What do Tree Trimming & Solar Industries have in common ???

Most of the Experts behind those industries more often than not have no clue as to what they are really doing 😟

Image from May 2019 - Google Earth

Image from Sept 2005
Las Pilitas Native Plant Nursery

Well, it's Springtime in SoCal when Google Earth updated this street photo in May 2019. The trees (California Sycamores, Canary Island & Torrey Pines) behind the roofline of this house I grew up in all started out as six inch high seedlings in late 2005 when I planted them in September of that same year. The rapid growth of the Sycamores was facilitated by using a practice called, biomimicry, which is nothing more than replicating how nature under the right conditions causes deep rooted trees and shrubs, especially on ancient Bajadas or Alluvial Fans to thrive. This just happens to also be where most of SoCal's housing development is located. Many housing tracts in SoCal are located on former orange groves which were originally planted on alluvial fans at the foot of mountains. Alluvial Fans like floodplains are some of the most efficient geological formations for storing and holding massive amounts of water. Those Sycamore trees at my mum's place are no longer irrigated except during the rainy season. During summer, these water loving trees are tapped into the subsurface aquifer.

Image from summer of 2007

California Sycamores are almost two years old.

Image mine from 2011

The photo above from 2007 shows less than two year old Sycamore trees on a former floodplain or alluvial fan (see Lessons Learned from the Bajadas (Alluvial Fans)) Look how tall they are. Pay attention San Diego River restorationists. Decades ago I was curious how single solitary Sycamore trees thrived on rocky sandy boulder strewn floodplains where summer temps were always well over 100+ Fahrenheit (40+ celsius) far from any water course, let alone getting established in the first place. I found that heavy rainfall El Niño weather events with wetter than normal summer monsoon seasons were the reason. This can easily be replicated in any urban landscape. Generously deep root irrigate and after two years, simply taper off the available moisture gradually and force the rootsystems to go straight down. During the whole entire process keep a generous layer of mulch all around the trees extending several feet from the main trunk. Understand that all Sycamores, Fremont Cottonwoods, etc will go down 20' looking for moisture. They have built in mechansims for sensing and sniffing out available water. The photo on the right from 2011 shows well established very tall Sycamores with deep full shade on the ground below and deep cover of Sycamore leaves. They have a tremendous cooling effect where the back screen door is now left open and the prevailing westerly winds blow underneath the cool tree canopy and into the house and out the front door screen. The industrial air conditioner as seen in the top Google Earth photograph is rarely needed and saves electricity bill when not in service.

Fast forward to the past couple of years and sleezy slick Solar Panel salesmen are trying to convince my 87 year old Mother she needs to plaster solar panels all over her home's roof to save money and be considered more eco-green. What's more, a tree trimming company usually also shows up almost exactly the same time (Coincidence ???) as the solar panel salesman claiming for safety reasons she needs to top all her trees to the roofline, which will also make the Solar Panels more efficient at generating electricity. They feed her a line about how Sycamores are unstable and the giant tree limbs could break at any moment. So let's take the problem of Solar panels on her roof first.

Illustration - Healthy Family Newspaper

Image from SolarQuotes.com

First off, my mum's place has only one south facing roof slope and that is over the garage. The other roof slopes are both west and east facing as you can see in the photo at the top with the towering trees behind the house and therefore would be worthless as far as the ability to maximize electricity generation. No problem says the sleezy solar salesman, we can sell you solar tilt frames which will angle the panels to a more southerly exposure. Of course once again you would have to top those trees. Of course it'll look like nothing more than an eye sore industrial mess and curb appeal will be almost non-existent, but she'll certainly be 100% certifiable eco-green. Every single time my mother calls and says one of these home casing scumbags have told her she needs solar and tree topping, I get on the horn and make sure my siblings keep an eye out on what she does as far as decision making.

Large Trees will put the brakes on Heat Islands

The journal, AZ Central, had a nice article on things to know before installing Solar Panels on the roof. They had those 10 key considerations before deciding to install solar panells on your house roof. Here's #1 below this picture of what a Heat Island does. Note even in cold frigid climate like Sweden where I presently live now, there are heat island. In this case small trees are heated by the Sun and cause a temperature rise which melts the snow. Now imagine for a moment how much more insanely intense the heat is on a Solar Farm in the deserts of Arizona where temperatures at 40+ Celsius could be raised to 50+ Celsius. Now for all you European Scandinavians, just ponder that for a moment. 😵

1. Trees reduce output, savings 

Solar panels need direct sunlight, so homes heavily shaded by trees are not good candidates, officials from American Solar and Roofing and SunHarvest Solar say. 

Although some homeowners opt to cut down trees to accommodate solar panels, homeowners should consider whether the cooling shade the trees provide outweighs the benefits of solar panels.

AZCentral: Should you install solar on your home? 10 key considerations

Illustrations by Melissa McFeeters

Illustration - EnergySage

Image - EcoAltEnergy

Then there is the Wildfire Hazard almost no eco-group will Discuss

Image - Australian Solar Care

All manner of debris ends up under these panels and as Eco-Groups demand solar on roofs, they rarely touch on this hazard after lecturing people about spark (embers) arresters on attic vents, keeping rain gutters clear, etc. And it's not just fallen leaves, it's also birds and little animal critters who find them attractive to move debris under to build nesting sites.

