Most of you have likely not heard that Kate Kelly, a human rights lawyer/activist and founder of the activist group Ordain Women, was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for publicly promoting and espousing apostate doctrine. I think it tragic that you might have already heard that she had been excommunicated. You would only have heard it from her public releasing of that information. For me, that action speaks volumes, making the point that her actions are intended to be self-promoting, rather than sincerely held beliefs. But her excommunication is not the point of this post. Rather, it is the lack of logic exhibited by OW, whose position is that public protesting in an Occupy Wall Street manner, will somehow compel a church, to change its position.
What is Priest-hood? By definition, the authority to act in God's name. God's name, not man's. So the illogic starts with one thinking they are protesting against "the Church" (and by that I mean any church or synagogue) rather than the reality that they are in fact railing against God.
Your real problem OW, is that God gets to decide who acts in His name, or not. And somehow, that's not okay with you. The problem for OW, is that God has always decided who gets to act in His name. His priesthood has always been restricted to some degree.
In an age of militancy, it is easy to forget the pattern which has been demonstrated in the Bible. From early on, the priesthood was excluded from certain of Adam's descendants, specifically those who descended by birth, from Adam's son Cain. By virtue of something their ancestor did, for thousands of years, no matter how righteous "they" were, they were excluded from participating in the priesthood. But they weren't the only ones.
Esau for example, sold his right to the priesthood, his birthright which then would have passed to his descendants, for a bowl of stew. Non-Jewish Old Testament-reading only folk don't realize that Esau did more than just sell his "birthright." At the time, Esau possessed a garment previously owned by King Nimrod. This garment was the royal/priestly garment given by God to Adam in the Garden of Eden (Pseudo Jon. to Gen. xxvii 15), and is one of the reasons why Esau became a mighty hunter: the garment bearing such power and authority that all men and animals subjected themselves to its wearer. It is this garment, along with his birthright contained as the first born, that Esau sold to Jacob (Genesis 27:15.) Interesting then, that afterwards, God specifically ratifies His covenant of the right to the priesthood, Gospel and eternal family with Jacob (in other words: Esau selling it to Jacob alone didn't do it: God had to grant Jacob the birthright blessing and authority.)
Let's not forget Moses and the House of Israel. At the time, the Priesthood is restricted to the First Born male of every tribe. Restricted to males, and restricted to only first born males at that (Exodus 13.) Moses comes down from the Mount with the Higher Priesthood to find Israel worshiping a gold calf. The tribe of Levi as a whole, defends the Lord and His Priesthood. As a consequence, one of the penalties to Israel is the restriction of performing priesthood ordinances (Exodus 34.) Eventually, the rules restricting priesthood behavior become "too burdensome" for the First Born. They whine, and are replaced in their entirety by the valiant tribe of Levi (Numbers 3.)
So now we've moved in time from all descendants of Adam, to restricted to specific descendants of Adam, and further restricted to First Born males, to further restriction to the tribe of Levi, with the exception of Messiah in the tribe of Judah (Isaiah 22:22-25) and certain others holding the higher priesthood.
I'm oversimplifying to make a point: the Priesthood has always been restricted by either gender, righteousness, or ancestry.
Does God get to decide that issue? OW says no, they have a right to demand the Priesthood, missing entirely the point: by definition (read the Bible!), the priest-hood is authority from God to act in His name. The illogic of OW's argument just boggles the mind.
I speak now specifically to those who are LDS (and may or may not be part of OW.)
On June 8, 1978, President Spencer Kimball, revered as a prophet presiding over the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a proclamation which announced: "Aware of the promises made by the prophets...who have preceded us that at some time in God's eternal plan, all of our brethren who are worthy may receive the priesthood....He has heard our prayers and by revelation has confirmed that the long awaited day has come, when every worthy man in the Church may receive the Holy Priesthood..."
Long awaited day. Some mistakenly believe this is the 100 years or so when Blacks were restricted from the LDS priesthood. I personally do not believe this to be entirely the case. I argue that the long awaited day was the removal of the restriction of the penalty of ancestry: no longer are those who descend from Cain (whoever they may be) barred from the priesthood; no longer are those who descend from other tribes in the House of Israel barred from the priesthood; no longer are those who descend from Esau, Ishmael et cetera barred from the priesthood: the only qualifier is personal worthiness. IF the priesthood and Gospel of God has been restored to the earth as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims.
The fallacy in OW's argument is that it demands to be given "God's authority" (His priesthood) while at the same time refusing to recognize that God decides upon whom to bestow His authority. Either: it's God's authority (do you not see you are protesting against God then), or it's not (in which case, what do you care who some Church does or doesn't allow to officiate?)
