Snap shots from the "Farm"

The Milagro Vertical Farm

We live on a farm, or that's the fantasy. A farm in the middle of LA with views of downtown, utilizing concepts and practices from "square-foot gardening" and vertical gardening to get the most bang for the buck with our very limited access to dirt. Here are some random shots of life on the farm.




Broccoli and artichokes, yum!!!!



That broccoli is bigger than my head.



An armful of Arugula, most of which went to the chickens, those lucky gourmands.




Speaking of which, here two of them are having there last go at "free ranging". I've replanted the hillside with lots of clover and other yummies in hopes that they might forage again. In the meantime these hordes must be content to roam the garden run.





Oh so trying to help....



This recently replanted, reseeded hillside will look much more impressive as an "after" picture a little further down the road.




This hillside of nasturtiums is already looking promising for people and chicken alike.





What a beautiful looking tomato and good tasting too. We've already gathered several pounds of tomatoes, using them in all sorts of recipes, including a heritage tomato sorbet and of course many don't make it up to the house at all. They get gobbled up as we tend to the garden.





This pot has produced a goodly amount of cherry tomatoes but could use a feeding.






Perhaps even more so for this one.




This is the "Cannibal" tomato plant that I grew from seed.

"In Fiji, legend has it that among cannibal tribes, the cannibal's tomato was regarded as the perfect sauce for the consumption of human flesh."

A little Sweeney Todd anybody?




It's a zucchini. We made zucchini bread out of it. What kind of caption were you thinking of?





Sometimes success has its down sides. This pond plant kept growing and growing and now prune as I might its root base doesn't fit on the ledge where it sits. I tore off a couple healthy looking rhizomes, the rest of it is chipper bound.


Many more "farm" adventures to come.

Where in the World did June and July Go?????

Promises, Promises, Promises

This is yet again one of those blog entries of mine that attempts to Cliff Note portions of my life with promises to flesh out the stories at a latter date. To which I succeed to varying degrees.

So.....where did June go for starters?

A lot of it went to work. Worked with Cindy as her lead for the first time in like 15 years. It was just a couple of days of re-shoots but it was like riding a bicycle or even more like putting on an old pair of shoes that you haven't worn in ages but used to be your favorites. A little uncomfortable at first and then you remember why they were your favorites.

And then June found me working in that multi-task capacity of shopper/lead/dresser/pseudo-decorator on splinter unit that was shooting in the desert near the CA/AZ border.

Throw in the on-going ecology class, the chicks that went from fuzy and cute little chickys to rambuncitous teen-agers, Skye's birthday and Father's Day, an interesting housemate/tenant barter situation, the NBA finals, go Lakers. A busy month to say the least.

So where did July go?

No let down in July.

No, no indeed, things might of picked up, the big 4th of July BBQ/Party/Extravaganza, my birthday, oh and the new house mate has same b-day as mine, an attempt at a new salon/discussion series, the Eco-class continues and ends, the Tour de France and oh yeah more work.

Sorry to be a tease but had to get something out,

Where in the World is Parker, AZ?

Puerto Rico ?

How did a call from Puerto Rico on an early Monday morn land me in in Parker Arizona? Well, it's sort of a long story but in a nutshell neither Cindy or I were working and the first decorator I ever worked with some 20-plus years ago called and asked me to help him out.

I Said Yes to What?

This was the temp in town at around 7:00pm in town. It was hotter a few hours earlier, and hotter in the desert where we were, and there was no ventilation in the trains we were working in.



What a welcoming mural and it says so much about what Parker is all about.



As did the local beer

You can usually get a sense of a place by the stores that line Main Street




Now if that were next to a gun shop it would classic; had to settle for paintball.

After too many dinners at the local "reservation" Casino and sad attempts at finding something edible at the local joints which included a few trips to a floating bar where the drink special was called the "Road Raper" this is where I started getting Blimpie's to go and eat in my hotel room.




Because the accommodations were so nice:







Vacancy

That was the first place I was at, we did get upgraded to .....



It was definitely better on the outside and did have internet, but it was still pretty rough.

Getting there is half the fun

Parker is around 3 1/2 to 4 hours away from LA with no traffic.



We were diverted because of an accident down the road. Luckily for us it had just happened there were trucks and cars backed up for miles behind us. It still added around an hour to our journey.



It was as bad as it looks.

Early Mornings

Because it got so hot so early we would leave around 4:30 am to get to the set as it was just getting light out. A couple of times I would head out at 4 am on foot, so I could get a little jog in before work. My buddy would pick me up where ever I happened to get to on the way to the set.



I love the desert in the morning. The highest light is the moon.