Google Search = Leave Litter under Solar Panels 

Spring of May 2019 - Google Earth

Okay here it is again folks. Above photo is May 2019 of this year and photograph on right is house stucco renovation in the Fall of 2018. Note the height of the trees. The California Sycamores are on the left, Canary Island Pines in the middle and on the right is the Torrey Pine which finally matured enough to reach subsoil moisture and over the last couple of years has amazingly grown three or four foot a year. Both the tree trimming companies and Solar Panel installers want my mother to top all those trees (Sycamores & Pines) at roof level and install Solar Panels so she'll be eco-green and *cough-cough* save money. Problem is, since the trees have grown bigger, the backyard patio area has never been more pleasant, shady & cooler. It's like an Oasis. Cutting them down to size would completely elevate the backyard temperatures, plus added temp increase on the roof would rise by several degrees more because black solar panels create heat islands. In otherwords they create what they are meant to reverse, global warming. That giant industrial airconditioning unit with the trees is rarely used, but the sales pitch to my mother was that once the trees were removed, the *cough-cough* free energy from the Sun would be able to run the unit and the house would always be pleasant.

Image - Harvey Windows

The house was built in 1956, no insulation inside the outer walls and old technology crank windows. Fortunately the windows have all be replaced with dual pane windows which have also made a huge difference in cooling in summer and heating in winter. They also had insuation blown into the attic crawl space when none ever existed previously. The only things left with no insulation are the walls and underneath the floors. Below is an Astronaut Helmet coated with gold which is perfect in blocking out damaging radiation and the heat it creates. Common window glass allows sunlight to enter a room and heat up all objects creating more heat, hence the need to airconditioning. Low-E Windows with a thinner coating than the Astronaut visor embedded within the window allow light, but block the UV rays. There are a number of more aesthetically pleasing and energy efficient things people can do instead of putting bulky industrial infrastructure on your roof to run an airconditioner. Trees cool things off considerably and I appreciate this will chap the Solar Industry's attitude against those who chooose no Solar, but that's tough. There are a couple of important links below the Helmet.

Visor image by Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA

 Gold-Coated Visors Protected Apollo 11 Astronauts During First Moon Walk

Heat-reflecting low-E glass

Tree Trimming Nightmare examples with Sycamores

Image from Google Earth May 2019

An old high school friend of mine has a dad who own's this JB Mills Insurance Agency building and all the other office rentals within. This is on Broadway in El Cajon, California, just east of Ballantyne street. The photo on the right is from the Dentist office Advert of my high school buddy Randolph P. Mills and the building is where his office resides in. In the photo on the right you can clearly see the California Sycamore has been topped off which is the way tree companies like dealing with many large trees. It's fast and more convenient for them, just to chop, hack, packup and go on their merry way to the next job. For me, tree trimming was more of an art form when I did it. It was actually one of my favourite assignments. Lawn care was my nightmare. When you are done, the tree or shrub should not look like it's just been trimmed, but naturally sculpted to picturesque shape and form. This is the way nature works with trees, especially strong healthy Sycamores. But this irresponsible tree topping technique was started back in the late 1960s & early 1970s and has been practiced ever since. In the top photo you can see where water sprout branches have shot up like a rocket given the massive trunk and root infrastructure which will trigger an explosion of new growth in response to the attack. The USA in many cities and towns have above ground utility poles which must have their corridor right-of-ways maintained for clearance. Doesn't take much talent to chop-shop trees to keep corridors cleared, but the problem is this terrible practice has bled over into the maintaining all landscape trees in urban landscapes where utilities are nonexistent.

Cartoon Animations Below Illustrate the Problems with Tree Professionals

Sunset Terrace Apartments - Bradley Ave, El Cajon, California

Image - apartments.com

Image - rent.com

Nothings changed for the better in property management. The place above is a commercial apartment building next to the complex I worked at. In the beginning (2002) I remember the Sycamore trees were so huge and majestic looking, almost completely shaded the front of the entire apartment complex and the various carports in the back. Every other year since, they have hired the same tree company to cut back hard and top all these trees into an unnatural form. In the photo on the right here, you can see the untouched Sycamore on the left and a previous months topping and regrowth that same year. Tree companies have no care as to time of year they ravage your trees. Let's face it, they need work year round. This same company hacked the trees along the propertyline of both our properties because the SDG&E telephone-power poles ran along a storm drainage ditch in between both commercial residential complexes. One memorable tree grossly hacked and chopped to a 20' tall stump was a beautiful large spreading and tall Shamel Ash. The biggest problem with tree trimming in Summer heat is that trees naturally respond to injury with extremely rapid growth to replace what was lost. Because of such rapid tender growth, much of growth is succulent sweet and ripe for predation by pest insects, pathogens, powdery mildews, etc. The usual tannins and alkaloids which make most foliage bitter and distasteful to such pest have not yet been produced by the tree. So it's like a massive thanksgiving feast for the pests. This happened to the Shamel Ash which never ever recovered and had to be completely taken out. Some fault of course lies with the Homeowner or landscaper who makes a bad choice in nursery tree selection with no foresight taken into consideration of what future consequences may eventually exist, especially near and around power poles.