Maybe some day God will remove the gender restriction. Maybe He won't. Perhaps I'm ascribing honor where none is warranted, but I'd like to think that OW did some good: getting the LDS Church to look at some issues of tradition and creating a venue for change (i.e., women praying and or speaking in LDS general conference, opening up the Priesthood sessions to be publicly broadcast.)
There is a line between tradition and doctrine. It's unfortunate that OW can no longer find that line.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Monday, June 23, 2014
Back To Eden Garden Update
Well the yard (front and back) are looking spiffy, and the house is looking spiffier; it'll have to do.
We transplanted the rose bushes from out front in the BackToEden (BTE) garden plot to in front of the window facing the street. This is the area where I successfully grew Quinoa one year, before someone told the aphids where I live.
I ended up tearing out the remaining broccoli in the BTE front garden. I just couldn't save it, it was so badly infested with black aphids. In 2013, Mother Earth News wrote an article entitled "How to Kill Aphids Organically." I have not tried planting companion plants such as calendula, borage, zinnias, cosmos and nasturtiums. I guess it wouldn't hurt. If it doesn't succeed, I'm going to start using chemicals.
Aphids only attacked my broccoli crop (of course, since the seed harvest can be sold for $18-25 a pound!!) but I decided to start harvesting the celery now anyway. I'm just going to dehydrate it.
Anyway, back to BTE. You may recall I BTE'd with wood chips part of the back yard (had to dig it up thanks to LL), the front yard almost in entirety, and the window front and side planter areas, about two years ago. On the surface, it looks like the wood chips are still intact. Today while we were digging up the rose bushes we found out that the 4" of wood chips has decomposed down to a remaining inch or so of surface chips, leaving nice composted material. It sure looks nice.
Oddly enough, the compost from my post yesterday, decomposed faster. When I originally got my wood chips, I transported them in black garbage bags. After using some of them, I had about 6 full bags left over. I left them in the bags. They decomposed into basically real "dirt" with very little "wood chip looking" material left, compared to the BTE front and back garden areas, which still look like "intact" wood chips.
Using the BTE method has absolutely cut down on the weeds. They are virtually non existent. Unfortunately, crab grass and St. Augustine grass LOVE BTE gardens. Granted, it's a smaller amount than before BTE, but I was really really hoping that crab grass would not grow in a BTE garden. It's pretty much invaded the back garden area, so I'm not too annoyed with having to dig that up and replace the garden patch with worthless grass: it's halfway there already.
I follow this guy on YouTube who has torn up his entire backyard and turned it into raised bed gardens. He did a couple of videos on planting potatoes and it looks like a good vegetable for the front yard BTE. I think I'm going to start some Sweet Potato slips too.
Tired. We got a lot done in the past two weeks. I have great kids: they have worked like storm troopers.
We transplanted the rose bushes from out front in the BackToEden (BTE) garden plot to in front of the window facing the street. This is the area where I successfully grew Quinoa one year, before someone told the aphids where I live.
I ended up tearing out the remaining broccoli in the BTE front garden. I just couldn't save it, it was so badly infested with black aphids. In 2013, Mother Earth News wrote an article entitled "How to Kill Aphids Organically." I have not tried planting companion plants such as calendula, borage, zinnias, cosmos and nasturtiums. I guess it wouldn't hurt. If it doesn't succeed, I'm going to start using chemicals.
Aphids only attacked my broccoli crop (of course, since the seed harvest can be sold for $18-25 a pound!!) but I decided to start harvesting the celery now anyway. I'm just going to dehydrate it.
Anyway, back to BTE. You may recall I BTE'd with wood chips part of the back yard (had to dig it up thanks to LL), the front yard almost in entirety, and the window front and side planter areas, about two years ago. On the surface, it looks like the wood chips are still intact. Today while we were digging up the rose bushes we found out that the 4" of wood chips has decomposed down to a remaining inch or so of surface chips, leaving nice composted material. It sure looks nice.
Oddly enough, the compost from my post yesterday, decomposed faster. When I originally got my wood chips, I transported them in black garbage bags. After using some of them, I had about 6 full bags left over. I left them in the bags. They decomposed into basically real "dirt" with very little "wood chip looking" material left, compared to the BTE front and back garden areas, which still look like "intact" wood chips.
