Garage Sale Weekend

Lyndsey assured me that it was time to start getting rid of some of the extra junk we have been accumulating and moving around with us. For example three window AC units that we brought out from Texas. We are in San Diego, by the beach, we do not need the those any more. Plus we had allot of extra junk we have collected from our stores and offices over the past 8 years.

We decided to ask our front neighbor if we could have the sale in his yard because we live in an alley house. We knew that we would get more traffic if we were on a street. He was fine with that so we got an early start. Lyndsey had everything ready to go at around 6:30 am. This is important because you get allot of your migrant shoppers first thing in the morning. At around 8 am you start to get some neighbor shoppers then around 10 am you start to get some younger family shoppers. We wrapped up the event at around noon, and afterward continued on with the rest our Saturday chores ie. going to the beach and relaxing.

Overall it was a success as we got to unload some of our junk to our neighbors around our community and south of the border. It was pretty funny to us that we actually got a couple of complaints from our patrons. People would actually complain about what you had and didn't have to sale to them. It reminded us of an old quote that we read in a retail book about people called "Why We Buy" by Paco Underhill. It said that 1 out of 5 people are natural complainers. They will complain about everything, even when there is no reason to complain. The book went on to say that if you are not getting one out of five patrons complaining about your prices then your prices are to low. In retail that is good to know, during a garage sale you just have to laugh quietly to yourself . Having worked in the service industry for a number of years I can agree with this statement. Spoiled kids grow into spoiled adolescents that grow into spoiled adults. I remember seeing grown men in their 30's act like un-diciplined 5 year olds for no other reason then to get their way. This reminds me of the truth found in an Hebrew Proverb, "Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child." Our Garage Sale complainers were not so bad, just a couple of old dudes in cars so full of junk that you couldn't tell where the vehicle ended and the junk began. They informed Lyndsey that this was a girly garage sell, one even called it a foo foo sell. They probably felt that way because of all the old books and jewelry she was selling and lack of tools and hardware I was holding onto. She told them AC units were pretty manly and so were our old
computer cords and accessories. I think that they were taken away by her determination because she actually managed to sell something to both of them.

Some Fun Little Waves

We finally got some fun little waves a week ago so Lyndsey & Judah decided to come down to the cliffs and snap some shots of me trying to surf.

It was pretty small but I manged to get in a couple of turns. Lyndsey caught this sequence on small chest high wave.

Now it will be easier to pay rent next month knowing that we had some fun
surf.

Hanging Out

We added a few extra perches in the chicken coop so that the chickens could get off of the ground if they wanted.

Every morning we catch them hanging out on their new perches. They like to sit up as high as they can and cluck away at each other. So far they have been quite a treat. We are expecting our first set of eggs in the next month or so. Can't wait.

Big Fat Stinker

So our dog likes to eat. Well that might be an understatement. Our dog, likes to eat allot. He likes to eat so much that if he finds food he will eat as much of it that he can until he gets sick. Then he mopes around and wines for a couple of days until his body digests and passes everything he just devoured. We have learned to add locks/latches to all of our cabinets because Fatso, aka. Judah, will wait until he is home alone and then help himself to anything he can get his paws on. In one week he devoured, three loaves of bread, a couple of packs of tortillas and two bags of chips. We finally agreed we were losing this battle so we figured out how to latch the cabinets shut with a loose nail. Once he couldn't get into our pantry anymore he started to look for new options. We keep some extra kibble on hand, just in case we run out of raw food for him, and he found out how to get to that. This was a little more complicated because not only did he figure out how to open the bottom cabinet, but he also figured out how to undo two latches on the Tupperware container to get his food out. All this from a dog that doesn't know the command STAY for longer than 10 seconds. So that's all cute and annoying, especially when you have to hear him moan and groan as he embarks upon a night of having to empty his bowls twice an hour for the next 12 hours.

The other day our folks were in town visiting from Oklahoma. Now Judah and his Gammy (Lyndsey's mom) have a special relationship. He likes her so much that whenever she is in town he manages to forget everything that he has learned and turn into a Anarchist puppy, complete with wagging tale and mad slobber. It is when Gammy is in town that his skill level as an Anarchist dog goes up a couple of notches. In the past he has taken drugs by helping himself to her meds, learned the art of opening a refrigerator without a thumb, and also learned how to unpack Gammy's bag that just might have some food, treats or more drugs in it. As soon as he hears her voice his ears perk and he goes into overdrive, so needless to say it wasn't too much of a surprise that he figured out how to brake into the cabinet and managed to eat over 5 lbs of his dog food the day she got in.

