Saturday, April 30, 2011

From The Youngest:
La Dia De La Basura!

I can't believe we fit everything in one load.

Action shot! Rope is in the upper left being tossed over.














Muchas gracias para la troca de el hermano de U.












































Thursday, April 28, 2011

From The Youngest:
The Farm is Done
Hawks Lose/Garden Blooms















It's just a matter of waiting for my other seedlings to get big enough to plant now. If I really get ambitious, I can expand the farmland to the wall next to Compost Corner (above picture).















I shore myself before midnight after the Hawks lost, just to be sure. We'll get those fuckers next year. Here is a video combining hair and our backyard.

Jesus-fuck, some monster of a music corporation took my video down within 20 minutes...I think Bill Gates might actually have something to do with this since I used Windows Movie Maker.


Lame

I guess you can play the youtube video of the song and the movie of the blossoming garden/end to my longhair at the same time...just don't pass up the song.



Tuesday, April 26, 2011

From The Youngest:
American Gothic

La Primera and The Youngest



















Finally, to The Farm. The tomato seedlings that I grew from seed are about ready to be planted into the ground so I've been working on this portion of the yard lately. The physical labor helps to distract my mind during Blackhawk game days...and it seems to result in winning, so far.

Before-ish










Almost Done











Scrap wood + magnifying glass



















100+ Seedlings












Early Plans

Thursday, April 21, 2011

From Mezz0:
Prince of Persia Pumps

So Amir, my Persian work buddy, loves talking about working out at the local gym. He does not work out all that regularly, or intensely, but will occasionally flex his biceps through his business buttoned down shirt after getting his pump on in the morning. He has a membership to a 5-star gym that routinely has six-figure cars valet parked in front, famous people, etc. I've gone with him once to cut weight for a Jiu Jitsu tournament. It's a nice place.

Amir [12:54 PM]:

this is my goal in the next 3 month Duke

Amir [12:54 PM]:

http://www.musclegaintruth.us/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/perfect-body-man1.jpg

Mezz0 [12:55 PM]:

Very nice

Amir [12:55 PM]:

isn't it?

Mezz0 [12:55 PM]:

Are you going to shave your chest as well?

Mezz0 [12:55 PM]:

Because you will not look like him if your chest is not shaved.

Amir [12:56 PM]:

that is right, No for sure

Mezz0 [12:56 PM]:

Why not? I thought that was your goal?

Amir [12:56 PM]:

sht you are right

Amir [12:56 PM]:

maybe

Amir [12:56 PM]:

but as the last step

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

From The Youngest:
Skill Saw + Scrap 2x4's = Compost Corner

For some reason, La Primera didn't care for having a loose compost heap near the garbage bins and recyclables...which is also kind of close to the patio and kitchen door and a few plants.

A convenience to some is a nuisance to others.

Welcome to Compost Corner!











I grabbed a couple 5' stakes and a roll of chicken wire from Home Depot to build a third wall in the farthest corner of our yard. Since I don't own or want to buy a wheelbarrow, I had to ship the compost heap over to Compost Corner bin by bin (by bin by bin by limb by limb by limb) from the opposite side of the yard.

My compost heap destroys plant material and reduces it to fucking worm shit.

Also...7-2, bitches.

Believe.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

From The Youngest:
Around The Yard

I bought my first groupon a couple weeks ago--$25 for $50 to spend at a local garden center. On Friday I went and spent $50.53 (they didn't charge me for the $0.53 over) and managed to pick up roughly 60 plants.

I cleared out brush, bushes, and weeds from this spot over the last week and added the plants and border.











The garden patio wasn't being watered and was overrun with weeds. Before I got to it there were only the two tallest plants you see in the picture.



















My veggies are still going strong.































U and I put in the trellis for a jasmine plant and I threw a bunch of flowers in the resulting grassless void.











This is outside my bedroom's sliding door in the front yard. Eventually I'm going to put in a small balcony/deck.











Insects love eating my fresh sunflower seedlings



















Roses























Seedlings



















Calla Lily and Snapdragons











First attempt at a compost pile.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

From The Youngest:
This YouTube Clip Has Everything

Dancing, dubstep, fighting, sweaty pectorals, asians...but damn, Jean Claud, you crazy!

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

From The Youngest:
Garden Update

"There is a concatenation of all events in the best of possible worlds; for, in short, had you not been kicked out of a fine castle for the love of Miss Cunegund; had you not been put into the Inquisition; had you not traveled over America on foot; had you not run the Baron through the body; and had you not lost all your sheep, which you brought from the good country of El Dorado, you would not have been here to eat preserved citrons and pistachio nuts."

"Excellently observed," answered Candide; "but let us cultivate our garden."


I have transplanted my sunflower seedlings directly into the planet earth.






















One year that I saw Phish play at Alpine Valley in Winsonsin, I entered the venue after the show had started--and a good hour into a mushroom trip. As I descended the sparsely populated mounded lawn that slopes severely towards the stage and pavilion area, I was struck by the feminine curves of the hill I was walking down and the ski slopes in the distance. I thought about how wonderful it would feel if, in fact, mother nature WAS this valley, physically--her fertile, pregnant stomach was where we were celebrating. I was walking down her belly, frosty beers in hand, while thousands of people danced around like idiots and dug their feet into her fleshy midsection . THIS is where mother nature came to get the weirdest massage of her life, I laughed to myself.

I still enjoy thinking about that image, and any time I start fucking around with dirt, it's bound to enter my consciousness. It also makes phrases like, "Drill baby, drill." graphically preposterous in my mind's eye.

Sometimes it's interesting to consider the bird's eye view.

This is Napoleon














Soon after transplanting a (store-bought) tomato seedling into a pot with a cage around it, I noticed that the plant was covered with bird shit. I also noticed that a small bird with a waggly tail seemed to be making the top of the cage his main hangout. He was also perching on top of the yard chair, a dwarf pear tree, and a small garden trellis (all of which he covered with shit).

Since I'm unemployed, I began to track his movements during my extended sessions of Staring Out the Kitchen Window. I installed a pointy barrier on the top of the cage in an attempt ward him away. I noticed that he chased other birds out of our yard. The little bastard seemed remarkably territorial for a little 5" bird.

A few days after installing my first attempt at a barrier to keep him off my tomatoes, the bird shit started to pile on once again. He had learned that my deterrent was harmless.

It was at this point that I named him Napoleon. ("Why Napoleon," U had asked. "Because he's small, aggressive, territorial, he has a poofy midsection, he thinks he owns everything...and he gets off on shitting all over the place.")

I wanted to identify him. Unfortunately, I needed to get a picture to help me out. A combination of shitty eyesight and the memory of a lifelong pothead was making identification impossible. While I was out taking pictures of my plants , I caught him perching on my rocks. Once I snapped the pictures above, it was a breeze.

Turns out, Napoleon's a Black Phoebe in the Tyrant (yes, tyrant!) Flycatcher family of passerines.

They are known for perching on branches, looking for flying insects, swooping out, snatching them, and then swooping back to their perch. They subsist on a diet almost entirely of insects.

I also have effectively stopped him from shitting on my plant with the addition of loose twine. So, you know, what a wonderful little bug-eating creature.

A little creature who could only exist here, in Southern California, in our backyard, in the best of all possible...

I lost my train of thought.

Look at all these fucking seedlings, though. I've got three more trays waiting to sprout...and I'm still looking for more seeds to buy.

Multiply!