Using the BTE method has absolutely cut down on the weeds. They are virtually non existent. Unfortunately, crab grass and St. Augustine grass LOVE BTE gardens. Granted, it's a smaller amount than before BTE, but I was really really hoping that crab grass would not grow in a BTE garden. It's pretty much invaded the back garden area, so I'm not too annoyed with having to dig that up and replace the garden patch with worthless grass: it's halfway there already.
I follow this guy on YouTube who has torn up his entire backyard and turned it into raised bed gardens. He did a couple of videos on planting potatoes and it looks like a good vegetable for the front yard BTE. I think I'm going to start some Sweet Potato slips too.
Tired. We got a lot done in the past two weeks. I have great kids: they have worked like storm troopers.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
The Clean Up: aka Getting Organized
Nearly two weeks ago, the backyard/shared fence neighbors called my landlord because they want him to "go halves" on a stone fence, which brought him over to my place. He wasn't happy about the state of the backyard.
Baseball season is just coming to an end. Frankly, if you're not a little white ball with 108 red stitches, I could care less about you from January through mid-June, sometimes til the end of July. So in all fairness, the yard needed some work. I objected to the condescending tone ("do you really need those barrels of drinking water?") and the inference that the place is otherwise a gilded, marble mansion which we are allowing to deteriorate into dishabille.
Anyway. DH was gone all week, so it was up to me and the kids. Progress was slow and steady, and we only did a little bit every day. We actually got most of it done a week ago, with this week carting off my leaf fuel supply (sniff), and today building a wood container shed (LL wanted me to get rid of the wood, but after this week of SCE/power cut off, I decided not to), and cutting up the wood so it is usable.
Learned something new: my table saw works, but it draws a HUGE amount of power wattage--which threw my breakers and strained my 2000w generator. Holy cow! So the table saw's going bye bye this week.
Borrowed my neighbor's 14" electric chain saw and cut up the eucalyptus branches plus some 2x4 wood posts and some planks of wood. Used the re-purposed planks of wood to build the wood shed, and create braces for the garage rafters so we can get stuff off the garage floor and up into the rafters and move stuff from the house into the garage.
We trimmed up the (IMO worthless) palm trees which seem to be de rigeur in southern California. The ground at this place is literally hard, rigid, compacted clay. Nothing worthwhile grows here. That dark rich looking earth? That's my wonderful 4 inches deep, 25 feet long, 3 feet wide worth of home-created compost that's being sacrificed on the altar of landlord superficial beauty.
Since I was living at Home Depot (the big box hardware store) today, after conferring with my neighbor who is growing a citrus orchard in containers for crying out loud!,
I broke down and bought two blueberry bushes (they were on sale for US$16 each), which already had a miniscule amount of blueberries on them. I'll likely buy some "pretty" containers and transplant them into the containers, and place the containers in that big, unused, colored bark area.
Long 10 days. I'm hoping it will pay off.
Baseball season is just coming to an end. Frankly, if you're not a little white ball with 108 red stitches, I could care less about you from January through mid-June, sometimes til the end of July. So in all fairness, the yard needed some work. I objected to the condescending tone ("do you really need those barrels of drinking water?") and the inference that the place is otherwise a gilded, marble mansion which we are allowing to deteriorate into dishabille.
Anyway. DH was gone all week, so it was up to me and the kids. Progress was slow and steady, and we only did a little bit every day. We actually got most of it done a week ago, with this week carting off my leaf fuel supply (sniff), and today building a wood container shed (LL wanted me to get rid of the wood, but after this week of SCE/power cut off, I decided not to), and cutting up the wood so it is usable.
Learned something new: my table saw works, but it draws a HUGE amount of power wattage--which threw my breakers and strained my 2000w generator. Holy cow! So the table saw's going bye bye this week.
Borrowed my neighbor's 14" electric chain saw and cut up the eucalyptus branches plus some 2x4 wood posts and some planks of wood. Used the re-purposed planks of wood to build the wood shed, and create braces for the garage rafters so we can get stuff off the garage floor and up into the rafters and move stuff from the house into the garage.
The re-purposed wood, shed:
If you recall from my blogpost Fuel and Food, the leaves are what went bye bye (I was going to make newspaper and carbon fuel logs), 
and the branches, although there wasn't a lot of them, ended up a very nice stack.
and the branches, although there wasn't a lot of them, ended up a very nice stack.
I had to dig up my garden space, moved the wood garden barrier over and created a barrier between the crab grass "lawn" and where the lemon tree and other 'decorative' bush is. As I said, nothing worthwhile grows in this soil, and this particular area is enshrouded in shade 90% of the day, so even if it had great soil, nothing would grow. We put down some of that (IMO garbage) colored 'decorative' bark which (IMO) does nothing but add contaminants to the soil, but that might just be my ecology roots showing.