Now, believe it or not, but this post isn't even really about our Anarchist dog and his neurotic relationship with his Gammy. This post is about what happened the night we had to leave the back door open so he could use the bathroom without having to wake us up. We said goodnight to the folks and then went to lay down ourselves around 10pm. At about 12am we start to hear dog crying form outside. We got up to see what it was and Judah decided to hop the gate and climb up to the roof, even though he had no way of getting down. A little adventurous for a sick dog, but whatever, we have yet to mistake him for being too smart or anything like that. After lying down for another hour we start to hear him barking around 1am. Lyndsey jumped up to see what it was then all of the sudden I heard the back door slam. He got sprayed by a skunk, and everything was starting to smell. This wasn't the first time this happened so we knew not to let him into the house. Now it was tough luck for the Puppy, he was going to spend the rest of the night outside.

Later on that night, or early the next morning, we decided to check on him. He had spent a good portion of the night trying to rub the oil off of his face, so his face was covered in Mud. He looked kind of cute but more pathetic. We walked him around the house to the hose and started washing him. Now we learned last time that tomato juice just doesn't work. So don't use it it is a waist of time. The only thing that it does is cover the smell to you. You may feel after a few hours that the skunk smell is gone, but if a friend comes over they can assure you that not only does your house reek like skunk, but it also reeks like tomato juice as well. The best thing to use we have found is a home made concoction of 1 Quart of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (fresh and unopened). 1/4 cup of Baking Soda. 1 teaspoon of Liquid Soap. We wash him while mixture is still bubbling. Then we rinse him water and repeat if necessary. This mixture is good for around 20 minutes before the chemicals start loosing their power. We gave him a couple of baths around 10 minutes apart and the smell pretty mush dissipated that morning. Unfortunately for us he managed to find where the skunk sprayed in the yard and rubbed in it again later that afternoon, but that wasn't nearly as bad as the actual spray itself.

Sunset at the Cliffs

The waves have been pretty small for the most part with the exception of a a few days of chest to head high sets.

Whenever we have time it is nice for us to take a quick trip down to the Sunset Cliffs to check out the sunset while we let the wild animal run around. The Sunset Cliffs is a state park that is a couple of mile from our house. It extends for a few mile stretch south of Ocean Beach and dead ends into the Point Loma Nazarene University. Lyndsey likes to run from our house to the end of the road which is around a 5 mile trek there and back. The park has a number of beaches and reef's to hang out at or explore. When the tide is super low, which happens a couple of days a month, we like to explore the beaches with Judah. You can walk for miles down the beach until you start to get nervous about being stranded on a beach if the tide decides to turn and come up to fast.

When the North West swells come in a few weeks the cliffs will start to light up with some fun waves. The set up at the Sunset Cliff's is ideal for surfing. The point blocks allot of the wind, and the kelp bed about a 1/2 mile off the beach keeps down the wind chop. This leaves the conditions glassy, which is ideal for surfing, while many of the other spots are blown out. The Sunset Cliff's got its name for the fact that this is where the cliffs dump into the sea. There a few scattered beaches but for the most part it is just cliff and reef. This makes getting in and out of the water a little tricky with options changing with the tides. Entry into some some of waves consists of jumping off of a cliff into the water. This can get a little harry if you do not know what you are doing. Timing and wave knowledge can make it a fun easy entry, lack there of can get a little messy. Getting in is the easy part, getting out is a whole another monster. I've had to paddle 1/2 mile up or down the beach at times to find a place to get out. Needless to say many of the spots are not for beginners which assists with crowd control on big days.

Garden Chronicles :: Chapter 8

Garden Warfare

Every thing was pretty standard, or so we thought, in our yard and garden for the past month. All of the vegetables and animals seemed to be living and growing in harmony with each other. The western garden plot continued to thrive with tomatoes, peppers & eggplants while the newer civilized eastern plot was doing well with larger plants like corn, pumpkin and some artichokes. Everything was growing and budding at what seemed to be an accelerated rate until the day our garden was infiltrated by a foreign substance.

