frescas with them: milk, lots-o-banana and ice blended. Yum!

These plantains are eaten green: sliced into 1/4 inch discs and fried in vegetable oil. Two fried discs were served with a meal which is not a huge portion. I liked them with picante sauce, lime juice and salt. They were not sweet tasting at all.

It takes a year until the fruit is ready to harvest from a pineapple plant.

I forget what this is, but I was told that the seeds in it are used as a natural red dye.

This is too long to be a papaya. I don't remember what the heck it was, but it's edible.

Goats were kept for milk and cheese.

Tilapia and sea bass were the most common fish on the menu either fried, in a mild creole sauce, or sauteed in garlic and butter. The boys liked 'em fried and I loved the latter two options. Indigenous divers hunted lobster and octopus, but it's not a good idea to order that, as the lobster are in dire straits from overfishing; and I was told the octopus are syringed with bleach to get them to release their tentacles, which I assume is killing the already precarious marine ecosystem, especially coral.

Coffee beans on the plant. The red "cherries" don't ripen all at once and must be picked daily, dried and then roasted. I was told that the best coffee beans are exported, but I enjoyed quite a few cups of good local brew in Boquete.

The cattle are grass fed and their meat is tough. I'm speculating that this is because it isn't aged properly. With the warm climate, it's not like you can leave it in a shed to age; and farmers don't have the money for a proper walk-in temperature regulated meat storage area, so they kill it and eat it; and it's hard to chew, but it's healthy meat. BTW: the calf had a heart on its forehead.

In Panama City, there are shops which feature products from the jungle for medicinal uses.

Pigs roamed around the beach and at some point in time, I assume they are eaten. No soy and corn food for the island pigs. They scavenge and I bet they taste great because of that! Spoken like a true carnivore.

Potatoes, cabbage and onions were grown in Boquete by the Indigenous farmers, the Ngobe Bugle. It's a cooler climate there with excellent soil next to the dormant volcano. That region supplies most of the country's vegetables, and though rather limited, we enjoyed them in various preparations with our home cooked meals.

This is a cacao pod with raw sweet beans in individualized white spongy compartments in the interior. Most of the cacao in Panama is dried and exported. The price of the beans, once dried and made into cocoa is exorbitant. Similar to coffee farms, farmers who grow cacao make very little money on their labor intensive crop, whereas middlemen get rich off of their efforts.

Cacao beans attached to the tree trunk.

Many varieties of coconuts grew on the private properties around Bocas del Drago. Some were good for the meat and some for the juice. Even the dogs like to eat it. Did you know that coconut water replaces electrolites better than gatorade? I drank it during my first 5K triathlon. Fantastic and refreshing.

These peppers look like peppercinis to me. The plant is more like a shrub in Panama than the small pepper plants I love to grow. Given the right climate and fertilization, peppers can be a perennial. They can't handle a freeze.

Our hostess introduced us to yucca "Yoo-caw."

Using a pick, she lifted the whole plant out of the ground to get at the tubers. Then she told us how a stalk can be plugged back into the earth to grow more. I think I'll try growing it.

Now that I've been back, I've noticed yucca in the Mexican grocery store.

Look at David holding the huge bunch of yucca in his white tennis shirt. Aside: my hubby never wears proper clothes to work in and that shirt was totally ruined.

David cleaned the yucca outdoors and peeled the skin off. We were instructed to: boil it until it was al dente; slice it in half-inch slices lengthwise; fry it in vegetable oil; and sprinkle it with sea salt. Friends. Yucca is way-way better than french fries. And they're so rich, you only need a few, plus a few more, and maybe one extra.

Our German hostess-with-the-mostess, Gundula, walked us around her twenty acre property that she and her husband from Michigan have painstakingly cultivated. They shared their edibles and how to prepare them with us. This is our idea of a lovely vacation getaway. Ideal. More about their vacation rental later.

Gundula shares her papaya and David can't even hold it because he's loaded with yucca.

So there you have it. Those were the slow foods we experienced in Panama.