Since I was living at Home Depot (the big box hardware store) today, after conferring with my neighbor who is growing a citrus orchard in containers for crying out loud!,
Long 10 days. I'm hoping it will pay off.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Being Prepared
Writing this from my phone as my house is currently without electricity. With all that has gone on this month, I forgot to call Southern California Edison and get a payment extension on my security deposit, so thanks to the smart meters, they flipped a switch and voila, no power.
Mind you, this shut off is not because I didn't pay a bill for actual SERVICE. It's a shut off for a security deposit for FUTURE SERVICE.
These are the moments when I wished I had enough off grid power to get by. I may actually boot up my generator and run my fridge off it...I need to use up the gas which is in there anyway. Too bad I haven't put a converter on the generator yet. I could run it off propane or the natural gas to the house. Or if I had gotten one of those small 30watt refrigerators from Sears, I'd be running it off a battery and sitting pretty.
The fridge is actually the only thing of import which is an issue electrically speaking. Heat and hot water is nonelectricity dependent. Electronic devices are being recharged as we speak through solar.
It's ironic that this should happen the same week my landlord is kvetching about getting rid of my prepper stuff in the backyard. I think it's shown me once I get power restored I need to learn how to use the table saw and make a wood holder so I can neatly stack the firewood, since no one seems to want to come get it. I can cook off grid without a problem so no worries there.
I've gone for longer than the 2 or 3 days we'll be without power until we have money on Friday, and with far less people in my house than I normally have too.
So the world's not going to end, and we're prepared enough. And on the bright side? I have a great excuse to eat all the ice cream!
Friday, June 13, 2014
Genealogy Gems
I do vital records transcriptions in Los Angeles county, California (for a very slight, tiny fee to cover gas costs.) I also do "free" tombstone transcriptions and upload them to http://www.findagrave.com.
Up until recently, the gravesites I had uploaded were directly related to me. One of them was a grand aunt on the Chinese side of my family; a baby girl who was given the name of 'Baby' followed (erroneously) by the given names of her father. So her death certificate reads: Baby Dep (as first given names) Goon (as middle name) Wong.
So that's how I listed her in findagrave: "Baby" Dep Goon Wong.
Another findagrave researcher sent me a message advising me that I shouldn't list her as "Baby" in the given name section. "Baby" should be listed in the nickname section. W-h-a-t-e-v-e-r.
Then I realized that although I had entered in findagrave her, my grandmother (her sister), and their mother (my great grandmother), I had not entered the father of the family (my great grandfather.) "Hmmm," I thought, "that's strange. I'm sure I have that info."
So I checked my databases. NOPE. Nada. A little voice said, "hey, you should enter his name into Ancestry.com and see what pops up."
Now, those of you in the small minority who do Asian research are probably either busting a gut laughing, or trying to bring back your eyes after rolling your eyes straight to the back of your head. Anyone who's done Asian research knows that it's exceptionally R-A-R-E that a name will be written "in english" the same way. Ever. Although thanks to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (that would be the immigration law that kept the Chinese OUT of the USA unless they belonged to a certain "class") once you proved you belonged to that "protected class" you did tend to make sure all of your legal documents kept that same spelling. But I digress.
I typed his name, Dep Goon Wong, into Ancestry.com. Guess what popped up? Dep G. Wong, died 28 Feb 1930, Los Angeles county, born about 1858. HMMMM. Pretty close to the birth year I had. Except that branch of family was never near LA county as far as I knew (which granted, isn't much.)
The great thing about the 1905-1939 index is it lists the initials of given name of the spouse if it's on the death cert. His listed the initials O.F.
Alarm bells start ringing at this point. My great-grandmother's name was Oy Fong LEE.
Ok, I bit. Heck I'd been meaning to go to the LA County Hall of Records anyway. And I still had the Prius, which made it cheap to get there. So I went.
I don't know why I doubted that this WAS my great grandfather. Seriously. You'd think I'd know by now how the spirit world works in this universe.
Yep. My great grandfather. Marital status: Widowed. Wife's name: Oie Foong Wong (hey white folk wrote it, give me a break.) Listed his PARENTS names, that was a shocker, you never get that lucky on a Chinese death cert. Gave his date of birth (yeah, ok.)
Turns out he died at the Los Angeles County Poor Farm, (yes, that's the city it listed), in Los Angeles county.
