Man vs. Oleander

Every year about this time we do battle. The Oleanders and me.

We've done it going on seven years. I snip, saw, stomp and kick. The Oleanders twist and tangle, poke and cut. Every year, I knock 'em down. Every year they come back, bigger and stronger than ever. They're relentless.

I've learned a few things over the years. Early on all I had were a pair of just snips and a small tree saw. Now I bring loppers and a chainsaw. Still it is a battle.

But, this year was different. I came with a shovel and ax. This year I came to take the Oleanders out -- all the way out.

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There are a lot of Oleanders around. Though not native to southern California, Oleanders have been described as iconic to southern California landscape. They grow quite dense and make great screens. In California, Oleanders grow in an estimated 20% of home gardens. And the folks at Caltrans love 'em. They maintain Oleanders in more than 2,100 miles of freeway medians.

So, with such great references, what's not to like?

For openers, the entire Oleander plant is poisonous, from the sap, to the bark, right down to the leaves. The Wikipedia entry says, "Oleander is one of the most poisonous plants in the world and contains numerous toxic compounds, many of which can be deadly to people, especially young children."

Then there is Oleander leaf scorch, an incurable disease that has been claiming Oleanders for years. The disease is so widespread and unstoppable that some estimate it will kill 90% of Oleanders in the next few years.

Yellow and brown edges on Oleander leaves are a sign of leaf scorch. Oleanders with leaf scorch will not improve. They will wither over the next few years then die.

If you've got Oleanders with leaf scorch, the uniform advice is to take them out.

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So, four Saturdays ago, there I was standing in front of the Oleanders. Ax, loppers, chainsaw all ready to go. I really didn't know what it would take to get these things out. But I was ready.

Each Oleander was a fight. After cutting away the branches and doing some digging, I was surprised at how big the stumps were. Then I had to dig around and under each stump to cut out the roots. One a weekend was my limit.

Last Saturday I finished. Four weekends. Four Oleanders gone. Victory.

You know, it's a very satisfying feeling -- to look out and see mounds of dirt and stumps where diseased and poisonous Oleanders used to be.

I won't miss the Oleanders. Not even a little.

Oleander Stumps

Garden/Wine Making Updates

March and April is probably my favorite time of year. The rains have mostly come and gone, the sun is out, the bees are busy, and it seems the whole plant world is exploding.

And then there is the wonderful smell of orange and lemon blossoms. Sometimes the smell is overwhelming. And sometimes, it just sneaks up on you. Can't get enough of that.

We've been busy the past few weekends, getting work in between the rains. I've been working at taking out four oleanders in the front of our house. Hopefully that job will be done today. Some random garden notes:

We've cleared most our garden beds. Onions are started. Beets, peas, lettuce, beans and carrots are planted.

Marcia is starting the tomatoes from seed this year and we have a table top in the house now devoted to tiny little tomato plants.

After the super bowl, we picked the rest of our avocados. Was a great year for our tree and we have new flowers now. Hopefully the production will be the same this year.

We had broccoli from the garden the first weeks of this month and more is growing. However, some animal (I don't think it is a gopher) is nibbling at the base of the plants and we've lost several.

We had two tomato plants that made it through the winter, but are looking a bit worn out at this point.

Unfortunately, my cuttings from the Earthside wild grape don't seem to be taking.

Wine Making

Which reminds me that David has asked about our wild grape wine experiment. It was fun to pick and crush the grapes and, as I reported last year, the juice tastes similar to a concord grape. But, here's what happened to our wine effort. We successfully made wine out of the wild grape juice. But, turned out that the recipe we followed added too much water to the juice and the result was a kind of watered-down concord grape wine. I tried to compensate by adding some Welchs concord concentrate. The final product is drinkable, but not something I would recommend to others. I hope to do better this year.

Our less than stellar wild grape wine experiment matched our other experiments in fermentation. Our blackberry wine experiment (using blackberries gathered from our summer Oregon and NoCal trip) resulted in a very good blackberry vinegar, but no wine. Two seasons of trying to make hard cider have resulted in more very tasty vinegar.

Out of desperation, we finally tried a commercial wine making kit with all the ingredients and step by step by step instructions. The result has been a first rate red wine.

I'm looking forward to another try this year.

Giant Butterfly Over Hamilton Park

Hamilton Park was a buzz of activity yesterday afternoon before the Super Bowl -- football, baseball, softball, tennis, etc. And, the wind was just strong enough to lift this monarch butterfly kite up toward the clouds.

I've been enjoying the sky and cloud photography in many of the local blogs I follow. Yesterday's effort at Pasadena Daily Photo was incredible. Avenue to the Sky has a great piece up showcasing Mt. Wilson and the tower cam.

Dogs and Chickens

About a year ago we went to the Pasadena Humane Society in search of a new puppy. After many visits we finally chose the one - a playful little guy described as a Shepherd/Akita mix. We were taken to an office where a counsellor talked to us about the dog and asked a battery of questions. She asked if we had any other pets.

"We have chickens," we told her.

"This dog is a Shepherd mix," she said. "The Shepherd part of him should be protective of the chickens and even like to herd them around. He should be very good with the chickens."

That was what I expected. Our old dog had been a Shepherd mix. She would post herself just a few feet away from the flock, laying on her stomach with front legs forward ready to go. When a chicken wandered away from the flock, she would go get the bird and gently herd her back to the others. It was really something to see.

