Wonderful site on Homesteading... done in an Urban setting! Great encouragement and tons of info. Very well done. Thanks for sharing with all of us. 

 ~ Larry ~

Friday - October 31,  2003                                  posted by Anaĩs at  8:05 AM PST

Weather Report:  Chilly.

Thursday - October 30,  2003                                  posted by Anaĩs at  6:56 AM PST

Weather Report:  Dramatically cooler, 40º drop from a high of 105º to 65º

 Fires still raging in San Bernardino mountain resort towns already affected by an epic drought and a bark beetle infestation which has already killed or is killing 90 percent of Southern California's pine forests.

Wednesday - October 29,  2003                                  posted by Anaĩs at  8:23 AM PST

RE FREECYCLE

PTF has organized the LA County FreeCycle Network.  This "group" is open to all those individuals, businesses, or groups who want to recycle any item that is no longer useful to them rather than send it to the overcrowded, sprawling trash dumps of our nation.

If you'd like to start one in your city visit FreeCycle.org and read a CSM article about this movement: The new junkyard: It's online and free

Attn: So. Calers,  pass the word...

AMERICA THE WASTEFUL

Speaking about waste...

While talking with a friend of ours the other day, we learned that he recently landed a job with, well let's just say a very "famous" entertainment studio company in Burbank.

He described to us with utter amazement on how much food goes to waste with the filming crews. The studio company hires a half-dozen chefs to bring in loads and loads of food for the crew and only a partial portion of it gets consumed.  So this friend of ours asks one of the chefs what was going to happen to the perfectly good leftovers.  The answer?   It'll be dumped in the garbage.

Imagine that! How many starving people could they have fed? One shame is all the time/money going into making a movie that probably won't be anything spectacular, the other shame is throwing away food which people in some countries could live for days on. Now that's disgusting.

Weather Report:  Fog's rolled in... praying for the fires to end.

Lives, homes, history, beautiful pine forests, charming old mountain communities, even the Little House on the Prairie set destroyed.  Still more communities in danger, especially the hundred year-old town of Julian, world famous for its apple pie. 

Worst fires in California history.

Tuesday - October 28,  2003                                  posted by Anaĩs at  9:10 PM PST

ST. ELMO'S FIRE

LIFE & TIMES  had a segment on Friday highlighting a local LA treasure called St. Elmo's Village.  I've posted a few lines from the transcript of the show which are insightful and motivating....

Vicki Curry ( L & T reporter)>> We'd like to take you to a place that has put art at the heart of everything. It's a small community off the beaten path, so chances are you haven't heard of it. But if you'd ever been there, you'd never forget it. It's called St. Elmo Village in the mid-city section of Los Angeles.

.... Roderick Sykes (co-founder of St. Elmo's Village>> So for thirty-four years, this is what we've been doing. Using what we have, where we are, not waiting until we move or get into that gallery or this place or that place, but making the best of what you have now.

.... My grandfather was a handyman. He would bring home an old sink thinking he was going to use it for somebody else's house and my grandmother would plant flowers in it. She would plant flowers in his old boots that had holes in them. Anything that would hold dirt. So my history and my uncle's history and my family is that you do something. You don't wait to blame the landlord. You live there. As my uncle used to say, it's your leaf, you take care of your leaf.

.... Well, you know, so that you don't think about, well, it would be better over there, you do those things where you are and this is a blank canvas.
 

.... Vicki Curry>> And it says over there, "If it is to be, it is up to me."

Roderick Sykes>> That's it. That's it. We have to do it. Too often we're waiting and blaming somebody for our circumstances and we are not taking responsibility, and the village is about taking responsibility for your life and your dream and how you want to be living it. 

---------

Just goes to show that the grass may be greener on the other side, but what are we doing to take care of our own grass to make it green?

CALIFORNIA BURNING

When Nature's Dragons Awake  - LA Times

"Here in California, we spend much time and money trying to perfect our relationship with nature, to find balance between conservation and development. Being the arrogant creatures we are, we portray ourselves as caretakers of the wilderness, stewards of the land, protecting it from our own imperfect selves...

And so we are astonished when the roles reverse, when we are faced with forces beyond our control. A century after the Industrial Revolution and still there are larger things than other humans with their germs and evil intentions that threaten us. Still there are dragons in the mountains, and when they are truly wakened, it is hard not to believe that the end is near.

... How difficult it is for us, citizens of the city of the 21st century with the world wired to our fingertips, to be humbled. How difficult not to see it as a sign of the end of civilization. Through the smoke and the heat, not only the landscape is changed, the entire world looks different, incomprehensible, uncontrollable. "

 

Weather Report:  Cooler!  Hopefully, good news for the fires!