I've been doing genealogy research in LA county for a long time, and that was a new one. So I dug a little deeper. Turns out there really was a "poor farm" for indigent patients, and a really big one at that. This blogpost http://www.avoidingregret.com/2013/04/photo-essay-rancho-los-amigos-abandoned.html is really worth reading. With pictures even, which really makes it come alive. I'd heard of Rancho Los Amigos before, but not the name LA County Poor Farm. It's cool to look at these pictures on the blogpost and realize that's where my great grandfather passed. From bone cancer. Without family.
His burial information is listed as "Los Angeles, CA." Gee, that's a help. It's such a small town and all. Most who died at the "poor farm" were buried at Evergreen Cemetery, a place with its own history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Cemetery,_Los_Angeles. Except by the time he died, Evergreen was out of space. Even if he "was" there, he may or may not have been buried in the Chinese section (that would be too easy), or buried over when they added 8 feet of topsoil to the Potter's Field section (which frankly, sounds way too macabre, even for me.) Most likely he was cremated and who knows what happened to his ashes. Many Chinese were cremated and their ashes sent back to China, but you'd have to have family to do that, and clearly he didn't (forgot to mention my grandmother was adopted out, so she wasn't in the picture.)
Other than gaining the names of my 2nd great grandparents (which is actually pretty cool. In Chinese genealogy you take what you can get when you can get it), I didn't add much to my "database" than I already had, although I did gain specifics. Still, I have been nicely haunted by the feeling all day that my great grandfather had finally come "home" to his family. It is a reunion which has warmed my heart and buoyed up my spirits.
Up until recently, the gravesites I had uploaded were directly related to me. One of them was a grand aunt on the Chinese side of my family; a baby girl who was given the name of 'Baby' followed (erroneously) by the given names of her father. So her death certificate reads: Baby Dep (as first given names) Goon (as middle name) Wong.
So that's how I listed her in findagrave: "Baby" Dep Goon Wong.
Another findagrave researcher sent me a message advising me that I shouldn't list her as "Baby" in the given name section. "Baby" should be listed in the nickname section. W-h-a-t-e-v-e-r.
Then I realized that although I had entered in findagrave her, my grandmother (her sister), and their mother (my great grandmother), I had not entered the father of the family (my great grandfather.) "Hmmm," I thought, "that's strange. I'm sure I have that info."
So I checked my databases. NOPE. Nada. A little voice said, "hey, you should enter his name into Ancestry.com and see what pops up."
Now, those of you in the small minority who do Asian research are probably either busting a gut laughing, or trying to bring back your eyes after rolling your eyes straight to the back of your head. Anyone who's done Asian research knows that it's exceptionally R-A-R-E that a name will be written "in english" the same way. Ever. Although thanks to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (that would be the immigration law that kept the Chinese OUT of the USA unless they belonged to a certain "class") once you proved you belonged to that "protected class" you did tend to make sure all of your legal documents kept that same spelling. But I digress.
I typed his name, Dep Goon Wong, into Ancestry.com. Guess what popped up? Dep G. Wong, died 28 Feb 1930, Los Angeles county, born about 1858. HMMMM. Pretty close to the birth year I had. Except that branch of family was never near LA county as far as I knew (which granted, isn't much.)
The great thing about the 1905-1939 index is it lists the initials of given name of the spouse if it's on the death cert. His listed the initials O.F.
Alarm bells start ringing at this point. My great-grandmother's name was Oy Fong LEE.
Ok, I bit. Heck I'd been meaning to go to the LA County Hall of Records anyway. And I still had the Prius, which made it cheap to get there. So I went.
I don't know why I doubted that this WAS my great grandfather. Seriously. You'd think I'd know by now how the spirit world works in this universe.
Yep. My great grandfather. Marital status: Widowed. Wife's name: Oie Foong Wong (hey white folk wrote it, give me a break.) Listed his PARENTS names, that was a shocker, you never get that lucky on a Chinese death cert. Gave his date of birth (yeah, ok.)
Turns out he died at the Los Angeles County Poor Farm, (yes, that's the city it listed), in Los Angeles county.
I've been doing genealogy research in LA county for a long time, and that was a new one. So I dug a little deeper. Turns out there really was a "poor farm" for indigent patients, and a really big one at that. This blogpost http://www.avoidingregret.com/2013/04/photo-essay-rancho-los-amigos-abandoned.html is really worth reading. With pictures even, which really makes it come alive. I'd heard of Rancho Los Amigos before, but not the name LA County Poor Farm. It's cool to look at these pictures on the blogpost and realize that's where my great grandfather passed. From bone cancer. Without family.
