Eggciting and Not So Eggciting News

More Eggs

One More Hen Starts Laying!!!!

These are the eggs from Milky Way and Cole. Now all four of the older girls are laying.








And we have some white eggs to add a little color to things.

This morning as I was doing office work early in the pre-dawn morning, I heard what I thought was a rooster.

How could they be? And then I heard it again and it was unmistakable. It was definitely a rooster crowing. Now the question was who could it be?

Oh No, Not You Ostrich

Ostrich is pretty special to me. She, I mean he was born from an egg in our incubator. The night before as I flipped through one of our poultry books, I came across the Naked Neck Turkey, AKA Turken. I couldn't believe how ugly this particular breed was. The next morning little Ostrich broke through his shell and hatched. I couldn't believe our misfortune. But then the little guy grew on me and when it came time to choose which few birds we would keep, Ostrich had worked her way into my heart. So we kept her/him. So when I opened the coup and Ostrich looked at me and then led out a hearty crow. It made me sad.

Fortunately, we have found a lovely rescue that took our other 2 roosters and offered to take Ostrich as well. So at least I know he will go to nice place where he crow as much as he likes. We decided to do one last photo shoot to catch his odd but definite beauty.

Strike a Pose

One tall and proud bird.

I am who I am

Walking the walk



Goodbye Ostrich We Love You!!!!

The Gauntlet That Lies Ahead

The Phoenix Rises
(hopefully)

After disappointing performances at the last Warrior Dash and the LA Marathon, and then inspired by Lance's Armstrong Tour de France attempt and his strong Time Trial I started signing up for some interesting races.

Then Lance started crashing and I twisted my ankle like a pretzel. But the first race was a couple of months away. I should be fine.

Ouch!!!
Ankle a couple days after 4th of July incident. That's exactly a month away.

The Race Schedule

September 24--


At 1,108 feet, the tallest building in Los Angeles is the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Climbers will race or walk the 1,500 steps (75 stories) and take an elevator down.* Most participants will climb to the top in 20 to 45 minutes. Elite climbers will race to the top in 13 minutes or less. The course record is 9:28.

I've ran stairs once so far, but 4 weeks should be enough time. The ankle is still a little unstable but I can run on it.

It's the building on the left. I've done this event twice in the past, so at least I know what to expect. It's an event for charity so go to the home page of the website(you can click on the logo/link above), friends and family can locate a Climb Participant by clicking on the "Sponsor Climb Participant" button. By typing in the name of the Climb Participant, they will be directed to the Climb Participant's personalized pledge page. I'll fly out to see Cindy and then compete in the Highest Tower run in the US and third in the world(Third highest Tower run event, not building) That'll be 2109 stairs and 110 stories

Next up, the one I'm concerned(scarred) about.
NORCAL Saturday October 9 & Sunday October 10

Tough Mudder is not a race. It is supposed to be a personal challenge – the goal is simply to complete the course.

Right? It's all down hill after that one. Well not really.

November 14--Another Stair Climb--Sky Rise Chicago

I'll fly out to see Cindy and then compete in the Highest Tower run in the US and third in the world(Third highest Tower run event, not building) That will be 2109 stairs and 110 stories.

Spartan Challenge--Los Angeles Dec. 12, 2010

I'll round out the year with a fun little 5k. A 5k with a twist. "The Spartan Race is for athletes and people who are tired of the tedium of the usual races and workouts and yearn to recapture the spirit of an adventurous age. Participants will confront obstacles ranging from extreme to absurd that gain their inspiration from sources as varied as Spartan training, Navy SEAL training and American Gladiators.

5K run featuring:

• War Charge!
• Heroes Spear throw
• The Mud Pit (Mud crossing)
• Scrambling Spartans (Scramble Net)
• Mt. Impossible (Wall climb)
• Dark Tunnel (Small, wet and dark tunnel passages)
• The Fallen (Cross the tough balance beam obstacle course)
• Enemies Trap (Cargo net climb)
• Slippery Victory (Inclined wet wall)
• Barbed Crawl (Barbwire crawl)
• Leap of Faith (Fire jump)
• And featuring two out of this world and never before seen mystery elements!

March 20, 2011-The Los Angeles Marathon

An old familiar friend rounds out the races I've committed to at this point.

Just got back from my first real run since twisting the ankle. It felt good. I would love some company on any of the above races. So just click on the link and it will take to where to register.

Farmer's Markets #1

Farmers' Markets of Southern California

I've been trying to shop more and more at Farmer's Markets(FM), for a number of reasons, not least of which I enjoy the experience. I always mean to write a post after the visit, because there are always photo-ops, good tales to relate, links, etc. etc.

The markets are like living things, they have different characteristics, they change with the seasons and with the participants, both vendors and buyers. And I wanted to share my experiences and thoughts. Instead I've ended up with lots of pictures on my computer and camera, tons of anecdotes, in my head or told to friends, and more amazing meals than I can remember. (Might be why the diet isn't working). So rather than wait until I put together a well thought out compilation or start from scratch and just post on FM excursions from this point forward and am gonna just do a random series.

