Thankfulness

I don't take enough time to appreciate just how much of a gift Rigel and Iz are--it's a bit too easy to get caught up in life's routine. I'd like to get better at savoring each moment with these two treasures, and spend less time attempting to balance all our daily details. Beauty is in the details, right? We just have to allow ourselves to be distracted.

Halloween Highlights

Summer Highlights

Though autumn officially begins just shy of a month from now, I am ready-- ready for the cooler weather, fall planting and the fall semester of school (for the kids plus myself). Overall, this has been a satisfying summer... lots of family bonding and fun with friends.

Some lessons learned along the way these past few months:

The messier, the better (when the kids' entertainment is concerned, that is)...

There's always enough time to pull over and enjoy the view (& talk to a goat or two)...

You never know what you may come across on your travels (camels in CA?)...

Firefighters and fireworks are a dangerous combination...

You can never grow out of skinny dipping, pillow fights, or catching frogs, tadpoles & butterflies...

The best meals are improvised (and the more, the merrier!)...

Love knows no boundaries (just ask a preschooler)...

And, no matter how bumpy the road, the beauty's in the details.

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

--John Muir

...the last of our spring garden...

"At the heart of every garden is the perennial cycle that I hesitate to name, 'it is so near to the heart,' of the death and rebirth. Mythologies and cottage wisdom have always linked the span of a human life, or incarnation, with the mysteries of seasons and the soil...my account of life lived on a particular farm is a response to the gesture of a sea breeze or the slap of a rough wind, a language more clearly voiced by catbird or redwing in the cedars, or by the miniature English robin, territorial and eloquent, who would settle on the hilt of my cliff shovel, tiny talons to steel. In that instant, a word appears, as natural as butterfly weed or nettle. And I hear the [ocean] strike sand particle and rock, part of the ground we share, eventual soil." --Scott Chaskey


From that:

To this:

"Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower. "

--Albert Camus

It's about time to clear out the spring vegetables and begin preparing the soil for the cool season crops of autumn. My first experience getting my hands in the dirt proved to be fulfilling to the soul and mind. Here are some tips I learned from trial, error and research:

Organic Vegetable Gardening 101

(according to the Fox Den's experiences this last spring)

Good dirt is essential. Loamy, nutrient-rich soil is the key ingredient to a successful garden (along with the basic essentials of fertilizer, compost, and mulch, there are some other optional soil amendments--such as lime, potash, gypsum, etc.--available as well to prepare your vegetable beds). You can purchase your soil, or you can prepare it yourself...just depends on how much money you want to spend.

Proper seed spacing is almost as important as proper soil--especially to root vegetables such as carrots, radishes, and beets. Click here for a glimpse of improperly spaced root vegetables grown in silty-clay soil (poor-draining soil).

Companion planting is both complicated and simple--it remains an experiment of balancing well-practiced methods of companion planting with your own.

Planting companion flowers within your vegetable garden is as aesthetically pleasing as it is beneficial to the success of your garden. Interweaving flowers such as marigolds, alyssum, yarrow, hyssop, borage, sunflowers and calendula into your vegetable beds is a multi-functional arrangement (which benefits the birds, bees, flowers, trees and you). Alyssum and chamomile are frequent re-seeders; they help break up the soil and add to the organic content. Chamomile activates the composting process, and encourages increased essential oil production for strong herbs such as lavender and rosemary. Hyssop, marigolds, and yarrow attract hoverflies, which eat aphids. Marigolds can be nematocytal if grown as a crop cover and tilled in before the plants get too large; they are also believed to deter pests.

Cucurbits (melons & squash) and legumes (beans, peas & sweet pea flowers) are susceptible to mold. Prevention includes removing all portions of the infected plant at first sign of mold growth, disposing of all moldy leaves and stems (do not recycle to mulch or compost). Spray tops and undersides of leaves, stems and soil with soapy solution (consult local nursery for best advice). Try not to water plants directly (water soil only). Click here to see a variety of environmentally-friendly pest control products.

Brassicas / cruciferous vegetables (i.e., cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts), leafy greens (ie., lettuce & spinach), and herbaceous perennials (i.e., strawberries & artichokes) are vulnerable to pests such as cutworms, armyworms, and cabbage loopers. These pests can be found on the undersides of leaves and hiding just below the surface soil at the plant base. Use a safe organic pesticide (consult local nursery), &/or apply microscopic nematodes to the soil &/or purchase biocontrol insects such as mini wasp pupae.