A few weeks ago one of the pumpkin plants decided to take a different path and surpass all of the other plants. Not only did it take over most of garden plot number 2, but it expanded outside of the garden territory and began taking over parts of the yard and walkway as well. We got excited thinking about all the pumpkin pie we could make in November if it continued to prosper, so we gave it more attention and began arming it with every thing it needed. Two large pumpkins started to develop near our walkway, we call them the survivors, and we watched their every move. Shortly after three other baseball size pumpkin buds started to appear on the opposite side of the plot.

We let the pumpkin take over the garden, arming it as it invaded and at times even demolished other plants and their plots. With the help of the crazy hens and their daily invasions of clearing out insects or any other foreign invaders, the pumpkin continued to grow at such an accelerated rate that we didn't even notice the trouble developing in one of its new regions. Some of the smaller, younger leaves started allowing mold, like a new ideology grow on their leaves. The mold became aggressive and shortly after, some of the older leaves were under attack. Within a few days the mold started to take over the entire plant. Not knowing what it was, we thought the leaves were drying out due to a lack of nutrition and did exactly what we should have not done. We began arming it with more nutrients and supplies by watering it more. Unfortunately for the plant the mold was able to ambush much of the nutrients, making it stronger and more aggressive, while the plant got weaker. With its supplies cut off it was nearly impossible for the plant to fight off its new friend turned foe.

It took about two weeks before every melon origin plant in both plots had taken to the mold. This included the cantaloup region, the cucumber, of coarse the squash and zucchini, even some of the younger tomatoes got involved. Once the mold takes over it pretty much cuts the life supply to the fruit. All of the new buds on the pumpkin plant with the exception of the survivors fell in battle. We continued to let the pumpkins grow for another week before admitting that the mold had changed the rules of garden warfare. Soon both plots looked like a war zone and our once beautiful edible landscaping started to look like Baghdad 2003. Finally after coming to the realization that the mold had won, we decided to pull the plug and harvest what we could.

This wasn't a total disaster, all of our peppers, corn, artichokes and greens seemed to survive the attack. Some of the stronger older tomatoes did as well. I think they have more acid in their leaves which helps fight it off. Our egg plants survived the mold also, but their leaves look like Swiss cheese after an entirely different attack from a swarm of terrorist bugs of an unknown region. They seem to be strong and grounded so they continue to put out fruit. We will continue to keep supplying them aid on a close watch.

After spending time educating myself on the habits and nature of our new enemy I have learned that mold is pretty common adversary to the Pumpkin plants. Since this happened we are taking steps to avoid it coming back. One of the first things we are going to do is start watering our garden from the ground and not from above with sprinkler. Not only will this help conserve water by reducing run-off, but it will help the leaves stay dry, and not give the enemy the ideal environment it needs to spread. If we see any signs of the mold returning in the future, which we most likely will, we will remove it as soon as possible. They also have organic sprays that claim to kill the mold if we can catch it in time. I don't know if they work but I will find out next season.

Garden Chronicles :: Chapter 7

Garden Plot Numero dos is taking off.

The pumpkin plant has gotten ridiculously huge, it has moved on past taking over the garden and now it taking over the yard. That is just fine with Blanch as she loves to get out of her pen and go to work looking for bugs or worms.

The corn is also going off in the second plot. Looking at this picture I now understand why the straight edgers and skins called me and my surfer/skater buddies 'corn heads' when we were younger.

Horse Trough Hot Tub

It was time to put a soaking tub in the back yard. This way we can enjoy ourselves, the yard and the sun all while soaking in a tub of warm water.

We picked up a 160 gallon horse trough at the feed store last week when we picked up more food for the hens. This size is just big enough to fit two people comfortably, which is perfect since there are no dogs aloud in the tub. Once we got it home we decided that it would go best right outside of our office nook, next to the chicken coop. We then raised it off of the ground a little and added a few extra touches like bamboo fence and a step to make it look nicer. This is just the start, we want to do a little more, we will just wait for pieces to start showing up in the alleys.

