#19 Create a Fairy Garden (in progress)

 

So I could technically call this done, but it doesn't "feel" done, it feels like I dipped my toes in with an easy-to-do project when my real ambition was to swim to the other side of the lake.  

Prototype 1:  My Fairy Garden Playset bday gift for kid.  It was something crazy like $12.  Now between Black Friday and Cyber Monday it is listed at $38.  This got some modifications-- hubby drilled holes in the moat for drainage and I topped it up with potting soil since the peat cubes were not enough.  I then reseeded it with Botanical Interests Fairy Meadow flower mix that was a prior gift to me from MIL.  They seem to be doing OK, but need vigilant watering because the moat is so shallow it dries out very quickly.  The solar panel is still turning the windmill a month and a half after kiddo's bday.  

This plastic confection isn't exactly what I had in mind for fairy gardening.  I'm more into the delightfully miniaturized ephemera of daily living strewn in surprising places around the garden to encourage more puttering out there.  

Other ideas:  polymer clay dough gnomes.  Maybe one that looks deceptively strawberry-like to hide where they grow.  Maybe one that looks like Ron Finley, gangsta gardener.  We sat in on an airbnb experience he hosted pre-2020 and were amazed at his lunker sweet potatoes growing on the median.  Ollas keep those going?  Really?  I also binge watched his Masterclass last week while super under the weather from a covid booster and difficulty sleeping.  While I'm making a Ron minifig, why not some "homie gnomies" with LPS (local gang but also very close to a Finleyism of Let's Plant Shit).  To be continued!  

1/14/22:  So I've made a Ron Finley gnome that is more super glue than clay.  Giving him a ball head and tiny arms with no reinforcement meant things snapped too easily.  He hung out in the peas by a divided aloe for a while until my kid took him to a food dessert (her Ruby's mac n cheese + fries to go box). 

 

2/7/22: I made a Jesse Krebs.  She is stubbier and even said she was "OK looking like a lump in the field" if that meant she wore roomier men's clothes she could stuff with insulation.  I reinforced her neck area with blonde hair and a hat, kind of like those gnomes with beards and you only see their noses.  I ran a needle and cordage through her hat.  She has a weird habit of rocking back on her base and ending up in a supine position, but that was one of her big points in her survival class anyway-- chill out, don't burn energy panicking.  Going to call that a bug not a feature.  

2/13/22:  Inspiration for this was sparked by seeing a bee struggling to get out of our blue barrels of rainwater and wanting some sort of gnomish raft.  Then I remembered the Moxie Marlinspike Hold Fast documentary about the anarchist yacht club and spent a date night rewatching that with rapid-to-buy-a-boat hubby.  

This one was surprisingly easy to pull together.  The ethic of borrowing/stealing little-used equipment and muddling through diy without the help of expensive ordained Experts put some wind in my metaphorical sails.  The derelict plastic boat happened to have been abandoned on our shower floor.  It hadn't moved positions for several days, so I don't think DD will much miss it.  Like the real boat, it had routinely had a mildew problem and taking it apart to spray its hull with bleach so that my soul would hurt less watching DD sip bath water from its spout.  I didn't borrow someone's dinghy crane to get the aluminum sail (a metal straw issued by DH's company to celebrate their Zoom-hosted pandemic Tikki holiday party).  But I did need a demo from him on how to seat a drill bit in a drill and then find a girthier bit in the depths of the shed.  The sail itself was a parachute for a cheap Valentine's day toy DD had quickly tangled into a hopeless knot and lost interest in.  I tried to staple a little black anarchy flag in there for good measure as well.  Moxie himself I fashioned out of 2 unraveled paper clips, after learning nothing happens to baked needles and thread with the Jesse gnome.  He has a pretty ectomorphic build that seemed to work well with a metal skeleton.  I put him in a pink bikini as per the documentary.  I stuck a leftover bit of paper clip in his hand so he has the option to string a fishing line off it or club whatever dorado he happens to catch senseless.  After baking, I glued on dog fur I had rolled into dreads and a scrap of worn ragged black shirt of my husband's.  Pony tail elastic for belt and an old swim short shoelace waistband to keep him from tipping off the boat (I had also discovered with Jesse that polymer gnomes generally sink).  I'd like to eventually pair him with Anne Bonny and Mary Read after a Neil Gaiman masterclass segment read his March Story and piqued my interest in female Caribbean pirates and because the Pestilence crew kinda had a similar lesbos feel to it without outright discussing the interpersonal dynamics of its members.     
  