His burial information is listed as "Los Angeles, CA." Gee, that's a help. It's such a small town and all. Most who died at the "poor farm" were buried at Evergreen Cemetery, a place with its own history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Cemetery,_Los_Angeles. Except by the time he died, Evergreen was out of space. Even if he "was" there, he may or may not have been buried in the Chinese section (that would be too easy), or buried over when they added 8 feet of topsoil to the Potter's Field section (which frankly, sounds way too macabre, even for me.) Most likely he was cremated and who knows what happened to his ashes. Many Chinese were cremated and their ashes sent back to China, but you'd have to have family to do that, and clearly he didn't (forgot to mention my grandmother was adopted out, so she wasn't in the picture.)
Other than gaining the names of my 2nd great grandparents (which is actually pretty cool. In Chinese genealogy you take what you can get when you can get it), I didn't add much to my "database" than I already had, although I did gain specifics. Still, I have been nicely haunted by the feeling all day that my great grandfather had finally come "home" to his family. It is a reunion which has warmed my heart and buoyed up my spirits.
Hou hoisam joi gin neih Jaang Jaang leuih Fuh.
(Very happy to see you again great grandfather on my father's mother's side.)
UPDATE: Ok, that is beyond spooky. After finding ZERO info for decades, I just found the WW1 draft card for my grandmother's brother. With his father, Dep Goon WONG listed as next of kin.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Blueberries, Cherry Hedges and Broccoli
Something fun to talk about for a change.
I had a nice chuckle yesterday. The company Farm Fresh to You knocked on my door to see if I would be interested in having farm fresh, organic produce delivered to my door. I laughed and said, "did ya see the organic garden growing as you walked up the driveway? We grow our own." Ok, maybe it was funnier live and in person.
Thought I'd give you all an update, since you know I am still a horrible gardener. The trellis fencing is working well at keeping out the varmints. The heirloom broccoli I planted last year in abundance (and didn't get far enough this year to grow intentionally from seed), grew some volunteer plants (MY KIND OF GARDENING !!) We just harvested our first two heads of heirloom broccoli.
Heirloom beet has overwintered (the one I put in the freezer didn't make it.) Hopefully it will put out seed this year. The beet root itself is about 12 inches in diameter.
I had a nice chuckle yesterday. The company Farm Fresh to You knocked on my door to see if I would be interested in having farm fresh, organic produce delivered to my door. I laughed and said, "did ya see the organic garden growing as you walked up the driveway? We grow our own." Ok, maybe it was funnier live and in person.
Thought I'd give you all an update, since you know I am still a horrible gardener. The trellis fencing is working well at keeping out the varmints. The heirloom broccoli I planted last year in abundance (and didn't get far enough this year to grow intentionally from seed), grew some volunteer plants (MY KIND OF GARDENING !!) We just harvested our first two heads of heirloom broccoli.
Celery and onions (from the nursery Tree Collard trip) look about ready to harvest, especially the celery
Grapevines look pretty but since we are only in year two, they're not doing much.
Surprisingly, the blueberry stalks have taken root and sprouted leaves in less than 10 days (planted May 22nd.) One's a little slower than the rest, but I'm still heartened.
Cherry hedge stalks arrived yesterday. At least they're tall so I feel like there's hope!
And the thornless black raspberry stalk looks homesick.
My issues with the fruit stalks stem mostly from lack of experience and education (ha ha, get it? Stem!) I truly thought I would be getting fruit-bearing plants shipped to me. Now I know better. I'm not complaining...I just wish companies would put up a disclaimer like, "hey inexperienced gardeners! You are buying stalks! They won't put out fruit for 3-5 years!" Costco (where I got my grapevines), needs to do the same thing. I'm not saying I would have spent $66 on two fruit bearing blueberry plants at the local nursery, but I likely would have.
There's another idea: my local nursery should have a sign saying: $33 isn't a lot for a plant which will give you blueberries now. Because I've actually done some research since the blueberry stalks arrived. Did you know you can grow blueberries from cuttings? It's pretty darn cool. So I could have spent $66 on two fruit-bearing blueberry plants, had blueberries this year, created cuttings from this year's plant, and still had the 1-3 year wait off the cuttings that I do now from the stalks.
Free tree collards forever, free broccoli forever, hopefully free beets forever, and now working on free blueberries forever. I'm getting there :)
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
California Primary Elections
UPDATE June 4, 2014. Yep. We are stuck on stupid here in California. Jerry Brown, Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsome. Don't complain people when you wake up one morning and find the U.S. and State constitutions in the micro-shredder.