To heat the water and make this a hot tub we added a pump that will push the water from the hot tub up to the roof. On the roof we have about a 30 gallon 8" PVC pipe that is 6ft long. It was an extra piece that came with the boat. We painted it black with Rustoleam to help it soak up the sun and heat the water. The pump pushes cold water from the bottom of the tub up to the roof and into one side of the tube, then gravity pulls down hot water from the the other side of the tube. To keep the water clean we use a mixture of 35% Hydrogen Peroxide. This is a h220 combination that releases an extra oxygen molecule once it mixes with he water. This kills any algae that wants to grow in the tub. We have yet to get a thermometer for the tub, but our ghetto solar heating actually makes it quite pleasant, especially after a morning of surfing in the cold California water.

Garden Chronicles: Chapter 6

Casualty, Men Down! I have been watching my two celebrities coming in for two months now. They have even been featured in two posts with their magnificent girth and beauty. Apparently I wasn't the only one keeping an eye on their slow maturity. Four days ago they started to turn orange. No Bugs, No Worms, No cracks. Three days ago they started to get rosy cheeks as the orange began to slowly change to a red. Two days ago they began to turn almost all red, with another day left of maturity. I watered the plot with worm tea, brewed from worm castings, just to give the roots another boost of energy to focus pushing nutrients on to their fruit. Then yesterday we went to pull them and STOP.



What was the mysterious creature? Did it just happen into them at the perfect time? I doubt it. That means that this was premeditated. Which would most likely mean it will come back.

Was it skunk? I didn't smell anything out of the ordinary.
Was it a Possum? Chickens didn't make as sound
Was it a raccoon? Chickens didn't make as sound
Was it gofer? No trace of gofer holes anywhere.
Was it a chupacabra? Hmmmmm

Captains Log :4: Sail Repair

We have been taking the boat out, checking on its performance a couple of times a week until we had our first incident. It actually wasn't to big a problem, but it did remind us that we are operating an old vessel that will have it's own issues. We were sailing as close as we could to the wind, seeing how far the boat would keel before losing speed and all of the sudden we started to hear a ripping sound, then in the matter of seconds the boom came crashing down with the bottom half of the main sail attached to it, and the top half of the sail flapping in the wind. The front halyard sail was still full of wind so we did not lose any speed until we turned out of the wind to access our damage. Sure enough the main sail had ripped on seam, and we were stuck with our first sail repair.



After doing a little research on the internet, we came up with the best approach for repairing the seam. We learned that there are a number of different ways to attack the job, fortunately for us we have a production room with cutting tables and heavy duty sewing machines at our warehouse, so we decided to take the main off of the boom and take into our shop. The next steps were taken as follows:

1. Insure cloth is salt-free and dry. Treat with alcohol to displace moisture, if necessary. Remove old thread pieces.

2. Pin out seam in original shape. Use needle holes, wear pattern, etc. to re-establish the original relationship of cloth edges. If the seam is not split yet, but is in danger of coming apart, FIX IT NOW! To do so, run pencil along seam edge, draw strike-off marks, then pull the seam apart and remove the broken threads.

3. Pin the seam out and put double stick tape on the bottom layer of cloth, pull off paper backer, and lay top cloth in place. When you are sure it is lined up correctly (no ripples in one layer, even tension on both pieces, ends of seams are same lengths as original), press top cloth down firmly smoothing cloth into place.

4. If sewing by hand, sew / / / / /, then back in opposite direction, using original holes, to form a zigzag stitch. This allows the stitch line to stretch with the cloth. If necessary, punch holes through thick areas of cloth with an awl. Use the awl to mark off holes at regular intervals of 1/4" or 3/8" for even stitching. Use appropriately strong thread, doubled if necessary. Pull tension on each stitch as you sew. If sewing by machine, sew seam, using original stitch holes if possible.

5. Cover repairs with adhesive-backed cloth tape if seam is in a high chafe area.

Once we finished the repairs, we brought the sail back to the boat, put it back on the boom and off we were chasing the wind around the bay again.

Garden Chronicles :: Chapter 5

So far all of our garden plots are doing great. The celebrity tomatoes in our first plot are getting huge.

Our second (new) garden plot is taking off as well. It is hard to believe that we planted it only two weeks ago. We have a pumpkin plant that is taking over the entire South West wing of the garden plot.

Because we decided that we wanted to do an organic garden, we have yet to use any insecticides or growth hormones on our plants. Nor have they needed them. We just open up the chicken coop and let the girls do their thing.

They know how to climb in and out of their coop when the door is open to make their way into the garden.

