Look Ma, No Shifters

New-ish mountain bike is in the shop having the front shock rebuilt, so wife and I did an easy ride to the beach.

Artsy Photo 

With Sun at my Back

Easy, except I had converted my old mountain bike to a single speed (using the existing big front gear), and the ride to the beach involves a one mile, 800 ft. decent and then ascent, with stretches regularly exceeding 15%.

I converted the bike in a bit of new-bike delirium, not even considering that I'd want the bike as a potential spare.  I do like the set-up (single-speed + panniers) for quick trips to the store, but it's obviously no longer suited to make steep climbs.

I barely had the strength to make the climb, as I not only had to be out of the saddle, but also had to force the pedal down while using the handlebars as leverage as there was not enough mechanical advantage to pedal up the hill with my weight only.  Yet, I made the climb without putting a foot down.

Success!

In the end, the experience was exhilarating.  I'm definitely looking forward to having the new bike back, but I also proved to myself that I don't need an expensive bike to get out and pedal 20 miles and even do some serious climbing.

Six Things I Think I Think about Gardening (in January)

With apologies to Sports Illustrated writer Peter King for stealing his format (and stealing his format without being all that insightful)

Bright Sunshiny Day

1) I despise my neighbor's trees -- I live in Ventura County, where millions of dollars of produce is grown during the winter supplying groceries to families all across the nation.  And guess what...you never see a row of cypress trees next to the farm land.  Imagine the great winter veggies I would have without those cursed trees!

I Can Get a Lunch out of This

2) Winter gardening is better than no gardening, however -- Even with the neighbor's trees, I'm still able to pick a few things about every other week.  That's swiss chard, green onions, potatoes, and some tiny broccoli.

One Just Never Knows

3) The surprises can be delightful in the winter -- Tough to see everything here, but I'm showing a potato plant in the nearer box, and some green onions in the farther box.  The potatoes were planted in the spring, and harvested, but I apparently left a few potatoes, which, guess what, turned into more potatoes in a wonderful cycle of infinite potato production.  Regarding the green onions, those were also planted in the spring, but were overtaken and forgotten by my zucchini growing zeal.  Once the zucchini vine died off...voila!...green onions!

Hmmmm

4) The anticipation (and planning) in winter is intoxicating -- I have been digging lilies out of this side bed for months now.  Although there are some sunshine issues on top of what I note above, I'm still thinking I could get another productive bed in there.

How Much is THIS Worth?

5) Veggie growing doesn't save me money, but it does -- Although I don't keep meticulous records...OK, so I don't keep any records at all, I cannot imagine that my total harvest in groceries per year equals what I end up spending in soil amendments, tools, flats of plants (when my seeds are not working out), and raised bed materials.  However, my hobby results in food that I really enjoy eating, and that eating supplants some of my indulgences like going out for lunch too often or eating Trader Joe's Mac and Cheese.  I would imagine that it will also save me some cholesterol medication in the future, also.

Mom with Cake Balls

6)  Shared Experiences with Mom -- I think that most guys, when they get to their late 40's, kind of run out of things to discuss with their mom, unless they are either into water aerobics or quilting.  Imagine my surprise and delight, to find out that mom knows  gardening.  I guess I should have known, as mom grew up on a farm that supplemented their diet with fresh-grown veggies, and as we were always rototilling up lawn for gardens as a child, but still, when mom pointed out what was eating my broccoli (cabbage moths) and that I didn't have enough corn planted (four stalks) to effectively grow corn, it was like I had a whole world of discussion topics open to me.  Thanks to the garden for opening a line of great conversations with mom!

More Winter Gardening

Although I guess it's really still fall...

I was pleased to still get a number of zucchini on 11/19 (and then picked a couple more a week later below).  My summer squash effort (late planting from seeds started in a container) was pathetic.

November 19 harvest

I made one pumpkin pie from the two pumpkins I picked.  I empty out the seeds, cut up the pumpkin, and microwave it for 20 minutes to get the filling.  Suppose it took about two hours to make the pie.

Pumpkin pie and filling from garden pumpkins

Had three cups of filling left over, and used it to make pumpkin soup.  

Pumpkin Soup and November 26 Harvest

Winter Gardening Underway

Nearly November, but still picking some tomatoes.  May be a couple more, but this pretty much finishes the garden.

Will even have a couple more zucchini, and should be able to at lease make one more soup.

(Apparently I didn't take much of a picture)...bought some new plants at Nordic Nursery (broccoli, winter tomatoes, green onions, and spinach).  This picture poorly portrays the broccoli and green onions.)

This is my failure of a pumpkin growing effort his year.  The three pumpkin harvest is my worst ever, and worse, the vine continues to tease me with new fruit.  I should just pull the whole thing, but I remain hopeful for a miracle, I guess.

Spinach.

Have some beets started from seed that are barely poking through the soil.

