Life Keeps Moving Forward

Life keeps you moving forward. There are people who get stuck. They stay in their groove until they die. I'm not one of those people. I get the itch for change. Then, for better or worse, I do something. Like going to the University of Los Angeles to get my bachelor's degree in geography and geographic information systems at 50 years old.  

The California state university system is a fantastic place for young people to transition away from their family.  The support system is truly there for the students. I was amazed at what it was like to be in a normal, supportive, societal system. Prior to that I had only been in a broken church and a broken family. Don't do this, be afraid, don't speak up, you don't matter.  I was a servant, not a person.

From UCLA, I transferred to SDSU for my Master's degree.  Always moving forward. Always making plans and trying to chart my life. I was hired as a GIS analyst for an environmental planning group.  Loved that job. It also gave me the leverage I needed to push a move to north San Diego County. The garden, the farm, always moving forward. Only this time it was for me, not the kids.

Then came Covid. I backtrack because I learned something during that time.  I learned to wait. I am not good at waiting. For nine months I was home, on unemployment, single. Nowhere to go since everything was closed.  I eventually was hired by a consulting firm working various interesting positions. It's fun, a little frustrating at times, but good overall. It's been a 2 1/2 years and I'm getting itchy feet again. I have to remind myself I am in a good position. Stay put and see what the Lord will bring. Life is moving along, and I am on for the ride. Enjoy it.

In 2020 I started dating. OK, so I can only do so much waiting. Had never spoken much to men in my life and figured I better learn how.  Well, that was pretty weird. Eventually I met someone I like and is quite compatible with me. We have been dating ever since. 

In April I had to call the veterinarian to put my horse, Epona, down. It was a tough decision. She was 33 years old and having a hard time on the trails. We had gone on a ride with a friend that did not go so well.  We ended up in the brush and Epona got a lot of ticks on her.  I didn't find them all and she had quite a reaction. She went downhill pretty fast after that. From the symptoms, I think she had Lyme disease. My boyfriend was kind enough to be there for me. It really meant a lot, especially afterward when I look back and am glad that I didn't have to stand alone.

About the same time, I bought some baby chicks to start my laying flock again.  For quite some time I would remember my daily horse chores, only to remember that they weren't necessary.  Watching the chicks helped to fill in some of the gap. They are about four months old now. Out of four, three survived, and one is a rooster.  Go figure. He is crowing now, only softly enough so we didn't really notice for a few weeks.  Haha, tricky guy.

My youngest daughter and her fiancé live with me, along with their dog and several cats. I always seem to have some sort of company.  It's a good life.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

February 2023

I just found my old blog.  I have tried several garden ideas since that  first year.

I built two additional planters down by the horse.  They worked really well the first year, so I created an adjacent 30ft x 20ft garden, complete with underground fencing for gophers, four foot tall fencing to keep out above ground critters, and a gate.

I planted lots of good stuff.  Fertilized with lots of horse manure. Set up a great watering system.

Everything grew really well. Then nature noticed.  Too much nitrogen. Then the squirrels and rats got through.  Even the gophers found out how to get in. Moths, worms, grasshoppers. Gardening is not for sissies. Sigh.

I did manage to get quite a few amazingly delicious tomatoes.  There is no time for canning or preparation, so I just put them in the freezer.  That was one of the best things I ever did.  Whenever I needed tomato sauce I just put a couple in a pot and let them thaw.  A few minutes of cooking magic later and the sauce was ready and so tasty and delicious!

The next year I tried herbals.  What could possibly eat echinacea and chamomile?  Gophers.

I do get a few potatoes still every year. The chives and jalapenos seem to make it. I guess no one wants those.  The Rosemary and lavender are both doing well. The thyme and oregano are good too. I have one beautiful three-year old Swiss chard plant. It is surrounded by wire with 1/4" spacing. I learned that garden beds must be lined with construction wire to keep the gophers out.  Two layers might last a few years!

Well, who has time for gardening any way.  There is too much life to live. In the spring of 2018 I let my husband plant his marijuana seeds.  Apparently they need very little of anything to grow.  Must be why they call it "weed".

In July 2018 I was back to being single. Only this time it was for good. A rotten egg's a rotten egg. They don't change, just pretend to be better people in order to get what they want. I bought an old horse trailer, joined Vista Palomar Riders club, and started riding the local trails. I made a dear friend, Kathy Cooksey, who was retired, and in her 80's rode at least 3 times a week. I was only ever able to ride once a week and was exhausted already!

Finally I was able to attend church and started going to North Coast Church by attending a set of classes for those going through divorce, and weekly services.  I built myself a new life and a new set of friends. The geography clubs were still active, and I was able to still attend the conferences, which were a ton of fun.

By the fall of 2018 I had a garden of full grown pot plants.  What the heck was I supposed to do with all that pot? Not knowing any better, I started harvesting it and drying it in the garage. It was too early, so it was super mild. Not much good for anything at the time.  I ended up putting it away under the house. Gave some away, but not really in demand.