#3 Chocolate Scented Garden [In progress]

 

**This went in the Dec '21/Jan'22 Master Gardener internal newsletter**

Like Water for Chocolate

“Mommy can’t help with ice cream because… she’s growing wider and wider?”  quipped my three-year-old, a spoon laden with its precious cargo of Baskin Robbins making another precarious transit to the lower half of her face.  True, my metabolism is not aging gracefully, but with age, I’ve developed a deeper appreciation for my sense of smell.  Perhaps I can take the edge off my sweet tooth by surrounding myself with more chocolate-scented plants?    

Oncidium- Sharry Baby.  Shipped from an eBay seller twenty miles north.  Collectors suggest newbies buy orchids “in spike” for the more immediate gratification.  Perhaps the general reputation of orchids and its price ($52!) drove me to be more attentive to it.  Two and a half months in, my spike bloomed into a delicious floral chocolate-vanilla cascade that wafts across my southern-facing desk as the sun warms it in the morning.  If I squint my nostrils, I could convince myself this cuppa joe is actually mocha… but I find that I prefer the complexity of the orchid’s own notes to a flat more decidedly chocolate bottom-of-the-trick-or-treat-bucket smell and I like that it persists even after I have drained my cup. 

Akebia quinata and Akebia quinata Shirobana.  Encouraged by my orchid success, I bought purple and the more exotic white flowering chocolate vines from further afield in Georgia off Etsy a few weeks later.  Their princely sum of $67 seemed unwarranted for their “invasive” status in several midwestern states.  While they have survived their first repot, most sources list Akebia as hardy up to zone 8 or 9 and Santa Ana is a few clicks higher.  Akebia would flower in May through June, so perhaps it will still be a manageable size to stand in as a fragrant houseplant and “overwinter” the summer indoors despite its reputation for rampant growth.    Sources say the pods and their pulp are edible and akebia fruit is recognized in northern Japan as a sign of autumn.

Berlandiera lyrata.  Chocolate Daisy is coming full circle for me.  Two years ago, Gary’s approbation of the convincing and pervasive scent of these in his newsletter sent me to Laguna Hills to smell for myself.  However, just as the buds were on the verge of blooming, my daughter used her newfound mobility to drunkenly stumble over to its pot and, with an attention to detail I wish she would apply to Lego cleanup, removed every bud from the plant before my questions could be answered.  This time I sprung for a seed packet from Baker Creek in hopes of avoiding repeat trips to the nursery, my sticky-fingered daughter’s favorite place to shop.  

Image: Oncidium Sharry Baby orchid, Akebia quinata Shirobana white chocolate vine, Berlandiera lyrata chocolate daisy seedlings, and a Homo sapiens var F.K.F.  (self-watering).  

**12/5/2021** Sharry Baby second pseudobulb has made a spike!  I have moved the whole thing onto the dryer as I worried that a couple unseasonably hot days in the window might have scorched brown spots onto the leaves.  Or perhaps I was overwatering it?  

2/7/22: new spike started blooming.  It took a few days for scent to develop and is most pronounced in the morning, so it was touch and go with me wondering if I had covid.  I wouldn't say the orchid leaves look super happy-- more spotting and yellowing, but I dunk it in a kelp and fertilizer bucket in mornings and continue topping it up with orbeez when the levels look low.  The side of the container is so algal, it is hard to monitor the roots.  

In other news, the tips of the Akebia look blackened on both plants and the leaves themselves look coated with salt, but I do see some bud swell on both plants, so fingers crossed that was just the cost of transplant shock.  Berlandiera lyrata has been transplanted, so 3-4 seedlings into what was formerly a blueberry clay pot against the south wall of the house.  These look ok with handwatering, but if they are growing, it must be root structure.  I haven't seen any big takeoff in size since the transplant a few weeks ago.  