And, yes, I really like broccoli, and planted a few more in the west bed.

Fighting the Good Fight

One would think that not much in this world could be more benign than my hobbies of bike commuting and gardening.  Particularly regarding bike commuting, I obviously keep one car off the road and that car's associated pollution and congestion.

But, taking a depressing read through our local weekly newspaper makes me realize that biking is far from benign, at least when it comes to discussing addition of bike lanes.

Connie from Thousand Oaks:

"Every day, I observe bicyclists violating both rules for vehicles and pedestrians as they seem to want the rights of both simultaneously and the responsibilities of neither."

"If Thousand Oaks insists on continuing to add bicycle lanes, then they must also enforce traditional rules of the road for bicyclists and ticket them for: riding on sidewalks, riding in pedestrian walkways, riding against the light, failing to stop, riding the wrong direction in bike lanes, etc., etc.

All actions I see bicyclists do on a daily basis throughout Thousand Oaks.

No one wants an accident, and I have had enough heartstopping near misses that I drive in terror of bicyclists in this town."

"Daily basis"? "Drive in terror"?  Really? 

Rick from Thousand Oaks

"Look at the other bike lanes that already exist within the city, where many times these bike riders are four to five abreast riding on the auto section of the road (outside the path) and causing cars to swerve to miss them.

Also, many are not stopping at stop signs or red lights. Many think they do not have to abide by the traffic laws.

I have had several near collisions with some of these riders because they were not paying any attention to the other traffic around them."

Although I'm glad Rick isn't terrified of cyclists like Connie, I am wondering how he is having so many near collisions in a town where only .9% of commute trips are being made by cyclists (I discuss the dearth of bike commuters in a previous blog post.)

There are more letters objecting to bike lanes, but just one more from Michael from Thousand Oaks

"It’s my guess that this push for a bike lane on Lynn Road is being spurred on by elitists in the cycling community who are putting their own selfish interests ahead of public safety and/or have politicians and commissioners in their pockets."

Whew...that's me, the selfish elitist with politicians in my pocket.

All of this is being generated by the City's recent initiatives to take state and federal money to build additional bike lanes.  Something that is not only objectionable to readers, but is actually objectionable to the newspaper itself:

"But some critics see the indiscriminate creation of bike lanes as increasing the likelihood of an accident by encouraging cyclists to ride next to traffic on fast-moving streets rather than off-road or in more residential areas.

There are studies that support this opinion as well.

We think the key here is for the city to create bike lanes in moderation—where they’re really needed—not on every stretch of road that becomes available or every time funding is offered.

Similar to solar panels, bike lanes look great on paper and are popular among politicians looking to add “environmentally conscious” to their resume, but in practice they aren’t always the best option. For solar, the problem is often cost; for bike lanes, it’s the stress they cause drivers."

If anything is indiscriminate, it's this newspapers' inclusion of unnamed studies and a solar panel comparison in an article about transportation planning.

I did respond to the editorial, incidentally:

(One final note, the paper actually shortened and, I believe, dumbed down my response...I hate how the first paragraph, in particular, reads.)

I guess it wasn't all...more harvest!

I posted last week that harvests were over, yet I was very pleasantly surprised that I was still able to get quite a few veggies out of the garden yesterday, and make three helpings of soup (one for Saturday, two for upcoming work week).

The onions have been a real source of delight for me.  I picked up dried cuttings (I guess that is what they would be called) from Home Depot, planted them back in April, and they produced bountifully.  I believe that this is the last of them.

I'm Especially Proud of the Onions

Last of the Zucchini, I Think

Supplemental Harvest 

Farewell, 2011 summer, I'll miss you

Well...that's all folks...summer 2011 is pretty much a wrap.  


Harvests actually started in early August, but I posted some of the pics already, and even, I think, posted the first picture below.  I started with that picture to show the recent progression of picked vegetables, however.


I don't know what I was doing on September 03, so that picture is missing, but the pics I did take tell a nice story of how the zucchini production peaked in late August, tomatoes and onions in mid September, peppers in October, and my pathetic pumpkins in October.


Since I started really tracking production in August, I ate 15 meals from the garden.  Figuring three meals per day for 60 days = 180 meals, I ate 8.3% of meals from the garden. Add that to the plum smoothies that I have every morning (from July's huge plum harvest), I can say that I had my own personal produce in 1/3 of my meals over the last two months.


At the bottom I demonstrate my most common meal, just a simple blended soup featuring pretty much whatever is picked that week.  I also demonstrate what was my favorite way of consuming 64 ounces of processed garden tomatoes.

August 20 

August 27 

September 10

September 17

September 24

October 01

October 08

Soup Making

Sometimes I Peel the Tomatoes, but Not this Time

This was Last Week's Soup...had Saturday Lunch + Two Meals at Work

Greet Stuff for 1st Week of NFL Play!