Poorly-drained soil &/or over-watered soil makes garden beds vulnerable to fungus gnats. These gnats thrive in moist environments, and can spread rapidly. The larval stage of fungal gnats can damage root systems and spread plant disease. Excess plant debris &/or newly added compost/mulch can attract fungus gnats, so keep beds free of excess debris (and use "older" well-broken down compost, supposedly). Combat with organic insecticides (consult local nursery) &/or biocontrol agents (such as rove beetles). Do not mulch beds with poorly-draining soil (i.e., silty clay) which is watered frequently.

Tomatoes are susceptible to yellow leaf curl virus. This disease can devastate your tomatoes! Prevent yellow leaf curl virus by planting tomatoes from seed, not using soil or beds which grew previously infected plants, controlling whitefly infestations with organic insecticide or biocontrol agents (whiteflies can contribute to spreading of the plant disease), never watering the leaves and stems of the tomato plants directly (this can contribute to spreading from plant to plant), and removing any infected portions of the plant and quarantining it from the rest of the garden. Also, spray a water & milk solution on the top and undersides of the tomato leaves, as well as directly into the soil regularly. Spray beneficial nematodes into the soil.

Ladybugs, hoverflies, praying mantis, lacewings, nematodes and bumblebees are just a small portion of the vast array of beneficial garden insects available for purchase online (and at some local nurseries / supply stores). Use of beneficial insects to combat garden pests is a green way to help keep your plants pest-free and aide crop pollination... Click here to find a very thorough resource on these biocontrol agents.

Tomatoes are host plants to hornworms (tobacco &/or tomato hornworms), which eat the leaves / stems of the tomato plants. Hornworms are the caterpillars which metamorphosize into sphinx moths (hawk moths). Sphinx moths scout out host plants on which to lay their eggs... learn how to identify sphinx moths, and remove them from your garden (transplant elsewhere? :) Sphinx moths are attracted to porch lights at night, and are often mistaken for hummingbirds during the day. Remove the sphinx moths from your garden, and you may not have to worry about picking hornworms off your tomato plants later... it's worked for me so far. (Confession: these large hummingbird-like moths are toys to cats, who will play with them until the moths eventually meet their doom.)

Composting can be addicting! How can a gardener not find appeal in creating one's own nutrient-rich plant medium from recycled kitchen scraps? Added bonus: vermicomposting (i.e., worm tea & worm castings).

Fertilizers are great for maximizing flavor, yeild and size of your vegetables. Click here for a great organic fertilizer. Work out a feeding schedule, and try and stick to it regularly. These liquid fertilizers applied with a folliar pump spray are my favorite: FoxFarm Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom and Grow Big.

Nothing compares to flowers freshly cut from your own garden supply... especially if they are your favorite variety. You can never have too many tomatoes, squash, beans and other good things... gardening is a great way to get to know your neighbors (...sharing is good)!

Try letting some of your flowers, herbs, and legumes go to seed, then clip / collect them when they are dried on the stems--this works especially well for sweet peas, cilantro, dill and beans. If seed pods are not entirely dry, clip and set out in a dry location (in the garage, near the window...) before hulling and storing (plastic baggies and recycled glass jars with lids work well for storage, as long as they are air-tight and dry). Seeds are supposed to last for at least a year, but productivity decreases with time.

Research, seek out, and explore gardening online as well as in the library... there are a lot of great resources out there (Online: You Grow Girl, Urban Homestead, The One Block Diet...Books: Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots, This Common Ground, The Backyard Homestead)

Crazy Uncle

Old-timer San Diegans may recall when the San Diego Union Tribune was two different newspapers: the San Diego Union and the San Diego Tribune. Before the two papers merged and became "the U-T," and before it's office building was located in Mission Valley, our San Diego newspaper building was located dowtown at 919 2nd Street. Thus, the "919 Gang" was formed, an email group consisting of most of the original reporters from the downtown building . My grandfather, Charlie Ross, was a founding member of the 919 Gang. He worked for the SD Union from 1956-1992. My Uncle Jerry also worked for the U-T, and here's an unauthorized excerpt from his contribution to the latest 919 Gang email message:

"It's appropriate that my first contribution to the 919 gang would involve Fred Kinne, as he hired me when I was jobless and broke.
I had quit AP-Sacramento in 1970, not wanting to cover the Unruh-Reagan election, and as the only single guy in the bureau I would have spent months with them, instead of with various girlfriends.
I hopped a British freighter, the Blue Star Line's Canadian Star, and sailed from Oakland to Liverpool, where I saw no sign of any beetles, and almost died from bad British food.
After a few months of spending all my money, I sailed back to New York on the Bremen, an ancient art-deco German liner, where I almost died from the bad German food. Fortunately, I encountered a boon drinking buddy, a hilarious guy with a moustache like the propeller on a Constellation. His name was Dali and he could drink as well as he painted. By the end of the night, we looked like figures out of one of his nightmare works.
I stayed at a Greenwich Village apartment with the late, great AP reporter John R. Morganthaler, looking for work. Turned down a stint on the Daily News copy desk but learned where the Editor & Publisher printing plant was, so I flew the press and answered an ad for an "enterprise" reporter on the San Diego Evening Tribune.
Got a quick response from a guy named Fred Kinne, followed by conversations with Dick Eby and Dick Sullivan, who I knew from his Sacramento sojourns when state government was covered by newspapers.
Fred hired me, which was useful as I arrived in LA with 7 cents in my pocket after a cross-country adventure aboard the wackiest Greyhound bus rolling.
I didn't know Fred from Brute Krulak, but without even meeting me Fred liked my clips, the fact "Sully" endorsed me and the AP training, and he took a flier on me. The thing I'll never forget is that he hired me despite my earned reputation as a union goon-troublemaker and public skepticism over the U-T editorial policies.
His decision changed my life. It was my first newspaper job, I worked mostly with real pros, loved working across from the Press Room and living on Coronado and met my eventual wife, Anne-Jeannette (Charlie Ross's kid).
I left two years later for Santa Barbara, much to the relief of U-T non-news management. But I have never worked with as nice a bunch of human beings again, people who personified simple human decency -- Mike Richmond, Dick Eby, Jerry Remmers, Neil Morgan, Frank Saldana, Jack Gregg, some copy kid named Preston Oregano or something, Don Coleman, Bob Dietrich, et al.
And among all these good guys, these inherently decent human beings, Fred Kinne stood out."

Mom's Night Out

One more thing I love about our neighborhood playgroup is our Mom's Night Out. Though it doesn't seem to happen often enough, we occasionally all get together for some fun (off the clock--kiddos stay home with our S.O.s). Last week, we all met at Shanna's newly opened wine bar...a big hit. I'm looking forward to visiting it again with Dan on a Date Night (which, according to the following book, is one of the essential ways to prioritize your relationship post-babies, as is a little weekly time for mommy--all to her selfish self).

Click here to read more on Mom's Night Out.

Strawberry Fields Forever

So... our strawberry patch is producing its first bounty of berries, and though we've found some blossoms and actual strawberries (three berries, to be exact)--it's not exactly picking season for us, yet. But, the U-pick strawberry patch in Carlsbad is open to the public as of last week, and it provides a perfect alternative for impatient little gardeners who are eager to harvest their crops.

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Our neighborhood had our third annual Easter Egg Hunt in Marie and Steve's backyard, potluck-style: that means homemade quiche, strata and coffee cakes with mimosas and coffee...

It doesn't get much better than this--a neighborhood full of families who come together to share the holidays!

(Moms-and-daughters shot courtesy of Cinthia)

"Never enough thyme..."

I never would have thought that I'd be so passionate about gardening, yet here I am feeling like the sun goes down each day before I'm done fussing over our new vegetable garden. Except it's not strictly a vegetable garden, since we've got melons, strawberries, blueberries, artichokes, asparagus, herbs and spring bulbs mixed in with it all. Yesterday we added a nectarine tree to our "orchard." It'll be a couple years or more before we'll be harvesting any fruit from our trees, but when we do I'm planning on mastering nectarine pie (is there such a thing?). There's also something about growing most of the garden from seed--the nurturing and anticipation of it all explains how easily gardening can become more than just a hobby.

P.S. I love this soil (not because of the name, even though it's cool)...it's "super-dirt" for your plants. Earth-worm castings, bat guano, and a lot of other nitty gritty ingredients make this brand's soil my favorite. Their dry mix organic fertilizers are great, too.

Who brought the cake?

We celebrated Rigel's 4th birthday this last weekend, and as usual went a bit overboard on all the details... our kids aren't going to stay little for long, and pretty soon they'll be dictating how best to plan their birthdays. Until then, I love coordinating all the fun. This year, we picnic'ed at the Train Park. There was a pinata, rides on a locomotive steam engine, and...wait--no cake and ice cream?

In the morning rush to get the car loaded up with party supplies and kiddos, I forgot the train cupcakes at home... all 35 of them. Four batches of coating the cake pan's teeny grooves and crevices with a paintbrush dipped in shortening, dusting the pan with Wondra flour, filling up each well with just the right amount of batter, then praying the cakes would release from the pan intact before cooling on the rack, and then rewashing the pan (and starting this process over again three more times). This was supposed to be Rigel's "main event," the details of which he had been checking in with me on for over a week. He had a steam engine and a tender reserved to decorate at the party with icing, cookie wheels, and pretzels for tracks.

