Walk Through the Neighborhood

With the ice storms and nasty weather across many parts of the US today we knew that we had something to be thankful for on our walk this beautiful San Diego morning.


This is view from the top of our street looking down to the beach.
This is the view to the north looking over Mission Bay and Mt. Soledad.
This is cool succulent on the way to the beach.
We have all kind of trees in our neighborhood. Ranging from palm trees to pine trees.



This is the names of the different waves at our beach break. I normally surf avalanche when it is good.

California Gray Whales

Last Night I joined a friend of mine on one of his dive boats to photograph a whale watching expedition at sunset. Approximately 20,000 gray whales pass San Diego in their 10,000 mile annual migration from the Bering Sea to Baja California this time of year.





We left at around 4pm on the boat Zero Gravity, out of Mission Bay harbor.



The ocean surface was as glassy as it gets, and the views were breathtaking.



















Needless to say the trip was a success.

If you are ever in the San Diego Area Contact Dive Connections to book Your Trip.

Twas The Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas....... and all through the house, Creatures were stirring, swimming, barking and pecking. That would be our Dog, Judah, His new friend Marley, 6 gold fish, three hens, our 1 beta fish Action Jackson, and his two new friends Tupac & Franz.

This Christmas since we decided to stay home, we ended up taking on a few new creatures for friends that were going out of town. Two friends asked us to watch their beta fish, we said OK.

Then Lyndsey found a young couple on craigslist that was looking for a family to take in their dog over the holiday so that he wouldn't have to end up in a kennel. We always hated putting Judah in a kennel, so we decided to see if him and Marley would get along.

It turns out that they did, so Judah has a buddy to hang out with. Marley is three year old chocolate Labrador. He is already 90 lbs, so he is quite a bit bigger than Judah. At least he stands a lot taller. He is a joy to have around, even though he is crazy dog. He actually makes Judah seemed pretty laid back and relaxed, which is odd. The biggest difference is Marley is only three, and a three year old lab still acts very much like a puppy. Where Judah is now 5, so he is a couple of years out of the crazy puppy stage.

We are blessed because Judah is very good around the hens. He acts like they are not even around when they are in the yard together. This is probably due to the fact that Judah watched the hens grow from little chicks. Marley on the hand is all Bird Dog. When he spots the hens he tries to hunt them. You can't blame him, because it's in his blood, it just helps us appreciate the relationship Judah has with them.

Fish Tank Water Is Good For Plants

We have had our Gold Fish tank going for about 9 months now. The tank sits directly outside our living room window. So that we can enjoy our fish from inside the house as well in our outdoor over hang area. Now if you don't know much about fish than you probably didn't know that gold fish are cold water fish. That means that they actually do well outside in the winter time. The only thing that we have to be careful of is their water getting to warm in the summer months. To avoid this we drop big frozen jugs of water into their tank to stabilize the water temp when it gets to warm. Gold fish are also dirty fish. Which means that they go the bathroom allot, making the tank conditions livable only for gold fish. One thing that you need to do to maintain a safe environment is to clean out the tank every 10 days or so. The good thing is that Fish tank water is a great natural fertilizer. It's loaded with fish droppings and plants love the mix. I have heard it said before, " Gold fish water is Gold for plants."
So now a couple of times a months when we clean out the tank, we poor the water straight into our garden. We generally fill a 5 gallon bucket twice, replacing next to 40% of the water. So that is enough water for the entire garden, all the house plants, and what is left of our lawn.

Balance

The chickens often watch us through the window perched on our outdoor rocker. It's as if we are now on display while they watch us in our cage.

Holiday Gathering

We decided to have some friends over Saturday night to celebrate Christmas early. Lyndsey made some snacks and some desserts for the festivity. The weather held up, although it was a little cool for Southern California standards. Which means it may have been in the 50's.
It was nice to visit with everyone, exchange some gifts and play some games. One of the games we played was a name game that Lyndsey's Dad taught us. Basically you write down a bunch of random names on blank sheets of paper. The names have to be recognizable like Oprah, Mr. T or Super Man. Then each person gets a name taped to their back. For the next 5 minutes - an hour, depending on how good you are at it, you go around asking people Yes and No questions about the name on your back until you can guess who it is. Now normally I am not too much into playing games, but one like this was actually allot of fun. Everyone wished that we had more names so they could keep playing on even after they guessed theirs.