Once they are in the garden the start foraging around for worms and insects.

When they are all done gardening they will make there way back their coop, climb back in and relax.

 

Captains Log :3: First Mate

We have been going into work earlier the past couple of days, so we can get can get off early and go sailing. The waves have been flat, but the wind has been blowing. Today we sailed down wind to Coronado Bridge, and then tacked back to our marina. It was an amazing and beautiful afternoon out on the water.

Word apparently is out that we are looking for a first mate, the competition is looking pretty fierce.

Captains Log :2: First Voyage

Yesterday was the day we moved our boat to its new home. It was still at Driscoll Boat yard and we needed to sail it out of Mission bay, around Point Loma, and into it's slip at Marina Cortez in San Diego Harbor. Everything worked fine, which was quite a relief.

The red line plots the course of our first voyage together as a family. We left the dock in Mission Bay around 9am and got to our new slip around 2pm. The winds were a light SE 10k wind. Which made for smooth sailing. The sky was overcast with a coastal Eddie till around 12pm. The total voyage took around 5 hours. It was just Lyndsey and I and we had a very nice time.

This is a view from the ocean of the beach town we live in, Ocean Beach. That is OB Pier and Point Loma in the back ground. Notice the seals on the buoy. This is pretty common. I like to think of them as the marina guardians, but most probably think of them as the harbor scavengers. If you leave a boat sitting to long by itself in the harbor. They might take it over.

This is a view of the Pinnacle, where Cabrillo National Monument and the Light House are on Point Loma.

And this is where the boats new home is at slip H49 in Marna Cortez.

OB Parrots

So we live by an airport, and planes fly by. You actually get use to it, the loud sound of the planes and all. You just learn to stop your conversations, or turn up the volume on your ipod and wait for it to pass. We have another loud shrieking sound that we hear as well, but this is not from a plane or a man made 747. These screeches come from what the locals call the OB Parrots.

Rumor has it many years ago someone released five parrot's into the wild. Well, years went by and they advanced their kind, now there is well over 100 of them. They, like many other creatures have made Ocean Beach San Diego their home.

They are pretty birds, with distinct green and red feathers, but most people can't stand them. That is when they post up on the telephone wires outside your house at 6:30 AM and like a military regiment call start screeching away at full boar. I personally get a kick out of it because I am already up and running or working, but I get the feeling that most of the laid back neighbors may not.

They always travel in pairs or groups. This guy and his gal were hitting up the sunflowers early.

 

Captains Log :1: Free Boat

It is hard for me to believe that ten years ago I was working on sail boats in a what use to be a small fishing village in Costa Rica. The plan at the time was to get a 6 pack captains license and work on boats for the rest of my life. Then I changed my mind and changed directions for a few years. I moved to Texas and opened a Vintage Clothing Store. The idea was that instead of working on other peoples boats, maybe one day I could have one of my own. Fast forward ten years. Fall in love, get married, move back and forth from San Diego to Dallas, ups and downs with business, a dog, fish, chickens, back in the waves with home grown salad mixes. And this week we got a boat.

A 25ft 73 American Sail boat. The manufacturer is a company named American. They are no longer in business but the were known for making good boats. They have a fancy step down into the keel in the cabin adding another 6 inches of head room, if you need it, when you are standing in the cabin.

We picked it up from Driscol boat yard because the price was right. The previous owner pulled it out of the water to paint the bottom. While it was out of the water it ran up quite a bill at the boat yard so the old owner skipped town and left the yard his boat. Two years later the owners of the yard want to use the space and needed to get rid of the boat. They would of like to of sold it for more that then we got it for.

The motor is a Mercury Force 50 Power out board. It is a little bit of an overkill for a sailboat this size so we are up in the air about what to do with it. I could hook it up and be able to motor anywhere I wanted. Or I could try to sale it for on Craigs List, buy a smaller motor and invest the rest into the boat. Seeing how it is a sailboat we most likely will just sale the motor.

We splashed it on Friday, and started cleaning it out. There was a lot of junk from the previous owner.

It is on a pier at the boat yard still. We have till Tuesday to move it. We are going to take over slip at Marina Cortez in San Diego Harbor on the first of the month.

We have enough work to keep us busy for quite some time, but she could be ready to sail by next weekend. It will depend on if I want to sand and paint the mast now or later.