8/7/22:  I've moved Berlandiera away from the house wall when the blueberry sprinkler failed and under the mister table.  Now it is flowering a bunch, but it is too remote to enjoy its smell.  Akebia has had a couple growth spurts now that their pots are sitting on the back steps and starting to twine up the pipe railing.  

9/12/22:  Berlandiera had a couple months of gang busters growth under the mister table but the heat wave has killed it.  The internet says it is a perennial, so I will hold off renovating the pot and hope it comes back.  The Akebia have taken up position under the shade of the back door banana tree on the steps and have wound their way around the railing in a pretty pleasing way.  Should I run a string to train them to go overhead?  They seemed to do better when I got in the habit of watering them in the same rotation as the indoor orchids.  Chocolate orchids are not in spike.  

10/16/2022-- sharry baby orchid has sent up a spike!  Also learned about other chocolate scented plants (black salsify, Carolina allspice, chocolate cosmos, and chocolate mint)

11/18/2022-- sharry spike is finally open and fragrant!  I tried to enjoy it on the back porch desk but the sun is so intense there that the leaves started showing signs of burning after just a day or two.  So now I've got it in the kitchen, deterring me from starting any very pungent cooking projects... 

11/30/2022 started 6 black magic cosmos (the whole seed packet) in the germination station in hopes of diversifying the chocolatey plant varieties (see: lettuce for days post which has become more of a log of my plate germination station).  I've been using the chocolate mint in my pour over and it is pretty good. 

#20 Take an REI Orienteering Course

Took a course in map and compass navigation from Peter Tay Tay at Crystal Cove.  This coincided with DH taking FIL scuba diving at the same place, so +$15 parking for me.  Here were my notes:

Positioning self to find/follow trail:

1.  LOT:  line of travel.  Use a straight side edge of the compass to trace the direction from your current spot to desired spot (i.e. parking lot to trailhead, curve of a section of the trail to rule out unmarked paths)

2.  DOT:  direction of travel.  Make sure the red arrow on the compass is pointed the direction you want to go so you don't end up going the exact opposite direction.

3.  CAN:  compass arrow N.  Set the hard-coded "N" on the compass to match the N on your map.  

4.  MAP: meridian points parallel.  Get the 4 gridlines in the face of the compass to match the lines on the map (magnetic north is about 11 degrees east of true north where we are in SoCal right now, so you'd use a tool that comes with your compass to adjust your meridian points accordingly).  

Once you've got that setup, you keep the "red in the shed" or the compass needle lined up with its red outline and you're traveling in the correct direction.  Helps to find landmarks to walk toward rather than missing all the scenery because you're so focused on the compass.  The closer together these are, the better you can course correct and not go too far astray.  Helps to have a partner you can guide if your straight line path goes through areas you have to go around.  

Taking a bearing to triangulate position: 

1.  BET:  Bearing extract from terrain.  Basically get to high ground, find a landmark (technically 2, but if you're sure you're on a trail listed in your map, you can use that as 1 point).  Point the red arrow of your compass at the landmark and spin the face so that red is in the shed.  

2.  CAN: compass arrow N.  Put compass on map and get it pointed in the direction of the map legend north. 

3.  MAP: meridian points parallel.  Get the 4 gridlines in the face of the compass to match the lines on the map.  

4.  COF: compass on the feature.  Get the edge of the compass lined up with the feature without messing up #2 and #3.  trace a line from the feature out in the direction you are standing.  Where it crosses the trail is how far along that trail you are.  Or if you took 2 bearings from landmarks, where they intersect is where you're standing.  

To pull this off, you need to get to high ground to be able to see landmarks.  

Taking bearings takes a lot of practice.  Figure out which eye is your dominant one (you can frame something with your hands and close one eye, then the other.  The one that doesn't move the image as much is your main eye).  I think my main eye is my left.  You should probably take a couple reads to be sure you've got it.  It is really easy to move or tilt the compass while you're trying to spin the bearing to get red into the shed so that it is no longer exactly pointing at your landmark.  Things far away are less precise for readings, favor closer landmarks like a trail fork or switchback in a trail you can see in a valley down below you.  In a real pinch, you could use the summit or V between two peaks.  Take a read off one end of a water feature or another, not the center which is iffy.      