Luckily, there's a restaurant at the park that serves mini ice cream sundaes, so we all sang "happy birthday" to him before digging in to heaping tablespoon-sized desserts. Though Rigel is never one to turn down an ice cream, he couldn't forget his train cakes. As we were leaving the park, he asked, "Mommy, is the park closing?" I told him that yep, everyone is going home. He then replied, "but we didn't decorate the train cakes yet!"

Happy Birthday, Little Dude!

Our first garden

This is our first attempt at a vegetable garden, and so far it has been a lot of fun. We've got a raised planter box built (with an upper and lower bed), a "flower teepee," and two new trees. So far, our seedlings are nestled in eight seed trays --that's 72 seedlings per tray! I don't even want to do the math. Just going to keep my fingers crossed that we'll have enough room for it all.

Valentine's Day Fun

We had an adventurous Valentine's Day lunch at the Torrey Pines Glider Port. The wind was perfect, the sandwiches were delicious, and the hike down to the beach was...well, lets just say there's a great view.



P.S. Since we couldn't find the sign alerting beachgoers to the following detail, let us fill you in just in case: there are a lot of nudists on the beach below the glider port... common knowledge to everyone but us.

Fun @ the New Children's Museum

There's a lot of family friendly hang-outs in San Diego... here's one of them:

Life-long friendship

Will they outgrow holding eachother's hands? Probably--at least during school years. Yet, I hope that despite their age and differences, Rigel and Izzy will always be there for each other, supporting and loving each other even through adult-hood. Best friends for life.

We love Sea World on a school day...

...especially when we get summer weather in the winter! (Not to say we don't miss sweater weather.)

First Family Garden

This spring the Fox Den will attempt to grow our first garden--complete with fruits, veggies, herbs and... (drum roll, please) a tent. We've got the bamboo stakes, the climbing vines, seed packets, and organic soil. We are planting our seeds in biodegradable egg cartons we've been hoarding over the last few months. Next up: digging up a corner of our lawn (renting a roto-tiller sure sounds tempting) to replace it with compost, manure and whatever else the local nursery advises. I'm also nudging Chief Fox to get a compost container set up (his reluctance on this is due to his fear of attracting roaches... should that be a concern?).

photo credit: Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots, copyright 1999 by Sharon Lovejoy

Sledding

Since half of San Diego hits the malls for those after-Christmas-day sales, we decided to go sledding that day instead. Pine Valley has a great little diner we like to visit every now and then for malts and melts called Major's...and Mt. Laguna is where we found all the snow--as well as the other half of San Diego. The sledding traffic was so thick that it felt and sounded like we were at a stadium event!
Play the video below for a glimpse of Rigel surfing the snow...

Holiday Slideshow

Balloon Parade

A bunch of us found ourselves at the Balloon Parade the Monday before New Year's...

According to the website: "As always, this exciting family event brings together world-class marching bands, magnificent floats, entertaining drill teams, and a procession of enormous balloons-more than any other parade! Over 100,000 street-side spectators will enjoy the parade along with a nationwide television audience. Parade festivities will begin... with the finals of the 13th annual Wienerschnitzel Wiener Nationals and the Bumble Bee Foods 5K."

We loved the balloons, but missed the wiener dog races... next year, perhaps?

Happy New Year!

Our family usually celebrates the New Year with a traditional meal, as I'm sure many other families do as well. This year, we are going to my grandmother's house for dinner, where pork, greens, and black eyed peas will be served--a southern tradition for many generations. Pork for good health, greens for "greenbacks all year," and black-eyed peas for good luck. I'm bringing noodles "for long life" (out of respect for my Japanese descent--my dad's mom was full Japanese).

Any leftover pork will be cooked into Senate Bean Soup, a recipe obtained by my grandfather during his years as a political writer for the San Diego Union. He covered the presidential elections (Johnson, Reagan, Nixon, and Bobby Kennedy), following the candidates to Washington D.C. Ever since, he was in charge of cooking this delicious bean soup.

... For anyone who is interested in the soupy historical details, here's a tidbit from Time Life's 1968 publishing of The District of Columbia: "...Every day on the menu of every restaurant in the Capitol Building can be found Senate Bean Soup...there is no record of the origin of this practice, but according to one story it originated not in the Senate but in the House, with a Representative who insisted that bean soup be served daily. Today, however the soup is especially popular in the private dining quarters in the Capitol's Senate wing, two adjoining rooms, one for Democrats and one for Republicans. The Senators' fondness for the soup does not make them gourmets. The maitre d'hotel says, 'if they don't choose Senate Bean Soup, they invariably ask for a hamburger.' " My mom has adapted this recipe into a version that is even tastier, in my opinion.

Above, top: Granddad and colleague in a SD Union article, August of 1968. Above, bottom: Governor Reagan and Grandma, 1968

Click here for Mom's Senate Bean Soup recipe.