I did a lot of fact finding for California's primaries. I feel horrible that I let my notes disappear on the iPad and that I didn't blog before today, election day.
That said, I do have a few strong preferences. In the unlikely event you're still on the fence and read this blog in California, allow me to share my opinion and light reasoning. Time won't permit me to share the in-depth reasoning I had planned: the best plans of mice and men often go awry.
Can I just mention straight up how astounded I am that 50% of Californians are allegedly voting for Jerry Brown today. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? If nothing else demonstrates why I want to move to a red state, that does. We're just TOO STUPID or TOO APATHETIC. I'm not surprised that Neel Kashkari is doing decent (comparatively speaking.) I liked his positions a lot before I met Tim Donnelly. I wish everyone could meet Tim Donnelly. Plainspoken, ethics driven, smart, with a vision (a good one) for California. Which means with a populace that values celebrity over intelligence, he probably won't make it through the primary.
I have to say, that I have a theory why Republicans and Libertarians don't win elections, and why Dems do. It's all the infighting. If Dems do one thing well (and it's about the only thing they do well) it's that they circle the wagons. They pick their candidate, and put all their collective energy in to getting him or her elected. Republicans spend months infighting each other rather than getting their message out. We saw it in the 2012 presidential election (really? do you think you can possibly win a national election when you are still arguing about a candidate in late June?) and then fail to circle the wagons around Mitt Romney. Because he was so much worse a pick than Barack Obama.
I saw the same one-issue-only-matters Republicans/tea partiers asking questions of local candidates, attempting (in my opinion) to derail them. NEWSFLASH: a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors does not control federal immigration policy. So rather than focus on what matters, let's derail the candidacy of Alan Mansoor in public forum after public forum because he feels that immigration policy needs to be reformed (what? you LIKE our immigration policy? My point exactly.) And in my opinion, he's right about Michelle Steel: she is big money trying to buy an election, and will use the BoS position as a stepping stone to bigger and better political buys. If she's doing such a great job on the Board of Equalization (and I believe that she is) then why not stay there and really make a long term difference? My same point about Jim Moreno, who I liked better than I thought I would. He's done some really great things as a Trustee for our community colleges. Why abandon that great work? Answer for both, in my opinion? Self-aggrandizement.
I like that Alan Mansoor got in to politics because he was tired of being stonewalled at his local city council. He saw a problem, and decided to do something about it. I am sympathetic to his belief that he can do better at fixing our local problems here at the local level, than he can at the State level in the Assembly, where the only thing that matters is the color blue. He was my guy until I saw that Joe Carchio was running too. Now THERE'S a dilemma we should have in every election: two fabulous candidates running. So we're likely splitting our vote in our household (we have four registered voters.) I know I know. We should pick one and get behind him. Joe Carchio has done great things for the City of Huntington Beach. I am sorry we lost him to term limits, especially since it leaves four dodo heads on the Council who can't term out fast enough for me.
I spoke with Joe Carchio about my dilemma. He gave me a compelling reason to vote for him: he is already involved in many of the boards (right word?) of the County. Those people know him and like him and he can get things done because he already is helping get things done.
I have some strong dislikes: Jerry Brown, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom (talk about three poster children who ignore their Constitutional oath.) Leland Yee (how can you be indicted and arrested for corruption and be allowed to run for Secretary of State? oh wait. I'm in California.)
DAVID BOYD, running for the County Board of Education. Whose first listed priority if he is elected is implementing Common Core State Standards (straight off his website!) Steve Rocco (a few bricks short of a load IMO.) Greg Diamond (because we need a self-described government social activist heading the prosecutor's office.)
I did a lot of fact finding for California's primaries. I feel horrible that I let my notes disappear on the iPad and that I didn't blog before today, election day.
That said, I do have a few strong preferences. In the unlikely event you're still on the fence and read this blog in California, allow me to share my opinion and light reasoning. Time won't permit me to share the in-depth reasoning I had planned: the best plans of mice and men often go awry.
Can I just mention straight up how astounded I am that 50% of Californians are allegedly voting for Jerry Brown today. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? If nothing else demonstrates why I want to move to a red state, that does. We're just TOO STUPID or TOO APATHETIC. I'm not surprised that Neel Kashkari is doing decent (comparatively speaking.) I liked his positions a lot before I met Tim Donnelly. I wish everyone could meet Tim Donnelly. Plainspoken, ethics driven, smart, with a vision (a good one) for California. Which means with a populace that values celebrity over intelligence, he probably won't make it through the primary.