A sighting compass helps you also avoid doing things like yawing by giving you a guideline to keep perfectly centered as you're taking a read.  The mirror can also work as a signal or help you admire yourself after a few days in backcountry.  I liked these more but apparently it is 50-50 on preferences. The one I used was a Silva Ranger for the northern hemisphere.  Compasses that work in both hemispheres are more expensive.  

You can use time and shadow to triangulate by putting a stick in the ground and using a rock to mark where its shadow lands.  The sun moves East to West so the shadows it throws move West to East.  Rock #1 is your west rock.  Time passes and rock #2 is your east rock.  You can figure out North from that.  

When reading topo's, ridges looks like gravy sliding out down the hill.  Valleys look like V's pointing up the hill.  If in doubt, water features are running downhill into valleys.  

When picking maps, favor ones with a scale that makes sense for what you're doing...  i.e. backpackers want scale 1:40,000 ft (I think?) or less to be able to see all the little details they are encountering, not 1 map that shows the entire 50 mile trail loop.  

You can use the strings on the end of the compass to calibrate to the scale on the legend so you know 1 string length is 1 mile or half mile or whatever.    

12. BP to a "rustic" campground in Moro

 Posted overview here:  

Personal trip highlights:  

Meeting some sex and the city aged ladies and their teen/preteen kids at the toilets by the parking lot and comparing notes on water carried.  I felt 140 oz (1 full camelbak + 2 30 oz smart waters) was A LOT, but ended up drinking through 110 oz of it without much cooking and hardly peeing at all.  

Dave said to bring him something back from the trail-- I found shiny new Kirkland sunglasses which solved the dilemmas of not wanting to take nature souvenirs out of the park, not wanting to feel pressure to capture the perfect moment on camera, and thinking I was the only one in here that didn't have shades on.  

There was this crow that sat in a tree and did a weird percussive call with a rattle and a typewriter carriage return at the end of it a lot of the afternoon before the rest of the overnight BPers showed up.  

I finished the Alan Watts book just at nightfall, but it was not a riveting read.  His youtube lectures (verbatim) were much more accessible.    

Watching sunset over the ocean and trying to figure out where the wedge was and whether Jens and crew were diving there.  (It turns out they did corona del mar right before there was a big oil spill that closed all the beaches).  

Helping some late arrivals find their campsite in the dark and marveling at how gone to pot my  night vision has gotten.  Is it getting old?  Is it from eye strain of reading or the headlamp?

The cool breeze in East Cut on the hike down in the morning.

Following someone else's Altra footprints out of the campground.  I think I might have seen some bunny prints (and an actual bunny).  

***

Gear shakeout-- I worked out some of the backpack weight and posted it here. 

I weighed the pack at 29.2 lbs, but was probably more like 30.6 because I carried my purse in.

This exercise was mostly academic because the water I carried in was 37% of my weight and I don't think I would have cut back on it.  

I could cut 20% of weight (approx 6 lbs) without buying new stuff and knowing more about what to expect...  

• 9% from tuning the sleep system (not so many stakes, skip the tarp, skip the pillow I was too lazy to reinflate when it went flat, use camp chair as sleeping pad instead of inflatable).  
• 5% from leaving purse in car and just bringing keys + phone
• 3% from skipping cooking and just cold soaking.  
• 2% from not packing quite so many snacks.    

 

Plus the Squirt multitool I unlocked from completing this adventure weighs 56.4 grams vs. the 179 gram pocket knife I borrowed from Jens, so that nets me another 123 gram savings!  :)

#4 Mom-Mobile

 This one was a long time coming with final stages that came together pretty quickly.  