Then Covid hit.  By then I was surrounded with enough close friends that I hardly skipped a beat.  Horseback riding is a good sport for keeping 6' distance from others.  I met with my church group on zoom.  At about that time I had quit my job due to stressful circumstances.  Since it was Covid, I was able to get unemployment. 

The geography clubs stopped meeting for those years.  I have not really kept in touch with my younger college friends.  They have all move on, gotten married and started their new lives.

I lost some of my new friends too.  At the time of my separation, my dear friend and next door neighbor Peggy was hospitalized with brain cancer.  She was given 18 months. That was a difficult time for a few reasons I won't go into. 

The next year after that, my riding buddy Kathy was diagnosed with brain cancer as well.  Within 18 months she was gone. Another friend through divorce classes, Marsha passed unexpectedly. My neighbor Nate, others.  People come and go in our lives. It's best to appreciate them while they are here.

February 2016 in North San Diego County

I am struggling to figure out our new weather pattern.  This is the third year we have had freezing temperatures in December and warming in February.  It is supposed to be 90 degrees tomorrow!!! As long as I can remember, before this started, we got our freezes in February, with a warming pattern beginning in April or so.  I have put off sowing flower, oat, and alfalfa seeds and now I wonder if it is too late.

Since I have started working two jobs, the garden and animals have taken a back seat in life. Previously, when the warm weather hit I was outside watering three times a week.  I can't do that any more, so this weekend I am working on some irrigation piping to water the fruit trees and for the horse's water bucket, and re-orgazing the hose mess in the yard to something a little better.

After some months, we lost both chickens that we were given as rescues, learning a valuable lesson. I hope they did not pass any sickness to the rest of my flock.  No more chicken rescues for me.  It is a terrible idea to introduce new birds into a healthy flock if you are not 100% sure they are healthy.

I need to revise my mulching plan, as the stacking idea I used last year did not work as well as I wanted.  Flies seem to love watermelon pieces, and we had a problem with them laying eggs in the mulch.  I don't have grass, or much leaf mulch yet, so the kitchen scraps did not have help.  A screened in vermaculture composter will work better for the kitchen scraps.

Also, trying to grow sweet potatoes in large pots of soil mixed with hay did not work as advertised.  I will try my stacking mulch bins this year as potato beds.  Another idea I came across online.  The problem with hay is that is compacts and mulches, so after a few months there is no more planting medium.

This winter I planted peas, broccoli, kale, and brussel sprouts.  The kale looks good, and the brussel sprouts are ready to start growing stems.  I waited to plant, with the crazy weather that went from 90 degrees in November to freezing in December, and somewhere in there three inches of rain in two days. Some creature went through my peas and ate many of the seeds.  The remaining few are sprouting. One of the garden plots I used does not get sun in the winter apparently, being shaded by house and trees, so those broccoli plants did not grow.

The heirloom tomatoes I planted did not grow in the summer.  I learned that they need temps about 70 to produce fruit.  They started producing in December, but really did not do well and had lots of black spots and holes eaten in them by every bug around.

Also, I bought a package of bone meal for the garden and set it in there until I could spread it.  Some creatures found it delicious, ripped the package apart and ate it all.  Coyotes?  Rats?  who knows.

All in all, this year has been a pretty steep learning curve for the garden.

Hello El Nino!

Today we got a crazy amount of rain, as did the rest of SoCal.  All residents with the alert system activated on their phone got a flash flood alert.  That is pretty weird for San Diego.  Since we were expecting a higher than normal amount of rain, we trenched the slope in the yard to direct water away from the horse stall and created berms, covered half of the chicken coop with plywood, and generally prepared the rainbarrels for overflow.

We got way more rain than our little preparations could handle.  We were out there shoveling dirt and raking berms during the flash flood warning.  Our work helped, but we are in for trouble if the rain keeps up like this for weeks or months.

At least the rains are warm, not freezing like we had in December when I was running outside to cover and water my tropicals.  I've got bananas growing, people, we can't let them freeze!

With all the dry area the chickens had, why oh why did they get soaked in the rain?  I need to cover more of their coop now.  Can't have more sick hens.  My saving grace is the heat lamp I put in the hen house.  Hopefully it dries them off as they sleep.

Every night I search my blog links for great recipes. Today I found one for zucchini taco shells.  It is kind of like cauliflower taco shells, but with grated zucchini.  I will need to try that since I am still getting zuchs.  Oh - I have started cooking some of the spaghetti squash I harvested in August.  Yummy!  Yesterday was baked ss with veggies and cheesy sauce, with more cheese.  Tomorrow will be chicken chow mein with ss instead of noodles.  I can't wait!

Welcome to life in San Diego!

Hi and welcome to my new blog.

In April 2014 my husband and I sold our house in beautiful very suburban Huntington Beach, California and moved an hour south to just under an acre in much less suburban Vista.

The goals were to have a less crowded, less stressful, more rural way of life.

I have learned a LOT since, and I wanted to have a place to share all this neat stuff, so here goes.

The view from our side deck before we moved in.