A More than $64 Tomato

I have always been a bit extreme granted. And this latest endeavor is right up there, but more or less complete. The Tomato Support Structure now is fully enclosed with doors and supporting my lovely tomatoes.

The other night I canned some salsa using tomatoes from the garden, made a few jars of fresh salsa that have been devoured pretty quickly.

I started reading a very amusing book, The $64 Tomato, William Alexander, a bit too close too home, but really very funny. He kind of figured out what one tomato cost him, after all the money put into renovations, "organic" and "local" gardening, etc. etc. and it came out to $64 per tomato. At the rate I am going I have him beat.



I had to climb up on a bucket that balanced on a cinderblock wall, which was unstable and scary to secure the fencing.



But then it was several a couple of terraces down to fall.





This tomato plant I almost yanked up last year and then it just went wild. But it was becoming a tangled mess until I was able to spread it out on the TSS.




Free to spread out and grow. But not until I trimmed away half of it, dead and lame.





It's like tomato puppetry.




This tomato plant is actually quite famous. It's called the Mortgage Lifter and has some great stories behind it. More on that later, another post another time. But this tomato is supposed to come in between 2 to 4 pounds. WOW!!!





A door to protect the little Koi.

Rancid Mood

I've struggled with my bad temper and bad moods for as long as I can remember. But this latest little stretch has been deeper, darker and longer than in I've experienced in recent years. It's no mystery to me. All the stress factors that tend to trigger my mood swings have been hit. I've not been paying particular attention to my diet. Too much caffeine, too much alcohol, too much sugar, not enough sleep, trying to juggle to many things. But the clouds have not been parting, I've not been able to shake it as easily as I have. I've been a lot quicker to anger. I shouldn't ignore this any longer. Like I said it is not going away.

So new diet, new fitness plan, start doing yoga again and all should fall into place.

I feel better already.

Now and then and in between

Sorry to those of you who know this story all too well but I ran across some old photos and felt like reminiscing. Plus I just finished a new addition the Tomato Support Structure, from hereon known as TSS, more on that to come.

When we first bought the Milagro house, one of the thoughts behind it was that it was pretty much in move-in condition.

Pretty much. Well, as any homeowner knows, the maintenance and improvements never end, particularly if you are me.






Milagro House, shortly after we got it.




This is a somewhat more recent pic.




This is one of our first days in the new pad.

We found out shortly thereafter that neither the stairway or the platform were very structurally sound.



And so my back yard odyssey began. I hired a few guys a couple of times but it didn't really work out. So I would say that the vast majority, like 98% I did myself. Learning new skills and manhandling tons and tons of material.




I laid the foundation. (All ten tons of it) for the oven and stove and then had some mason's build the pizza oven and BBQ.




The grapes have filled in well and note the new structure to the left, the TSS.





The grapes haven't quite taken off.




And now they have. Wine grapes to the left, table grapes on your right. Nothing edible yet, soon though, I hope.




This is before the koi pond, and well before the latest addition of






Note the potted rosemary in the foreground, just keep it in mind.




Pond overboard.






The TSS is actually quite multi-purposed. It started off as a solution to keeping the chickens from flying into the neighbors yard. We don't have chickens, yet, but nothing like planning ahead. Then I realized if it could keep the chickens in it could also keep critters out, notably whatever had raided the koi pond several months ago.

We have since repopulated the koi pond with more koi, a couple of catfish, and some tadpoles but an ugly and very inconvenient covering of chicken wire had been in place since.

Last year I bought some very wonderful heirloom tomato plants from a lovely local grower in Torrance and then got a job and really messed things up. It was a hot summer and I just...well we didn't get that many tomatoes and the plants never really took off. This year I was determined not to have a repeat, so I have been diligent with watering and the like, and I'm not working. And they have gone crazy. I quickly realized I needed some serious support for these guys. So hence the TSS, maybe a bit extreme, but so far it is working out well in all regards.









View from inside the TSS.




Remember the potted rosemary. They didn't like pots, so I replanted them and they are flourishing.





His buddy is doing pretty good as well.






Before...