We had been operating as a single car family for a couple years at this point-- I had sold my minicooper relatively early in the home ownership adventure because street parking was a nightmare, it kept developing mysterious leaks the dealership couldn't diagnose but would happily charge for (later settled with a class action lawsuit), the tight 2 car garage/carriage house was full of previous owner junk and the diy home repairs required more elbow room to move anyway.  Besides, we worked at the same place so sharing a commute and the carpool lane was win.  Then we had the kid and our routes diverged, with a slight reprieve during the pandemic when DH was exclusively work from home.  But as rumblings of office meetings began, and lobster season with its attendant diving itineraries loomed, we were having squabbles at increasing frequency about sharing the car.  As the 13 month wait for a new garage and additional driveway parking wrapped up, we started to talk about what this mom-mobile would look like.  

"Dude, if dino juice is on its way out, just get a Tesla..."  "Aren't those like $40K?  With a wait list?  And the pick up is so ugly.  I bet the stroller would never fit in their trunk...  I was thinking of something more at the Tacoma's price point ($15K) since we're not even sure we'll *need* a second vehicle and our alternative at this point is the minor costs of the occasional uber or begging a carpool favor from a coworker."  

A MIL raved about her friends who were serial RAV4 owners.  It was a little more maneuverable than the Tacoma and had better gas mileage but shared Tacoma's reputation for rock solid low maintenance cost vehicles.  I didn't want or need the towing capacity of the 4Runner that seemed to evoke appreciative "Tim the Toolman Taylor" grunts from DH.  If he truly did splurge on a boat, it would probably be toward the end of the Tacoma's useful life and he could swap that.  A few youtube car reviews later, I had widened the search to include CR-V's.  A few trips through Craigslist later, we included Nissan Rogue which seemed to be on offer for a few $K less for similar specs.  

Then we spent a date night at the Carmax.  First a pitstop at a vegan Mexican joint, where DH grudgingly downed 1 taco and began googling what seemed like nosebleed-high prices of the used car market since our Tacoma purchase adventure.  He concluded that our current ride may actually have appreciated in value since purchase, despite the increased age and mileage.  After strolling the Carmax small SUV section of the lot, barely able to guess at the make of cars based on their hood decals, let alone the models, we narrowed our search down to 5 options.  We were then paired  with our salesperson, Carol, whose love for all things Japanese reminded me of my favorite entomologist lecturer, John Kabashima and my favorite nurseryman, Gary Matsuoka.  I also was intrigued by the numerous Nissan Kicks on the lot and their striking facial resemblance to my old Mini.  Carmax didn't want to disinfect more than 2 test drives, but did allow me to sit in 3.  

Option 1:  RAV4-- $24K for a 50K mileage  and, we would learn, the only hybrid model in >100 miles (with Carol muttering about out of state registration fees before widening the search radius).  I wasn't gung-ho on going electric for this particular purchase, but could see the wisdom of doing so Soon and figured the gassier options on Craigslist would probably handle the same, so a test drive would be instructive.  Carol's daughter had been tempted by full electric RAVs but settled for a hybrid when warned that she might not be able to get home from her planned camping trip.  Plus more trunk space than the full plug in.  

Option 2: Rogue.  Cockpit did not have as high quality of a finish and a PT Cruiser-esque feel of climbing into a mail truck and peering through portholes to check for blindspots.  These drawbacks were not as pronounced on MIL's penultimate car, a Rogue which she had also recommended highly but ditched for a low mileage extended family car that came with a backup cam.     

Option 3: Kicks.  Better blindspot visibility than the Rogue and acceptable trunk space, but a quick search on the way back to the lobby revealed "Top X cars you should not buy..." largely because it was a new model and they hadn't quite worked the kinks out.  

So we test drove the RAV4, setting off into the blinding sunset.  The backup cam was a big help.  It was so quiet, if perplexing as it swapped between battery and gas modes.  I felt like I was in a Jetson's cartoon.  It could take U-turns I would not attempt with the Tacoma.  

We began rapid passenger seat research for the different types of hybrid-electric in the RAV line.  RAV4 primes were all electric and possibly ideal for our use case of a few mile excursions from home with lots of urban mpg otherwise... but they came out last year and the inventory on any used car lot was nonexistent.  Even if there were some, we probably wouldn't have been able to stomach the >$35K price points.  The hybrids history extended back to '96, but it seemed there were 3 all gas RAVs for every hybrid listed.  "Didn't you say that at some point Tesla had their tech sorted, but not auto manufacturing and they put Tesla engines in RAV4 bodies?"  