The cabin has all the essentials for cruising or a live aboard. It has a burner, a spot for a fridge, a sink, a head, a bed and more. We are so excited about doing day trips and weekend cruises on this boat. We know that it will be a lot of time and work, however it will also be rewarding to have a boat in San Diego. We sit an watch the ocean every day from our balcony, it will be nice for us to get back out there.

Chicken Wing

The chickens are coming along just fine so far.

We finally finished their coop and opened up the coop house for them to start exploring.

Blanch, the Plymouth Rock, so far is still the friendliest and most adventurous of the three.

She will eat straight from your hands. She actually got the other two to come around to eating from our hands as well. Kind of like the trend setter for the group.

Rose, the Rhode Island Red, is the second friendliest. She is also the sneakiest when it comes to snaking food from you hands. She pals around with Dorothy, the Golden Laced Wyndot. Dorothy appears to be the leader of the crew, however she is the most timid and afraid when it comes to being held.

This is a view of Rose leaving the Coop house, down to the run.

All three of the little ladies practicing laying eggs in their house.

 

Garden Chronicles :: Chapter 4

Well allot of growing up has been taking place over here at casa de Coburn, or at least we tend to think so. Things have been growing fast. Every day we are having meals from our garden. Sometimes it might just be some greens for a burrito, other times we will have a entire meal.

Everything is coming in just perfect.

I think that one of the funniest things about our edible landscaping, is that we actually do not have that much room work with. I mean our yard is half the size of other yards that we have had in the past, but for some reason it just works out so fine. So fine that after enjoying the first rounds of the fruits of our labor, we decided to set up another garden plot.

The new garden spot we put where our wild flower mix was growing. All of the wild flowers ran their coarse, so when they started to fade out we began making plans for what we would do next. We decided to extend the planter into the yard almost doubling the original size of the planter for another garden. Then we worked the soil. Worked the soil some more, and then added the compost to the soil. We worked the compost about 6-10 inches into the original soil, and then toped it off with 4 inches of straight compost.

We ended up enclosing our entire garden with a 16" chicken wire fence to keep out the predators. We also added a brick around the entire garden for eye candy.

This is a view from our roof deck looking down into the yard at the two garden plots. In another month and a half it will be time to start turning over the first garden plot. At that time the second plot will begin yielding its veggies. We are hoping to work both plots simultaneously giving us a continual supply of vegetables throughout each season.

This is what the view from our front door looks like.

We also cleaned out a plot across our yard that has some nice succulents and palms. This spot gets minimal sunlight however these plants do well in the shade and need only a little water to survive. Leaving most of our watering for the edible plants.

We decided to use the scraps from one of our palms to finish off a hanging basket in our hanging garden. Then we planted basil in it. Yummy.

 

To Have Or Have Not

One of my friends asked me the other day if I noticed any changes in my life not having a television set around. You see 6 months ago Lyndsey and I got rid of our TV, or opted out of getting a new one since our old one kicked the bucket. To be 100% honest, we still have a small television set hidden away in our guest bedroom to watch movies on. It might actually get reception on 1 or 2 of the channels on a clear day, but besides that we are TV free. I thought about the question and then was slightly amazed myself when I began to answer it.

I remember a few years back I had an old business partner that told me now that I was married I needed to get cable, and go ahead and get the premium package with all the movie channels, because that is what you do when you get married, you watch TV. Prior to that I had pretty much avoided having cable television for about 5 years. I fell for it like most young newlyweds do, assuming that is how you spend time hanging out with your spouse. I mean when I was younger that is how I spent time hanging out with my siblings when I was aloud to, why not my wife. At least when I was a child I had a mother that limited the amount of television we watched and made sure that we got outside during the day to burn some much needed child energy. Now that I was an adult, I needed to draw my own lines and be aware of my own limitations. I needed to ask myself how much TV I should or shouldn't allow myself to watch. Like many mindless habits, days go by, months go by and then years go by before you stop to realize how consumed you actually have become. The pushers in this case (Networks/Advertisers) don't want the consumers (you & I) to break our habits (addictions) and stop using their product (Television). Once we do, we might all start thinking for ourselves.