In Northern California, we grow edibles all year. Many of the fruit trees we've planted are too young and aren't providing us with food yet. At some point, we are going to have enough food to eat as much as we want and share and perhaps sell. I can't wait. But you know I've never claimed to be a patient urban farmer, just an inspired one.

Slow Food Panama Style I
Casco Viejo in Panama City: A World Heritage Site
Animals (we saw) in Panama
Panama City's Skyscrapers
Bocas del Toro Panama Part I
Foreign Travel Packing List for Families

Bocas del Toro, Panama Part I

2011-03-03T08:03:00.000-08:00

Palm trees near Star Fish Beach on Isla Colon (not by the town of Bocas)

Imagine visiting a tropical island, not in Hawaii silly, but in Bocas del Toro on Isla Colon in Panama. I wouldn't recommend it as a destination for everyone. I had moments of wishing we hadn't gone there because I'm irritated by blight in nature, but in retrospect, I'm glad we experienced it.

The town of Bocas on the island (there is also a section of Bocas on the mainland) has an infamous nightlife but David and I aren't party animals. During our stay on the Caribbean, we wanted to see parrots, sloths and monkeys while on a walk. We imagined a beach with clean white sand (from the coral), separating jungle on one side and serene blue ocean on the other. Bocas town doesn't offer that but another area of the island does.

Honestly, we used Bocas as a stomping ground for a day and a half to have a few drinks, to eat a good meal, and to stock up on groceries for our next destination. Our plan was to take a taxi (four-wheel drive truck) to the north side of the island and rent a house for six nights. I will share that part of the trip in a Bocas-del Drago part-two post.

Here's an impression of Bocas Del Toro as experienced by our American family of five: two middle aged adults (mid-forties), two teenage boys (ages 18 and 14), and a girl (age 9).

We vacationed there in mid-January 2011, not an ideal month for a visit. It was the so called "dry season" in other parts of the country which translated to higher prices (though it was raining off and on in Panama City and Boquete too). In January, Bocas is notoriously wet, even the guide book said it would be.

We arrived by water taxi (and left by plane).

We planned to stay only one night in town because I'd read it was a very loud and wild Reggae scene, and though I love that music, David and I are old enough to be the parents of the twenty-somethings, who made up the majority of the tourists; and we have three kids we didn't want to leave alone too long in the apartment.

At some point during the rainy afternoon, all the bars turned up the volume of their music and all the sources of sound blurred into a non-descriptive beating noise which rose up to where David and I sat drinking rum and mango juice and enjoying the breeze on the balcony of our porch. The noise and din from the streets continued late into the night as expected.

All through the night, it rained. The racket on our tin roof was so daunting that at 2:00 a.m. I wandered out onto our balcony to witness the downpour and wondered: "What are we going to do if it's raining the whole time?" I made a mental note to visit the local bookstore (which was totally stocked).

Bocas del Toro is a "Mom and Pop" place, meaning there were no chain restaurants or chain lodging options and that was a major B-O-N-U-S in my opinion. (I loathe seeing the same-ol' corporate conglomerate stores abroad that I have to see in every nook and cranny in the States.) However, American brand name sodas, food and household products were in the grocery stores. I highly recommend Om Cafe, an Indian food restaurant with hip decor playing world beat music. That's where David and I went for our night out on the town.

When the sun was out, the town of Bocas looked better.

Quaint and colorful.

Christmas decor in January on the balcony at the bright green house in the photo above.

The colonial architecture in Bocas Del Toro has character.

Bocas is slowly being developed. Real Estate agents compete to sell property with newly constructed houses they market as rentals.

Many of the colonial homes in town were dilapidated. I liked that about Bocas. The place has a history.

Most homes were inhabited, whatever their condition.

I enjoyed photographing blue houses.

Many residents go without. Make do. Improvise.

After a heavy rain, all the street drains were overflowing and I prayed not with sewage, but I didn't look too closely, on purpose.

Trash in Bocas was clearly a problem. Things don't last in that climate and once an airplane, refrigerator, stereo, and television were broken, the items were often abandoned. Before I arrived, I was careful not to bring items that would create trash to leave behind.