This sparked DH into an evening of research, uncovering a RAV4 EV fan forum and some legit service dealership outside of San Diego.  Working the math on how far it could go on a full charge, he took a field trip to a dealership 20 miles past MIL's pool (where DD spends Saturdays honing her swimming technique).  A $19K line of credit from MIL later (our bank had just closed), she drives off the lot with a 2014 RAV EV with only 25K miles on it.  "This is probably a terrible idea..."  "It's a great story, only 3,000 in existence, a budget Tesla that actually fits our use case.  This is a fun adventure."  But we've learned that the drive unit is the thing most likely to fail (not the battery) and that we can buy a $5K Toyota warranty to cover it.  We came back for it the next day, super charged up to 88 miles.  I had some anxiety about our 40 mile trip home, heightened by the extra cup of coffee MIL and my reluctance to use the AC.  But coasting downhill out of the mountains and quasi-drafting off DH's Tacoma, the trip only consumed about 26 miles of range.  

#13 SUP Kayak from NAC to Dunes

 This turned out to be a lot easier than planned.  I rented an aircraft carrier SUP from Newport Aquatic Center at $20/hour.  Outside of an initial disembark facing backwards and wondering why it was so difficult to maneuver, it was pretty smooth sailing.  DH and DD caught up with me in their kayak.  They let me get a headstart for home while they played on the Newport Dunes playground.  I missed their rescue of an older couple who had capsized a Pirate Coast kayak on the way back.  They also snagged a sea-chilled White Claw* for their efforts.  

I think our friend's inflatable SUP which I had briefly borrowed on an earlier trip had me worried that there would be more of a maintaining one's balance learning curve.  I also concluded that acquiring a SUP wasn't high on my wish list, even if it had cool modifications like being able to convert into a kayak.  I would only really be interested in kayaking with it.  At that point, why don't we just get a multiseat kayak for family trips/adventure racing?  Plus DH thinks he can fit 2 kayaks of the same spec on the roof of the Tacoma without needing to do much besides get a longer tie down nylon.  It also had me less amped to join the very desperate housewives of OC-esque Fit4Mom group on their periodic Mom's night SUPing parties.  At any rate, doing it once was $20 well spent.  I earmarked this as unlocking Patagonia Baggies swimshorts, though they are out of stock on all but the most loud colors on their website at the minute.    

*I am contemplating adding a White Claw in the Wild scavenger hunt as this was also the beverage DH and our SUP-loaning friends uncovered while setting up a top rope at our Joshua Tree campsite a few months ago...  

Spaceship Earth

 Selected from Delta's seatback entertainment a documentary called Spaceship Earth about Biosphere 2.  I had wondered why there hadn't been more data released on this project and this helped explain the dynamic.  

What is going on with the funding of this project coming from a family who made their money in oil?  When they have a quote from the ex-Goldman new leader Bannon talking about the opportunities of "carbon enriched" atmosphere and I'm not at all surprised this guy went on to be involved with problematic ventures like Cambridge Analytica and Breitbart news.   

The emphasis on theater (improv?) first struck me as bizarre and cultish at first, but I could see how the idea of "yes, and..." coupled with a beginner's mind might be great for figuring out complex interdisciplinary projects if the alternative is to get domain experts in the room who are mostly focused on defending their ego.  What if we took this idea of life being an act further?  Similar to the Musk and other tech visionaries entertaining the Matrix-like idea that life is just a simulation.  Would that free us up to make more mistakes and try more things?  

Roy Walford struck me as a tragicomic character.  It seems like he was onto something with caloric restriction and longevity, but to make these claims in his 60's about having half a life left just seemed like hubris.  Then to die less than 2 decades later.  I was annoyed by how much weight lifting he was doing while also seeming not to want to do the actual manual labor needed to feed the crew of the biosphere.  

Bananas and whole foods plant based diets struck home.  How crazy the adjustment to minimal refined sugar and even carbs must have been for these folks.  They had animals, but it didn't seem like they would be able to eat them in any meaningful quantities.  I wish they had talked more about that, about the "anecdata" they recalled even if their collected data had been lost in the leadership transition.