"According to Veronis Suhler Stevenson's Communications Industry Forecast and Report, quoted by the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2003, the average American spent 1,745 hours watching television, which works out to 145 hours a month. That's more than six complete days in front of the TV. each month." I am sure that as much as I would like to think that I was not one of those mindless drones, I am as guilty as the next person. I use the term Mindless Drone, because that is actually what happens to a person when they watch TV.

"The longer a person watches television, the more likely they are to be put into a trans-like state and the more likely that their minds will slip into alpha mode. Alpha is the term used by scientist who study brainwave activity for a noncognitive, passive, receptive mode. While in alpha the mind is open for information to be placed into it. One of the reasons that the mind slips into alpha mode while watching television is due to the lack of eye movement while watching television. Because most television screens are relatively small, very little eye movement is required to absorb all of the images on the screen. There is a direct correlation between eye movement and thought stimulation. While one’s mind is in alpha mode, it is being taken advantage of by advertisers who are using the mind’s receptive mode to instill a desire for their product in the viewer. The only reason that television programs exist is to sell them to advertisers who want to show their advertisements to the mass of people watching television. The average American sees approximately 21,000 commercials per year. That’s 21,000 carefully planned and thought out messages repeating their message to you, buy something now! "

The results of giving up something that has such an effect on ones mind and time can be overwhelming. At first we didn't notice any big differences, only subtle changes when we stopped using TV. I started to find myself reading and writing more, as well as playing more of my guitar. After a while I subconsciously started new projects around my house. The first ones were minor like fixing up some of the surf boards in my quiver. I hadn't done my own ding repair in years because I didn't think I had the time. Next we got a fish tank up and going. It seams that watching the fish can put us in the same mindless alpha mode, but so far only one of the fish is trying to control our thought process. Since we had to start changing out the fish water weekly we started a garden and that is when then things started really piling up. After a couple of months, with 6 extra days a month of free time, we really began to see some obvious changes. Organic garden plots, composters, rideable surfboards, new songs, chicken coops, backyard hens, good books, aquaponic gardens are just a few of the changes.

I guess you could say that we started to notice that instead of being major consumers we were slowly becoming more sustainable. Instead of purchasing food that was being advertised to us, we started growing some of our own. Instead of watching adventures on TV, we go out and have adventures of our own. It has now been six months without a television set and we have a whole house and business full of fun projects that keep us looking forward to long summer nights and the weekend. It is almost safe to say that for us, giving up the TV has brought our family back to where things might have been for our grandparents. Before everyone had a television set in their homes, or each room in their home. To answer my friends question, not having a TV around has made both my wife and I less dependent and more independent, less lethargic and more creative, less clouded and more clear.

Bird On A Wire

Since the chicks have been outside in their coop they have been attracting all kinds of new friends

We got these photos the other morning from a line in our yard.

A Night Out On the Town

The chicken coop is almost done, or at least 95.76% of the way there. Last week we built the doors and secured down the latches. The chicks are getting so big we decided to go ahead and move them into the coop. Last night was their first night out on their own. The only thing we have left to do with the coop is to finish off the coop house. Since the chicks will not be able to reach the coop house for another couple of weeks we decided to build them a make shift shanty with a hodge podge ceiling and card board walls. It slightly resembles some of the places the Indians lived in in Baja when I was a child. This way they can get out of the weather elements and stay warm under the light.

We didn't think that they were going to get much sleep became of the insects attracted to the light. It was actually quite entertaining for us last night watching them hunt down files, June bugs and anything else that dared enter their layer. We have learned that they are all very good hunters as they can catch a fly in mid flight. So needless to say clumsy flying beetles stand a slim chance of survival. Once one catches an insect, the games begin. They don't just sit there and eat it quietly, but actually quite the opposite. The one who catches it will start chirping and running around the coop trying to play keep away from the others. We think that they learned this game from our dog Judah, we know he likes to fancy himself as the 'King' when it comes to the game of keep away.

We checked on them a couple time last night just to make sure nothing else found it's way in the coop with them. I had read one of the most upsetting things about owning a pet chicken is if something gets to them in their coop. Owners get so attached to their hens that it becomes difficult to raise them again after finding what a cat or raccoon does to them if they get in the coop. I took every precaution I could to make sure that they are in good and safe. Since this is our first coop, I can only hope that I took it a little overboard.

I was glad to see that they were all fine the next morning.

So was Judah.