Nowadays, anyone can order anything on-line, but residents don't expect it to arrive in Bocas. They won't get it--so they don't bother. Instead they rely on friends or relatives to bring an item or two when they visit. I got the feeling that living or visiting was kind of like glorified camping, shelter; and if he or she has money, food and water may be purchased.

We boiled our tap water and savored our ice. Rainfall was collected in plastic bins on porches, or on rooftops.

Just because you're surrounded by water doesn't mean it's a commodity. Clean, fresh water was a luxury.

Remembering not to flush toilet paper in the toilet was a challenge. We were instructed to put it in the waste-bucket next to the john. We each kept tissue in our pocket because many businesses didn't provide it. (Of course I wondered about the cleanliness of the staff's hands, but I quickly learned not to focus on details like that and my visit was easier.)

A Ngobe Bugle mother and her children in a hand-hewn log canoe or cayuca near the town of Almirante.

The social and economic class of people in an around Isla Colon was obvious.

During our brief visit, we chilled out in hammocks on our balcony and watched the people and boats conducting business on the water. People watching was our past-time and we saw: indigenous Ngobe Bugle, Afro-Caribbeans, Mestizos, Kuna Yala, and British, Dutch, American and German expats.

Young tourists from all over the world tossed their backpacks on bunkbeds in hostels and hit the streets barefoot--and probably wasted.

We toured other nearby islands because Bocas Provence is an archipelago of coral reef islands. There were scenic benefits along the way such as: interesting Sea birds, monkeys, sloths, dolphins, pigs, horses, dogs, bats, venomous snakes (didn't see any, but they exist), poison dart frogs and coral.

The Caribbean is rough in January with good-sized waves for surfing, but not so good visibility for snorkeling. Between the shore and the island of Colon, the water was calm, but notice the showers in the distance blanketing the land.

Sunlight is required to see the coral reef well "under-da-water."

The living coral reef is becoming more scarce as I write. At Hospital Point in the photo above, a twenty-five by fifty foot area was all that was left for snorkelers to eyeball. Gorgeous underwater drama that left me wanting more! It's a bummer that there is very little being done, besides research, to protect the coral in Panama.

A section of in-town beach without a pile of litter. Dismal looking, but the water was warm.

The beach in town wasn't great. I was skeptical of the cleanliness of the ocean water there, due to possible sewage overflow after the heavy rains. David was the only one in our family who ventured in while the rest of us looked on, grossed out by the brown color. That beach is the sight of an annual Reggae festival and I bet it looks better and is more fun on a sunny day.

Mangroves in the archipelago of Bocas.

I've made a list of what is obviously easier stated than executed, for many reasons. I'm going to risk an image as an ugly American tree-hugger and share it. The National Geographic Guide book we used mislead us to believe that there would be lots of coral around Bocas and many more hiking trails in Boquete than there actually were. My objective is to encourage families to travel but to make them aware of problems so their expectations are realistic.

In the future:

The archipelago of Bocas del Toro needs to be actively restored and conserved, not just researched. (Smithsonian, the WWF, or UNESCO should work with locals to do this)
Environmental protection from UNESCO and Panama's government is urgently needed.
The number of tourists and residents should be limited.
The lobster and fishing industry needs stricter regulation and monitoring. (creates jobs)
More land should be protected as habitat for wildlife--not bulldozed for more lodging.
City planning and development needs regulation (and a plan).
Developers, real estate agents, and buyers should have to contribute taxes to a town's infrastructure, or to education.
The town's infrastructures must be updated for sewage and recycling. (creates jobs)
The coral reef areas that are left need a uniformed patrol officer on-sight ticketing tour guide operators and tourists who aren't safeguarding it. (creates jobs)
Moorings for boats need to be stationed in sand near coral so anchors don't damage it. (Grant and Grad project)
Bleach should be banned. (Grant and Grad project) (Aside: I was told that indigenous divers inject bleach into octopus to get the animal to release it's tentacles from the rock. When I saw empty discarded bleach bottles on the island of Bastimentos (in a reserve), I cringed to imagine all the marine life that was killed.)
Biodegradable soaps for body and clothes washing should be promoted and utilized exclusively by all residents and tourists. (Grant and Grad project)
Antibacterial soaps should be banned from the grocery stores. (Grant and Grad project)
Mestizo, Indigenous people, or Afro-Caribbeans need educational training to become certified environmental guides, conservators and monitors. (create an eco-tourism industry modelled after Costa Rica's)

I can't wait to share with you the place on Isla Colon that met our needs and interests. It was also on the Isla Colon, but fifteen miles to the north in Bocas del Drago. Stay tuned and thanks for reading this post.