I have to say, that I have a theory why Republicans and Libertarians don't win elections, and why Dems do. It's all the infighting. If Dems do one thing well (and it's about the only thing they do well) it's that they circle the wagons. They pick their candidate, and put all their collective energy in to getting him or her elected. Republicans spend months infighting each other rather than getting their message out. We saw it in the 2012 presidential election (really? do you think you can possibly win a national election when you are still arguing about a candidate in late June?) and then fail to circle the wagons around Mitt Romney. Because he was so much worse a pick than Barack Obama.
I saw the same one-issue-only-matters Republicans/tea partiers asking questions of local candidates, attempting (in my opinion) to derail them. NEWSFLASH: a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors does not control federal immigration policy. So rather than focus on what matters, let's derail the candidacy of Alan Mansoor in public forum after public forum because he feels that immigration policy needs to be reformed (what? you LIKE our immigration policy? My point exactly.) And in my opinion, he's right about Michelle Steel: she is big money trying to buy an election, and will use the BoS position as a stepping stone to bigger and better political buys. If she's doing such a great job on the Board of Equalization (and I believe that she is) then why not stay there and really make a long term difference? My same point about Jim Moreno, who I liked better than I thought I would. He's done some really great things as a Trustee for our community colleges. Why abandon that great work? Answer for both, in my opinion? Self-aggrandizement.
I like that Alan Mansoor got in to politics because he was tired of being stonewalled at his local city council. He saw a problem, and decided to do something about it. I am sympathetic to his belief that he can do better at fixing our local problems here at the local level, than he can at the State level in the Assembly, where the only thing that matters is the color blue. He was my guy until I saw that Joe Carchio was running too. Now THERE'S a dilemma we should have in every election: two fabulous candidates running. So we're likely splitting our vote in our household (we have four registered voters.) I know I know. We should pick one and get behind him. Joe Carchio has done great things for the City of Huntington Beach. I am sorry we lost him to term limits, especially since it leaves four dodo heads on the Council who can't term out fast enough for me.
I spoke with Joe Carchio about my dilemma. He gave me a compelling reason to vote for him: he is already involved in many of the boards (right word?) of the County. Those people know him and like him and he can get things done because he already is helping get things done.
I have some strong dislikes: Jerry Brown, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom (talk about three poster children who ignore their Constitutional oath.) Leland Yee (how can you be indicted and arrested for corruption and be allowed to run for Secretary of State? oh wait. I'm in California.)
DAVID BOYD, running for the County Board of Education. Whose first listed priority if he is elected is implementing Common Core State Standards (straight off his website!) Steve Rocco (a few bricks short of a load IMO.) Greg Diamond (because we need a self-described government social activist heading the prosecutor's office.)
GET INVOLVED. GET OUT AND VOTE. DO NOT LEAVE IT FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO TAKE CARE OF IT.
They will, and you won't like the result.
Monday, June 2, 2014
Silver Linings in Car Accidents
I posted the other day that my two sons were involved in a pretty gnarly (!) car accident.
We ended up getting a Toyota Prius from the car rental agency.
Can I tell you how great it feels to drive to and from work (52 miles round trip) on a single gallon of gas?
There are some things about it which I find disconcerting. The push button starter for instance. Call me old fashioned, or maybe it's because we have replaced the electric starter twice already on the brand-new scooter, but I like having a starter which turns. The mini gear shift takes some getting used to as well. It just doesn't feel like it's in gear.
Those minor things come in a distant last compared to the $20 a day we are not spending on gas. Not that I'm a debt person, but what we are spending on gas a month would pretty much cover a Prius car payment. When you add what we would spend on gas in a Prius, we are pretty much at break even if not a little ahead.
Just saying.
Grateful for the silver linings in car accidents. We may just be able to keep our head above water this month.
We ended up getting a Toyota Prius from the car rental agency.
Can I tell you how great it feels to drive to and from work (52 miles round trip) on a single gallon of gas?
There are some things about it which I find disconcerting. The push button starter for instance. Call me old fashioned, or maybe it's because we have replaced the electric starter twice already on the brand-new scooter, but I like having a starter which turns. The mini gear shift takes some getting used to as well. It just doesn't feel like it's in gear.
Those minor things come in a distant last compared to the $20 a day we are not spending on gas. Not that I'm a debt person, but what we are spending on gas a month would pretty much cover a Prius car payment. When you add what we would spend on gas in a Prius, we are pretty much at break even if not a little ahead.
Just saying.
Grateful for the silver linings in car accidents. We may just be able to keep our head above water this month.
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