The counsellor continued.

"You have to be careful, though. This dog is also part Akita. They were bred to hunt."

"The Akita part of him might like to eat your chickens."

EAT OUR CHICKENS? The news should have made us bolt upright and run out of the office.

But, you have to remember the scene. We are in a small office -- my wife, two kids and I and this playful orange and white ball of fur. We are taking turns holding the little guy, his white-tipped tail going a mile a minute. But for the formalities, it's done. He's part of the family. And the thought that this little guy would eat Flopsy, Mopsy, Sparky or any of our hens ... well, it just didn't compute.

Plus, it was hard to know how to take the counsellor's warnings. She wasn't giving us the red light. She said it was impossible to know for sure what kind of mix this dog was or how the dog would react when grown. The little guy looked part Shepherd and we'd had a great experience with our old dog. But, the counsellor was definitely giving us a flashing yellow ... caution ahead.

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So, how has it gone over the past year?

Well, the dog has been great. Named "Bear," his claim to fame is that last year he actually treed a real bear. It is hard to know what kind of mix he is, but he's more powerful than any dog I've ever had. He's a part of the family and is always near one of us. It has been a joy to see him race and wrestle with the kids.

But, if you asked the chickens, their reviews would not be so glowing. Bear likes to play. That's good if you're a human or another dog. But, if you're a chicken, 70 pounds of dog-puppy barrelling after you with slobbering tongue flying ... it's got to be terrifying.

Bear hasn't eaten any chickens. And, I don't think he's going to. But, he loves to play chase and, given the opportunity, will chase the chickens all over the yard. We've had some scary moments with Bear tearing over the the yard and chickens literally flying about. But, in the end, calm has been restored. No hens have been harmed.

We've learned that Bear needs to be on leash whenever the chickens are loose in the yard. We try not to give him the opportunity to play chase with the chickens.

I am sure the chickens do not appreciate that Bear is a magnificent watch dog. On more than a few occasions, he's alerted us to coyotes near the chicken coop.

We still hope Bear's Shepherd lineage will kick in and he'll be a model brother to our hens. But, in the meantime, he'll be on leash whenever the chickens are out in the yard.

In-N-Out -- Historic Sign, Legendary Burgers

The In-N-Out Burger on East Foothill dates back to 1952. Back then East Foothill was part of the famed Route 66. This Pasadena store must have been among the first In-N-Out sites, opening seven years after In-N-Out was started in nearby Baldwin Park.

This In-N-Out Burger sign is on the City of Pasadena's list of historic properties. The neon and bulb rooftop sign is a designated as a Historic Sign.

Pasadena has only one In-N-Out and this is it. Seems this place is always jammed. It is not uncommon for half a dozen cars to line up in the right lane of Foothill waiting to pull into the drive-up. Where else can you get a fantastic hamburger for a buck sixty-nine?

I saw in LA Observed that Huell Howser has an hour special on In-N-Out tonight at 7 pm on KCET. Should be an interesting story about a phenomenon that is part of San Gabriel Valley history and certainly (insert Tennessee accent) a fine example of California's Gold.

My Mom's Kitchen Window

Clear skies and snowy mountain peaks remind me of my mom's old kitchen window. The window, like the house itself, was the definition of ordinary. An ordinary double hung sash above the kitchen sink in an ordinary small ranch style house on a street of other ordinary small ranch style houses. But, on a clear day, my mom's ordinary kitchen window became extraordinary. When the sky was clear, her kitchen window framed a spectacular view.

The house I grew up in had the good fortune of being the last house on a street that dead-ended into acres and acres of fields. My mom's kitchen window was on the north side of the house and overlooked an expanse of fields capped by the San Gabriel Mountains. The view was kind of like the photo, only without the buildings. The fields and the San Gabriel Mountains -- they were just there for the taking. At least that's how it seemed. And we appropriated it all. The kitchen window and the mountain views were my mom's. I remember her standing over the sink looking out her window. I often heard her talk about her window and her magnificent view. The field belonged to the kids. When not in corn, the field was inhabited by kids from our neighborhood. There were kites, football games, forts and any of a million things kids conjure up. It was our field. At least that's how it seemed. In truth, my mom owned the kitchen window and that's about all we could lay claim to. The field belonged to a farmer named Homer who lived in the rock house behind us. Homer had been there long before we arrived, with his horse, Dot. And my mom's mountain view? Well, who really owns a mountain view? In time, a swath of Homer's field was acquired by the state or Caltrans or whoever takes land for freeways. A phalanx of bulldozers dug a giant trench at the north end of the field that became the Pomona Freeway. The familiar southern California story followed. Homer's barn came down and Dot went away. The dead-end sign in front of our house was removed. New streets were paved across the field. Driveways and foundations were poured, houses framed, stuccoed and sold. All too soon, our field was gone.

And, my mom's kitchen window, which had for a time framed such a glorious mountain view, now looked north upon the stucco side of the house next door. Her extraordinary window was now forever ordinary.

Mt Wilson Tower Cam

The Mt. Wilson Tower Cam has some extraordinary photos following snow storms and is well worth a look. Photos today are spectacular. The Tower Cam is one of my regular links along the right side of this blog.