Monday - October 27,  2003                                  posted by Anaĩs at  7:26 AM PST

In our "safe" little world today, we are harvesting the lovely tree tomatoes (tamarillos) - tasted one, quite an interesting tart flavor.  Going to have to look up on the internet how to use them in dishes.

The edible flower business of ours has been affected by the weather.  The pansies that we planted, which are being counted on by our clients, are being lost due to the heat. Hopefully it'll cool down soon, so we don't loose any more.

COST OF LIVING

Here's an inspirational story : America's homeless become new small-town pioneers

Weather Report:  Heat wave continues...

Friday - October 24,  2003                                  posted by Anaĩs at  8:16 AM PST

It's uncomfortable to work in the yard or on the garage roof with the glaring sun being so low in the sky.  The glare is really intense!   Thankfully since the season is bringing on shorter days we only have to endure the tremendously dry heat for  a few hours. 

Weather Report:  Heat wave continues...

Thursday - October 23,  2003                                  posted by Anaĩs at  10:00 AM PST

NO SISSY FLOWERS?

We really are really blessed in having great customers, that appreciate our produce, flowers, herbs and edible flowers. Because of our close relationship we often get special requests for certain colors and such. One of our clients is a personal chef and has clientele in the Hollywood scene. The other day she needed edible flowers to decorate platters for an NBA benefit she was catering. She requested, "man flowers" In other words, no roses or pastel pansies - in other words no "sissy, feminine flowers"!

We get a kick out of putting together "designer" edible flower mix boxes. What did we end up using? Some nice dark red marigolds, purple and red pansies and some small yellow sunflowers. Should be quite a spread.

SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES

It's wonderful to have found a small niche, that we can cater to. Clients who are looking for the unusual, fresh, organic, and local. One thing we did this year for some of our weekly clients, to make our business more sustainable, is to use Rubbermaid's for packing salad and edible flower mixes. That way we could cut down on the throw-away plastic containers and bags we were using. Saves us money and doesn't clutter the landfills. For packing tomatoes, in the summer we are on the look-out for those low cardboard boxes they use to hold soft drinks in. We rescue them from a store nearby - they are great for heirloom tomatoes.

Weather Report:  Heat wave continues...

Wednesday - October 22,  2003                                  posted by Anaĩs at  1:22 PM PST

WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN

Things aren’t the way they are, they’re the way you are. ~ Anais Nin ~

It's hot folks!  But the air is surprisingly clear. I was amazed the other day that even with the heat, the mountains were visible - no smog. Though, today it's a bit hazy due to fires popping up in the foothills around the Southland. So, the intense heat continues with no relief in sight. Up north in Washington, they're getting torrents of rain and flooding and extreme weather is happening across the nation. Nature is certainly unbalanced this season.

The heat has taken its toil on the snow peas, lettuce, cabbage and broccoli. We are unable to cover the entire garden with shade clothes so many of the small plants have turned crispy brown and we've lost entire beds. Hopefully this heat will break and we can go back to our regularly scheduled Fall weather.

Lots of stuff is going on these days!  Sometimes, in times of frustration, we wonder if we bit off more than we can chew this year.

Indeed, we've traveled a long way on our journey this year, but there is still so much to learn and accomplish.  Our journey has barely begun - both physically and mentally.  There have been  many impassable "boulders" and obstacles on the trail that are in the way which are slowing us down painfully.  But, every once in awhile, as we sit on the trail exasperated, feeling dejected,  we catch a glimpse of the majestic summit ahead.  We then grit our teeth, pick ourselves off the ground, dust off our bottoms and resume the climb.

FOLLOW YOUR BLISS

Great comment (and sustainable business success story) from a CS Monitor article on the Texas Soup Peddler in which he says;

" All I did was follow my bliss.  I used to think that was [ridiculous].  But now I say, 'Follow your bliss.' " He pauses, and then adds, "but you have to sweat till your bleeding too."

Weather Report:  Heat wave continues...

Monday - October 20,  2003                                       posted by Anaĩs at  8:34 AM PST

WHERE'S AUTUMN?

... that's what I'd like to know. The heat has been brutal the past couple days and this week we are expected to reach even higher temps in the low to mid 100's. Summer is stubbornly taking its time in giving way to Fall.

We're having to cover the young, delicate green crops and peas to protect them. The heat also cut short the glorious mass of sunflowers that were in the yard. Now, all that's left is shriveled and brown.