Under Water Nativity Scene

Christmas time in San Diego. We are going to stay home this year for Christmas and spend it on the boat. We would love to visit family, but we figured this year traveling during the holidays may not be the most economical. So Lyndsey wasted no time decorating the house with all kinds of Christmas decor. Trees, lights, stockings, lights, garnish, lights, quilts, cups, towels, music on the stereo you name it. Yes, trees is plural. We have a real tree for inside the house, and a fake tree for the chickens outside. So it should not be a surprise to note that even the fish got a nativity scene to spread a little holiday cheer into their environment. This actually set up an interesting scenario for us when we were watching the fish the other night. One of the fish, Ginger, the big white one, was turned away from the scene and her fan fins opened up resembling something that looked like wings. Around the same time the Christmas carol, "Angels we have heard on high, something..something... " was playing on the stereo. I mentioned it to Lyndsey and now we both got a kick out of watching the fish swim around the Nativity scene.

Missing White Labrador With Yellow Ears

Monday morning I started to unload the van, after the Turkey Trot weekend, of all the camping gear and leftover food. It was pretty early in the morning so Judah didn't have his collar on, which is normally not a big deal. However this particular morning Judah decided that while I unloaded the van, he would sneak out and see if he could find some free food or handouts in the alley. As I was unloading the van, Lyndsey woke up, so I spent a little time visiting with her since I had been gone all weekend. After a cup of coffee or two I asked Lyndsey if she new where Judah was. She had no idea, and that is when it set in, he's out.
Normally this isn't that big of a deal, a neighbor finds him, reads his collar and returns him home. This has happened twice since our San Diego House, and a handful of times at other places. This time he didn't have his collar on, so we were unsure of what could happen.
We assumed that a neighbor had to of picked him up, because no one else in the area had seen him. However, we still spent all day devastated as we searched the neighborhood calling out his name and putting out signs. We even called the local vets, making sure that he hadn't been hit by a car or dropped off, as well as the local pound. No one had any idea of his whereabouts but they all took our information just in case he showed up. Now Judah has a microchip, so we hoped that whoever had him would at least turn him in where they could scan him and see who is owners were. Our big fear was that whoever found him, would find out how sweet he is and claim him as their own. Believe it or not this apparently happens quite a bit.
We hoped that whoever picked him up would either take him to be scanned or see our signs and give us a call, but when no one called that day or night we silently began to expect the worst. Monday night was a long night, as Judah had still not returned and we had no idea where he was. We wanted to believe that he was alright, but deep down inside we didn't know what to think.
I was up around 4 am Tuesday morning and began my search again for him, as well as posting up more fliers. Lyndsey resumed the search again at 7am and began posting large poster type fliers on the busy intersections next to our house.
I finally called my dad to let him know that Judah was gone and to see if he could say something that might make me feel better, then all of the sudden Lyndsey's phone rang around 8:30 am. She was still out putting up signs so I took the call. It was a neighbor about 5 houses down the alley that found Judah cruising the alley the day before. The neighbor noticed that he had no collar on, and that it was morning rush hour, so he and his wife took Judah in so he wouldn't wander into the street. They had three male dogs of their own that befriended Judah. So while we were at home worrying about where he was, he was off playing at puppy daycare. That night apparently Judah cried all night, and the neighbors knew he had to be close to home. The next morning they saw are signs and called.
We are so glad to have him back. It is amazes me how attached we can become to our pets. We have learned allot from this incident and hope to take the necessary precautions so that this doesn't happen again. One thing we are going to do is make sure that he gets a permanent collar that does not come off anymore. If he insists on leaving the house in search of snacks, at least we can rest assured that whoever finds him will know where to bring him back to.

Turkey Trot Weekend

This past weekend I took off for our annual Turkey Trot Weekend. It is a surf trip that some friends put together over 10 years ago. Kind of like of guy's hunting or fishing trip, except the only thing we are hunting is good waves.

The Turkey Trot always happens the weekend before Thanks Giving. It has been at a few different locations, however the four years that I have attended have been at Jalama Beach. Jalama Beach is a beautiful State beach located between Santa Barbara County & San Louis Obispo County, about 3 hours north of Los Angeles.

The beach is located pretty much right on the Point at Point Conception. This is the point that separates Southern California and Central California.

The waves can be three times bigger on the Northern side of Point Conception then they are on the Southern Side. This means COLD WATER, Heavy Winds & Great White Sharks.

A group of guys from San Clemente, Orange County & San Diego all try to make it each year. This year was a small trip due to allot of the crew getting married and having their first round of kids.

There is railroad trestle that is very picturesque right next to the camp ground.

We scored some pretty solid waves this trip. It wasn't the best trip we have had, as far as waves go, but it certainly wasn't the worst.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.