Here goes:

Santa Monica Main Street Farmer's Market

Farmers Markets can be pretentious and expensive. The FM on Main Street in Santa Monica on Sundays, so far takes the cake.

"The ULTIMATE community gathering place in Santa Monica.
Great for family, food and fun!"

That's from their website. But it does make from some great people watching and funny stories as well as some lessons in humility and introspection.

I'm all for this concept, but the realities of it are bit different. I've had one of those "compostable"
bags in my compost pile for months now with little sign of decomposition. Granted, it is a much better alternative to plastic and it will degrade under proper conditions.

Shoe Envy

It would figure that it is at this market that I spot the shoes that I have been craving.



Not one pair, but two, his and hers.



The Vibram Five Fingers, oh la la. P.S. I finally got some, more on that latter.




The scene, to see and be seen.

The main draw for me with this market is it's brunching potential.


I'll often start out with some fresh shucked oysters from Carlsbad Aqua Farm.



The favorite of the family are the crepes. Yummy yum. Savory with salmon.



Or sweet with hazelnut chocolate.

Of course, while we're at the FM we pick up something that the farmers have brought.




Skye's putting together the just right combination of leafy greens.



Eating local is easy in Southern California.




Okay, not so local. But chocolate, forgo chocolate to be a localvore, a local what?



Something for everyone, even cats get fresh organic catnip.




There's music which tends to vary from ok and bearable to annoying, which is unfortunate cause there's so much good music out there.



Fun stuff to buy for the kids with parents that have money to burn. (A little on the snarky side I know but...)



And ponies for the kids. So maybe everyone doesn't love the FM. The poor ponies must go around in circles for hours after hours. How green is that?




And what kid-centric gathering would be complete without animal balloons?

But wait what is that in the background?



Bicycle Valet Parking, for real.

Can you imagine having your car towed for bike in the bike valet zone?



But at least it gets people on their bikes. What ever it takes, check out all those bicycles.

A Trip About Recycling

Or rather to recycling

On occasion, usually after a party or something I will gather up the recyclables and take a "field trip" to the Santa Monica recycling center to re-coup a little, and I do mean a little. Some how the deposit that is paid upfront is not even close to what gets redeemed. But it does offer all sorts of educational opportunities.





School is open



Everything gets sorted, and sorted, and sorted......



These are actually pretty cool looking vintage signs.











Cool signs.



The prices are, well it would take a lot of work to get rich this way.




I can only imagine how much was spent to get this five and dime.

If a a picture is worth a thousand words, then a trip to the dump is worth volumes.

In the Tilapia Tanks

Some cool pics of some of the denizens of the tilapia tanks. Hopefully in the future will be creating various aquaponic and greywater filtration systems. For now we will be studying and observing our little underwater friends.





Natures filters




Smile for the camera




Are these fish in school? Nah, they're home schooled.



Will you be my neighbor?

Burned at the Beach....Again

Being fair-skinned and being from Los Angeles has not always been a good combination for me. I have been burned more times than I can remember. As a kid, my nose was in a perpetual burning and peeling cycle. After having a ice-scream scoop chunk of my calf taken out because of melanoma, I've been slathering on sunscreen and avoiding the sun like the cast from Twilight or I guess more age appropriate, True Blood.

Last week, after covering my body with a spray sunscreen, I decided my face needed something a bit more substantial, which I had in my bag. Unfortunately, by the time I dragged all our gear to our spot I had forgotten about one major detail, my face. Oops!!!

Luckily there was a lot of cloud cover and we weren't there for long and it was late in the day, but I got burned.

Today, I was determined for that not to happen again. We were there earlier and it was hot and sunny. So I coated and re-coated and felt confident that I would not get burned again.

What I didn't think about was my feet, specifically the soles of my feet. The sun had brought the sand to a blistering temperature and I was barefoot.

I went for a nice jog, barefoot, and felt pretty good. Until I brushed off the sand getting ready to go home.

And what was under that layer of sand???

Blisters.

Wow. I mean ow.

More Eggcellent Adventures

An Eggsperiment

The other day I thought we'd do a little test and check if you could actually see the difference between home-grown eggs, farmer's market eggs, and "organic, free-range" eggs from Whole Foods. I wanted to get your real "regular" type eggs, but we were already up to our eyeballs in the little orbs so, we ended up with 3 different egg types.



Egg on the left, the one with a really deep orange hue-one from our girls in the back. The other two are the "free-range, organic" and pretty much identical.

Milky Way is Adding to the Egg Count

Milky Way, who is now the biggest bird in the flock, although Oreo still puts her in her place, to keep the pecking order in tact, is finally laying. And we realized again that there is a learning curve to everything, including laying eggs.