We are hoping to remove the huge date palm in the front yard as it's becoming a pain to keep clean - dates dropping everywhere and becoming mushy and a fly problem. Not to mention when the Santa Ana winds howl and palm fronds are dangerously sent everywhere, causing damage to the plants underneath. So, now that we've invested and planted expensive guavas and apple trees, these fronds poise a danger in breaking the trees.

The guys already torn down the lovely green ivy we had growing up the ugly, gnarly base of the palm and it's really shocking to see how ugly it was before the ivy grew up around it.

WE LOVE LA?
 

LA Times Opinion 10/19

Can LA Survive?

Is Los Angeles sustainable? It depends. The city, like many in the semiarid West, is poised on an exceedingly narrow environmental ledge.

...It doesn't help to pretend - and it's mostly pretending - that California's Native American lived in undisturbed harmony with the environment. They put a lighter footprint on the landscape.

...Angelinos have always tried - and always failed - to balance competing metaphors of "opportunity" and "livability" to improve on the nature they found.

...You might call LA our ruined paradise and our home. If we're to make LA sustainable, one thing we must do better is connect the region's remaining nature with the home we've made.

Weather Report:  Heat wave - a scorcher!

Friday - October 17,  2003                                       posted by Anaĩs at  4:59 PM PST

MORE SET-BACKS....

I've been slack in my postings....

It's been a rough week, to say the least, as things haven't gone smoothly in many of our projects.  Right now, we are all just downright exhausted.

We were oh-so-close to buying a perfect diesel car and were really excited but it didn't work out...  unfortunately.  It was disappointing to us, especially with our VW bus giving us constant problems.  And because of the VW's problems, our search for a car is demanding first priority over some of our other projects.  This further strengthens my dislike for cars - period!

The plywood which we needed to finish one spot of the roof was sold out at two lumber yards in the area and the price has doubled in the meantime (due to the shortage - most being shipped to Iraq).  The solar brackets and racks haven't arrived and we are having trouble figuring out how to mount them properly on old rafters.

Not to mention the weather the past couple days has been hot and the cool weather plants are taking a beating.

Sheesh, I'd better stop, or I'd have a country western song on my hands ... *grin*

Weather Report:  HOT, temps in the 100's.

Monday - October 13,  2003                                       posted by Anaĩs at  6:19 AM PST

The Viceroy and Monarch butterflies look exactly alike except that the Viceroy has a black stripe on its secondary wings.

From these comparison photos, it really looks quite similar to a Monarch. Which do you think it is? 

Weather Report:  Feels like summer.

Sunday - October 12,  2003                                       posted by Anaĩs at  6:30 AM PST

Weather Report:  Warm, temps in the low 90's

Friday - October 10,  2003                                       posted by Anaĩs at  7:54 AM PST

However, this project is continuing to drag on longer than we anticipated and is going a whole lot slower than we had hoped. We are cutting the Nov 14th deadline pretty close as we have to have the panels up and operating by the 14th to qualify for the rebate program. But throughout it all, we've learned lessons and gained valuable experience in this stage of the journey.

Once this project is complete, we'll want to work on fixing up the garage into a functioning workshop area -- a place where we can dry herbs, store seeds, do some crafts and so on. The garage would have a nice "country" look with herbs hanging from the rafters... Have lots of ideas and dreams, but right now we really should be focused on the task at hand... it's so easy to fall into the "I wish" or "if only" mindset and not get anything done.

The cut flowers and herbs we started bringing to our clients are really popular! They love the wild, "just picked," look, not to mention the smells of flowering herbs such as lemon verbena and blue basil. We love growing and picking 'em and it's another great source of income!!! Sure beats those sprayed, non-smelling, fake looking so called "flowers" from supermarkets. Hmmm, starting to eye some of our neighbors' yards for planting more flowers.

We gals'll have to start get our knitting needles clickin' away like mad. Our knitting teacher generously gave us some lovely yarn but I have to stop drooling and finish the project I started and not touch the new yarn till I'm done. I heard that there is someone in the LA area who was interested in passing on spinning and dying skills to an apprentice. That's something to look into! I'll have to find out more info.

We are sill searching for a diesel car.  It's funny, or ironic, or whatever you'd like to call it but once we started seriously looking to buy the listings seem to have dried up. We hate cars, hate buying cars - but if we can take a car and convert it to bio-fuels it'll be worth all the time and effort. But, as of right now, it's all getting to be a bit stressful!

Fall is a great time of year for taking cuttings and JC has gone through the yard and snipped away - especially at the lemon verbena. Folks from the school nearby are interested in buying some herb plants from us. The huge 8ft lemon verbena in the front yard always grabs their attention. They cannot believe how large and what nice a specimen it is. I think it's because JD always trims it back each year to give it it's lovely shape. The folks from the school have also expressed interests in the stevia plants, so JC took a few snips from those too.