My other posts about Panama and foreign travel with your family:

Casco Viejo in Panama City: A World Heritage Site
Animals (we saw) in Panama
Panama City's Skyscrapers Slow Food Panama Style I

Slow Food Panama Style II

This will help you plan a foreign trip abroad with your own family.
Foreign Travel Packing List for Families

What's Our Winter Produce Look Like?

2011-02-26T17:29:00.000-08:00

I love spicy food, but these peppers are insanely hot. They make your mouth feel like your face might if you were peering over the edge of an active volcano. Burn baby burn.

I'm growing peppers as well as romaine lettuce which I had let re-seed itself in my triangle garden.

I think the romaine lettuce is too crowded and needs transplanting.

I treasure our Meyer's Lemons from our two dwarf trees.

We're in citrus heaven with our Rangpur Limes from our lot. Did I hear Mojito?

In my opinion, the items on my kitchen counter: Rangpur limes, apples, persimmons, squash, onions, kiwi, olives, pomegranates, avocados, and garlic aren't as scrumptious as the stone fruits of summer, but nevertheless, there is variety and they are the current tastes of the season, winter.

Beeswax Tea Cup Candles are Easy-Breezy

2011-02-22T09:46:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a gal needs to keep some of the stuff she makes...

Antique tea cups for my first beeswax candles. It's been a goal for awhile. I bought a few cups a year ago, and my Mom gave me one that acquired a crack in it. What better way is there to recycle one of your favorite old tea cups which don't accompany a matching china set?

Aside: my man-hand holding the dainty china cup.

Use tacky wax on the bottom of a wick (which you can buy at Juniper Tree and cut to any desired height. You can buy pure beeswax too, which I highly recommend over paraffin candles. The difference between the two is explained here.)

Center the wick in the bottom of the cup. Not too tricky.

The directions I followed were l-a-m-e. I was advised to grate beeswax into the cup; but grated wax wasn't enough to fill the cup, obviously. Plus grating wax for this project is asinine! Don't bother. (I did and it took me hours. Please. I invite you to live and to learn from my mistakes--shared freely on my blog.)

Just take an ice pick and hack off chunks of wax and melt it over a double boiler (in a container you don't want anymore). Warm the wax slowly and never leave it unattended, as it can ignite! Once melted, carefully pour the wax into the cup to the desired level.

Don't jostle the contents. Let it sit.

Pour another. Let it be. Indulge in a Zen moment like this guy (hilarious and weird link).

Before you know it, the wax will solidify and your tea cup candle will be perfect.

Enjoy it for yourself, or gift it to someone dear to you.

By the way, making candles uses tons of wax. I probably used 1.5 pounds of my wax in three tea cups. No matter. I've got a garbage bag in my deep freezer filled with beeswax which needs to be washed and rendered. Beeswax candles smell splendid.

Wacky Moments in Panama

2011-02-19T11:45:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's because they've been homeschooled their whole life and that gives them such a great "sense of self" (sarcasm intended), but our three kids are so comfortable with who they are they....

...will pick up an abandoned soccer ball on the beach and not think twice about wearing it;

Grin ridiculously over a toad their Dad found on a night hike;

Hang from vines without knowing if there are venomous snakes above or below them;

Collect plant material and quickly weave a belt to hold up their shorts;

Sack out between tours without a moments notice;

Sack out in contorted poses in the airport;

Feign using antiseptic lotion on their lips;

Give a thumbs up, a Cheshire grin, and proudly reveal their dirty yellow teeth; and basically...

Act like dorks in Panama.