A little one, then a really weird, elongated one, and then a couple that seem just about perfect.




But crack them open and you realize, there's more going on in them eggs than we thought. Each and everyone of them had double yolks, which Skye thinks is absolutely awesome because she doesn't like the whites so much. A little weird though.




Eggs of all shapes and sizes. 3 down 6 left to lay. Things are gonna get interesting.

Did I tell you the one about the blind cat?

Room for Rent?

We have a guest bedroom that has played host to a number of guests, paying, not paying and some-wheres in between. I don't make mention of them for the most part because this is Where in the World is Jon? not whose at the Milagro pad now?

Anyhow, a small aspect of this has made it to the blog, cause it's funny and cool.

One rule and we have so few, me being an anarchist and all, but one steadfast rule has been no pets. So when the last guest said she had a blind cat, well at first I thought, "this isn't'a good idea" and then I thought, "it's a blind cat, it's probably, a runt, will never come out from under the bed much less out of the room, not to mention, its' lifespan will probably make it a non-issue." A little harsh but sometimes it's a hard, cruel world even for kitties.

RAMA

And in comes Rama, a not so little black cat, with a warrior's heart who explores as much as he is allowed. He makes it up the stairs with no problem. And he even won over the heart of our own favorite skeptic Cici.



Cute as can be, chillin' on the stairs

Photo-op, ebony and ivory and well just ebony.

June and July sports recap

Kobe, Lance and All Those Other Guys

I'm not a big sports fan. I don't like baseball. I go to Super Bowl parties for half-time and the commercials. Nascar, hockey, soccer (foot ball), tennis, or golf, no bother. I've started keeping up with MMA because it is such a topic of conversation at jui jitsu. Even with basketball, the one major sport I do enjoy watching I pretty much just watch the Lakers.

Which brings us to June. I wanted to follow the World Cup this year, even use it as a framework for some lessons for Skye, but I ended up getting that job that took me out of everything for a while, so my soccer fandom ended pretty quickly. However....

NBA Finals

The Lakers were in the Finals with the Boston Celtics.

"It was a thrilling seven game series, the Los Angeles Lakers became the 2010 NBA champions and Kobe Bryant earned his second consecutive NBA Finals MVP award. The 2010 NBA Finals, broadcast on June 17, 2010, had highest Nielsen TV rating 18.2 since the 1998 NBA Finals"

Thanks Wikipedia you took the words right out of my mouth.

It was fun, nerve-racking, landed me in the Casino a couple of times{to watch on the big screen, not to gamble), thrilled about the end result but not too shocked. (Lakers won) It was a huge time and emotion suck at a time when I didn't have a surplus of either. Thank goodness for DVRs.

Tour de France

Speaking of an emotion and time vacuum and more kudos to DVRS. The Tour de France this year was to be the year that Lance came back and won an unheard of 8 tours, putting to rest the controversy of last years 3rd place finish when team mate/rival Alberto stood at the top of the podium. He was going to beat Contador, Schleck and even Father Time, giving hope to all us over-the-hill, post 40 year old, week-end warriors.

That didn't happen. Instead just before the race started ex-teammate and Tour winner,(before getting it striped for using performance enhancing substances) Flyod Landis announced that Armstrong had used these illegal substances when he was kicking butt and winning 7 consecutive tours.

Not the best way to start the Tour but those accusations have been flying for years now and Armstrong has so far come out clean.

He looked good in the first few days and did better than expected in the time trial, what was supposed to be his weakness. But the Tour is 21 days of riding and he had a long way to go still.

And it got longer by the day. He couldn't keep up at times and had one crash after another, at some of the worst times. On one particular day he had a few crashes, lost lots of time and then struggled to pull himself towards the leaders and for all intensive purposes was done.

Identifying with Lance, the Downside

It was over. His "luck" had run out, Father Time had caught up, the streak, the domination was over. An era had passed.

It hit me hard.

I was getting set to launch my own comeback, the day after our big annual 4th of July get-together. But that morning, I had turned my ankle running down the stairs. It was actually a pretty gnarly strain, swelled up, turned black and blue. Maybe I should have went to the hospital but....



So I had started watching the Tour with my foot either in a bucket of ice or wrapped and elevated. I was walking for a cane for a few days.



A few days, like a sunset the colors change and evolve.

So I watched day in and day out, Tivo style, so a 3 hour program would only take 45 mins or so.
Aside from Lance's disappointing showing, the tour was one of the best since I've been watching, which hasn't been so long. There was an epic battle for yellow, some amazing sprints, great climbs, gorgeous setting as always.

On one of the final days, Armstrong went with a break away group and held tough the whole way only to be out sprinted in the last 100yrds. It was very poignant but not so surprising by this point.

Very much like the NBA playoff, very exciting great TV but no real big surprises.

As for the ankle, I think it's coming along.

Must go for now, falling asleep at keyboards.