Weather Report:  Overcast in mornings, warm afternoons.

Thursday - October 9,  2003                               Re - posted by Anaĩs at  8:45 AM PST

So we hope to put our talents and minds to work on making "value-added" products ourselves or begin to acquire additional skills, and then barter or sell them for those items that we are unable to grow, produce, make, and so on.  This is a vital element in our journey towards self-sufficiency.

Another positive solution is to form a garden to garden network where if someone had a huge orange tree growing in their yard and couldn't possibly eat all the fruit they could offer it to those who have none in exchange for whatever they needed themselves.  Perhaps extra salad or tomatoes from another's garden, for instance.

All across the country people are just starting wake up to the potential of urban agriculture and are forming co-ops, networks and starting community gardens. People are starting to realize that there's a vast area of unexplored potential right out their back or front door.
 

How we eat determines to a considerable extent how the world is used

~ Wendell Berry ~

Excerpts from 10 Years After, A Small Urban Permaculture Garden Revisited
by Michael Guerra

For a number of years before I had even heard of permaculture I was filled with an unease about the sustainable ecological economic state of humankind and wished to escape it into some find of self-sufficient paradise. It was until some months later (after fruitless searching for the promised land) that the veil lifted and we were faced with the reality that most of the world's problems are rooted in the city/urban/suburban human condition, (of which the eventual collapse of mainstream agriculture would be a symptom), and that if we are to succeed in resolving the disparity between a modern city's ecological footprint and that of a sustainable one we had to literarily being in our own backyard.

.... Is everyone returning from a permaculture course still determine to turn their back on the huge urban problem and escape to roomier rural idyll? Is there something missing form the permaculture teaching that fails to address the huge potential of urban landscape? Or is it simply that many people who come to permaculture wish to simply escape modern living?..

.... It is perhaps a self-delusion that you can somehow save the plant by leaving the city to its Biblical catastrophe and go and live in rural self-reliant splendor, without taking responsibility for your actions.

.... The potential of urban permaculture is vast. Considering the multitude of edges, aspects, opportunities for multi-use shared productive spaces, recycling and niche markets.

Remember.... eat what you grow where you live.  Read complete article>>

Weather Report:  Feels like summer...

Wednesday - October 8,  2003                               posted by Anaĩs at  5:53 PM PST

DIET FOR A SMALL PLANET

Even as the year moves toward the season of winter, any many gardens have been touched by frost, we are still harvesting crops of bush beans!  As I mentioned in a prior diary post, the cukes and winter, summer squashes did poorly. So one of the bright spots we have had this year are the beans -- they continue to keep producing... and producing!

What a wonderful blessing it is to have meals with fresh beans in this hiatus between summer and fall crops.

Since I'm on the subject of growing food, I'd like to add to Mairi's Oct 2-4 posting. She questions how well she can implement Jeavon's method of growing a vegetarian diet on approx 4,000 square feet. (Note: this figure pertains to a single person's needs)

It's quite a challenge that includes a lot of work in both mental and physical aspects.  From our experience on our small urban lot (and we are in a fortunate situation - climate-wise) it is really impossible to grow our complete diet. Often some crops are so meager there's not enough to go around to feed five people.  While we do grow a constant supply of seasonal veggies and have the method pretty much down-pat, there's still fruit and, of course, staples which are needed to complete a healthful diet.  And to be honest, it gets a bit tiring eating exclusively from the garden so we have to try out different recipes.  We have cravings or needs for things we are unable to grow. Until the fruit trees get older, we have to supplement with outside sources and buy staples such as flour, dried beans and so on. But we try our best to purchase state or locally grown.

I guess we have been rather successful in growing our own seasonal veggies year 'round. Although, we'd like a bit more land to grow even more sweet corn, melons and winter squash - we try to do our best with what we have.

After crunching some numbers it turns out that we're harvesting ~ 1# per square foot ( ~ 4,000 sq under cultivation).  As it is possible to replicate what we're doing here on a larger scale (for us five, 20,000 sq ft) and, as Jeavon's states, actually grow what you eat!  Amazing!

As I think about growing food,  I ponder how ancient tribes and civilizations survived by eating the same old diet. Wouldn't it be pretty monotonous? Before trade and commerce, peoples in certain parts of the world would have never tasted or heard of a banana or even a taco?  With the massive variety of foods from all over the world in our supermarkets and the merging of cuisines, it's quite an interesting topic to explore, don't you think?
 

Weather Report:  Cool mornings, warm days.