After. I need to get in and do some pruning.





Something never quite worked for me with these pots. So I decided to move them down by the pool. Now that was a major undertaking, since I did it myself. Those pots are ridiculously heavy.








I planted a fig tree and a pomegranate in their place and they are doing much better.












Little Daisy, the Christmas cat, has pretty much been banished to being an outdoor cat. She seems to be fair alright with the change.

Laker Madness

GO Lakers!!!!!!

Hurray the Lakers won the NBA Championship. On Wednesday there was a celebratory parade from Staples Center to the Coliseum. Now I usually wouldn't get caught up in that kind of thing. I'm a big fan and I am thrilled with them winning, but going downtown, trying to find parking and then hanging out with several thousand people to see the team go by and wave from the tops of double decker buses, is not my idea of fun.

Skye, however thought that it would be a great idea. So that was that and of we went.

No, wait.

First we had to run over to the Santa Monica Farmer's market to get some food for the little get together we were having later that evening. And I had to make sure I got several e-mails sent off . And get ready for the party and bunch of other stuff. No wonder I had woken up, all stressed out at 3 am. Well at least I got those e-mails out of the way. But I had a long day ahead of me.




I love the Farmer's Market. So much wonderful foods. Skye made some wonderfully yummy Roasted Carrots with Sage. I know its more of a Fall/Winter thing but tasty nonetheless. I ending up grilling peaches.

Heading Downtown to Celebrate

I loaded the bikes onto the car, so we wouldn't have to deal with parking, just trying to bicycle around downtown Los Angeles with an 11 year old and the traffic and crowds. I turned out to be a pretty good idea, although it stressed me out a bit.



A lot of people turned up. It was way too crowded near the coliseum, so we headed north where it was a little less crowded.




Less crowded? Yes this is less crowded.

Skye decided it would be a good idea for her to try to get closer on her own, so she'd have a better view. I was not thrilled with this idea but let her have a go.



Well, she did get closer. She ended up squished and couldn't see much. That's the top of her head under that guys armpit.




Here they come.



Lamar's up there some where.




Sasha getting the crowd going.




Ariza, Jordan Farmar

Where's Kobe?





Oh there he is or rather there he goes, holding the trophy for all to see.


And just like that it was done. A bit anit-climactic to say the least.

Then we raced back to cook and garden and clean and get ready for the little Salon Milagro we were hosting. But that is for another blog.

Parkour, Parcourse and Freerunning

I haven't posted since the LA Marathon or ran since then for that matter. As much as I enjoyed the experience and will undoubtedly run another marathon. I keep being faced with how much I am not a "runner". There are certainly many things I like about running, but I think training for a marathon brings out a lot of the things I don't like about running; things like the monotony, the feeling like I have to log in a certain amount of mileage or time and the frustration when I don't. Also one of the things I like most about running is the physical conditioning I get from it. When I train for a marathon, I can tend to get too much cumulative pounding on my joints and in ramping up the mileage my cross training and upper body conditioning tends to suffer.

As with many things, Parkour came at me from several different angles. I had seen some beautiful commercials, featuring people jumping from building top to building top sans the SGI/digital effects. The images mesmerized me. And while the car chases in the Bourne Trilogy and the last couple of Bond movies made it into trailers, it was the pursuits over rooftoops and through buildings that caught me.

At some point recently, I meet another home school dad, rare as that is, who also practice Brazilian Juijitsu with the Machados no less and was doing parkour. Skye and I made it out to a weekly PE/movement class/get-together he had organized and it reminded me how much I loved running and jumping over obstacles.

I held off jumping into this type of training until the marathon, didn't want a last minute injury to blow months of work. But since then Skye and I joined other home schoolers for a romp up and down the 100 foot sand dune at Sand Dune Park in Manhattan Beach. Somehow I had never been there before. It makes for an amazing workout.

Just yesterday, I finally took advantage of the Par Course at Fox Hills Park. I have run past its obstacles many times but I finally actually did them with a twist of course. I definitely had to modify the excercises to make them more challenging and more fun, but man that can make for an intense workout.

Running is fun again.