The moon made for some beautiful photos



Early morning before anyone except for security is at the set.



Got to get to work honey...



For better and for worse, this sign did not apply to me.




So gorgeous and very nice out, quiet and cool. That all changes as the sun rises and the crew arrives in waves.

Parting Shots

I past this store everyday, on my last evening in Parker I decided to see what it was all about.



They had more types of jerky than I thought possible. These are the ones I decided to try out, still trying them out. So far the ones we've tried have been delicious.



They also had all sorts of local honeys and some interesting jar goods.

My last morning, good bye Parker, good bye FF5.

Lightning in a Bottle --Part 3--The Final Chapter

LIB continued:

As the afternoon tilted and evening approached things got more strange and wonderful.

At times less wonderful and more strange.

I have always loved and awed at the beguiling surreal beauty and art that is stilt walking. On this day, I was treated to many lovely spectacles on longed legs.



We spied this Daliesque creature walking all hurky jerky across the field. She was listing about looking like she would topple all the while, wielding a beer bottle in her hand all the while.

When we caught up to her, she was holding court with some young-uns up in a tree. As Skye approached, the giraffe-like creature beaconed her and quiered, "Do you like to climb trees? This is a wonderful tree to climb. Do want to join us?"

It was like a scene from "Alice and Wonderland"

Skye was captivated.

And then off to see the aerial art shows, one of our main objectives of the day.

How does she do that?

This odd faerie had also been up in the hoop, but because of the angle of the sun and such, I never was able to get a proper shot.

After the aerial hoop performance all we had to do was turn a few degrees to be treated to a kaleidoscope of musical acts.

There were several really fun, eclectic bands. Do I remember any of their names now? So sorry.

The truth is that the costume choices of the crowd were at least as interesting and evocative as those of the shows.



Faux fur was all the rage. Sometimes it work, sort of, I guess




Other times it didn't work.

When it got dark the performances got really wild. My descriptions wouldn't do them justice, too magical, too surreal, too long ago for my fading memory.

But I will cast out words and bits of images that come to my mind;

pole dancing more like pole stunts on a 30ft pole, electrical tape as clothing, stilt walking creatures born of Sesame Street and Tim Burton, fire dancing, aerial arts and aerial dance, mad skills, mad costumes

I tried to take a picture but .....




We were all awed and struck in different ways, but also exhausted and headed out just a little before mid-night.

We saw these during the day, but they took on an entirely different life by night.

Farewell Beautiful Festival

Where Does the Time Go?

It's been almost a month since we were at Lightning in a Bottle. I was able to get a post out about our first hour there, but that just barely touched the surface.

Since then, I've worked more as a set dresser than I have for the last 12 years, granted for ten of those I was a Set Decorator and by our Union's rules I couldn't have been a set dresser even if I wanted to. In fact, I am writing this from a pretty funky hotel in Parker, Arizona where I'm staying while I work on a train unit shooting just the the other side of the border, California's that is.

Then of course was the chicken/rooster Odyssey, which has calmed but by no means is over. Plus there is a ton of gardening and "farming"

But......time to recap Lightning in a Bottle. Or at least get us through the day and to just before it gets dark when LIB takes on an entirely different life.

Lightning in a Bottle--Part 2

After running into our friend Leslie, we realized that we hadn't eaten and headed out in search of food .




Skye and Cindy are camped out under this lovely shade structure while I forage for beer.

Chillin

After refueling we were ready to explore. There were several eco-workshops that I was interested in. They were in the nether regions of the festival and it was quite a hike to get there.

So up we hiked to the Sustainability Stage and the Temple of Consciousness. A lot of the workshops and speakers I had really wanted to see were on Friday and Saturday, but there was a speaker on Permaculture which I was interested in.




It turned out to be a pretty basic, very 101 introduction into the field which I had already researched, so unfortunately it was too basic for me and the speakers, well.....

So we left the Sustainability Stage and headed to the Temple of Consciousness.



Talks of astral travel and such was a little too fringe for me, rather it was not the fringe that I inhabit, so back to the Woogie Stage we went.

The cool human hamster ball had made it's way to a more central field with the addition of helpful instruction by way of a stiltmaster.

I have always love stiltwalkers and these were among the more creative and fun group of them. I am mesmerized.

We spent the next several hours hanging out in this area. Listening to music, people watching, someone had put up a slackline like the one we have, so we jumped on that and tried to play and impress.

As it started heating up and the DJs spun a water truck showered the crowd.



This was our audience as we attempted to cross and master the slackline. As you can imagine it was a supportive and understanding group.

To Be Continued.......