Friday - October 3,  2003                               posted by Anaĩs at  6:17 AM PST

After the roof is shingled, the guys plan to install a day lighting system in the garage so that there'll be no need for any light fixtures -- during the day at least. Also, they'll be putting in some gutters along the garage roof to catch rain water; doing some painting, fixing the windows, and so on... Might as well fix up everything while we're at it.

This has sure been quite a learning experience, especially regarding the way houses/garages were built back in the old days.... solid, full redwood that literally was what it was supposed to measure. Nowadays the lumber just ain't the same.

SUN SHOWER

There was a request to see pics of the sun shower.  As I mentioned in a previous posting, the water is heated using coiled black garden hoses. All we need now is to figure out a way to incorporate cold water in with the heated water- as the black hose can heat up the water to where it can be dangerous if you don't take care.

The shower head and base was purchased from Target.  The guys used an old wood trellis and metal porch columns to make a little privacy enclosure.  The shower stall is raised off the ground with bricks that were salvaged from a friend's driveway.  The water then drains into the surrounding compost pile and edible shrubby.

For finishing touches, a Poet's Jasmine was planted to cover the shower and when I have some time, I'd like to make a rustic shower curtain. 

DARN POP UPS

For some strange reason, there seems to be pop-up adds showing up while reading this diary.  Have any of you experienced this?  Don't know where'd they be coming from and why are they appearing on the diary page only.  Hate em' URGH!   

Weather Report:  Cool

Thursday - October 2,  2003                               posted by Anaĩs at  8:29 AM PST

Cassidy                               Ringo                                 Cody

KALIFORNIA KITTIES

... otherwise known as the C.C.R gang!  Yep, we are now a three cat household. The cats are:  Cassidy, a stray, dumped off on our street as a kitty; Ringo another stray who was given to us; and now Cody who is one of Cassidy's three kittens.
 

A week old                         A few weeks                      About a month

THREE LITTLE KITTENS...
 

Cassidy got pregnant before we even had a chance to spay her (but she is now -- all our cats have had that trip to the vet). So she had three adorable kittens (two boys and one girl) who were almost carbon copies of their mother.   For awhile, their temporary names were Ditto, Xerox, and CC (for carbon copy).... but they eventually became to be known by other pet names.   (Isn't it weird how you can name a cat but then end up calling it all sorts of nicknames?)  Once we found willing adopters, we parted with two of the kittens (yes, it was really, really hard).  They have exceptional loving homes and have brought great joy to the people that adopted them.  What's great too is that we get occasional updates from the folks who adopted them!

Back when we first rescued her from our neighbor's cellar and adopted her, Cassidy was sickly, malnourished, covered in fleas, and mangy. In fact, she was so small we thought she was younger than her real age. She had a really bad case of mange that just caused most of the fur on her nose and face to peel off.   We didn't want to bring her to the vet for them to shoot her up with antibiotics and cortisone, so we treated it naturally with tea tree oil, apple cider vinegar rinse and lemon juice. Whatever one it was of the three, it worked.

She is a bit, well ... we call it deranged. She constantly talks to herself and oftentimes has a lost look about her, but she is really sweet.  It took a long time for her to trust us after we rescued her, but she is very affectionate now.

Ringo has a case of multiple personalities - he can be sweet and cuddly and then in the next instance will growl and hiss... Can't seem to figure out whether he wants to be sweet or mean. Poor fellow, he's getting better though and his temperament is improving.   But he is totally sweet to Cassidy and Cody.  He's the protector of the bunch... always looking after Cassidy and making sure she's okay.   One time Cassidy didn't come home at her regular time that night and he fretted until she appeared and then ran up to her to give her a "nose kiss".  Awwww...

Cody, well, he's just a perfect cat!. (Rather spoiled though.....)

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated  ~ Mahatma Gandhi ~

Check out PAW.org and take time to sign the no-kill petition.
 

Weather Report:  Overcast and cool

 Conventionally grown produce carries a four digit code. On organically grown items, a number 9 precedes that basic code, on genetically modified produce a number 8. The number on a conventionally grown apple might be 4133; on an organic apple, 94133; and on a genetically modified one, 84133."

~ Linda Lau Anusasananan ~

The past three mornings we've found extensive damage in the yard - veggies and pathways dug up. We know from the tracks that the culprit is a pesky skunk. We love animals and know he/she is just trying to find a meal (poor thing), but we are loosing way too many small vegetables. So yesterday one of the guys built a drop door trap in hopes of catching the little fella and then relocating him/her to the wilds of Pasadena's Arroyo Seco.

Weather Report:  Overcast and cool