As usual, lessons are rarely learned in our times. You think things would improve with newer understanding but they don't. Both the chopping of trees and installation of massive solar infrastructure continue as mankind's only hope for reversing climate and weather degradation. But the same ignorance and lack of forethought is employed in using a technology which is still less than efficient for the amount of area footprint it requires which is still a major problem. Hardly any single environmental activist group will raise a whisper when forests are eliminated and trees chopped down because a massive solar farm will take the forest's place. But cut those same trees down for an industrial mining operation, oil exploration or natural gas fracking venture and as the saying goes, "There's usually all Hell to Pay." 

Update April 21, 2020 - Earth Day Youtube

UPDATE ABOUT YOUTUBE 

 Youtube has deleted the documentary in a sleezy censorship ploy along with other groups. Fortunately Vimeo has a copy.

SORRY - ANOTHER UPDATE - This time it's VIMEO

 Well once again the Thought Police have made their prresence felt again and deleted the Planet of the Humans video just like Youtube for the same inconvenient truth reasons. Apparently you'll just have to pay and order the video from Michael Moore's group.

That documentary has thus far been a huge inconvenient truth for almost all environmental organizations and other green groups who refuse to actually discuss the findings. Here below is an after documentary discussion with Michael Moore, Jeff Gibbs & Ozzie Zehner.

Image from Basin and Range

How much longer will humans put their blind trust in this World's Credentialed Elites to problem solve ??? 😔

"Expectation postponed makes the heart sick."  

​—Prov. 13:12.

Gray & Silver Plants to Brighten up your Landscapes ???

"Gray is a cool, neutral, and balanced color. The color gray is an emotionless, moody color that is typically associated with meanings of dull, dirty, and dingy, as well as formal, conservative, and sophisticated. The color gray is a timeless and practical color that is often associated with loss or depression."

Bourn Creative: Meaning of the Coloer Grey 

Image - Texas A&M AgriLife Research & Extension Center at Uvalde

Agave neomexicana - image, Grootscholten

Growing up in San Diego county, I was surrounded by adults, many of whom came from the midwest. Their midwest biased choices for landscapes were predominently massive lawns, a few trees, some flower beds, but mainly their choices were based on preferences of rich greens like the environments they were transplanted from. I can relate. I grew up around a much more rugged landscape of drier Mediterranean chaparral & desert ecosystems. Hence the patterns and colour schemes regarding my preferences in landscaping are a puzzle over here to most Swedes who no doubt would relate to people from the eastern United States. Take the photo above of the Texas A&M research station. Most people in a Retail Nursery in California will still prefer plants which offer the most brilliant of greens over greys if given a choice. Very few would choose what they would consider the dull grey-blue New Mexico Agave seen above right. But I think mainly it's a lack of ability of visualizing such a specimen in the correct location and with the perfect companion plant which can offer accented colour hightlights which can bring out the richest most effective colour scheme within their gardens. Let's take some examples of human taste in decoration of interiors with greys & whites. Two of the most used colours here in Sweden.

Image - Decoist.com

Somewhere somehow a human a designer of home decor observed this gray and red accent highlight colour pattern before making their decision in use of these colour schemes. The various shades of grays and charcoals on their own would appear boring and depressing, but add splashes of red here and there and the complete picture is beautiful. The opposite would be true of red, overused and it would be too loud, busy and hardly relaxing. But how does nature handle this problem ???

Image by Wyoming Game Warden Bill Bish

Image - Susan Pedrini

My favourite combination of these colour schemes is found in the rugged beauty of a Silver Sagebrush (Artmisia tridentata)  dry high desert habitat interspersed with the bright reds of Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja sp.) In many cases the Silver Sagebrush can be found in a high desert monculture which for most people would be boring. But almost always the Indian Paintbrush requires a host. Some say the Indian Painbrush plant is semi-parasitic plant, but not in the negative way you may consider parasitism. The idea behind a parasite is that it only takes without giving anything back, but I believe there is more to this than meets the biased scientific researcher's eye. As with everything else of course.

Image - City of Monterey Park

These are the beautiful flowers of the California Zauschneria (California Fuchsia) which is another of those very gray foliage plants which no one would ever give a second look at were it not for it's lipstick candy red flowers. 

Image - Yerba Buena Nursery

And yet another plant with dull gray-green foliage would be the native state flower known as California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica). Without the flowers, who would be interested ???

Exotics we wouldn't bother with either if it weren't for their Flowers 😁

Image - Arizona Flowering Plants

Image - Las Aventuras

In the hotter regions of the Southwestern United States (Arizona, California, New Mexico & Texas), there are some popular exotic shrubs from the Caribbean we would not give a second look at were it not for their spectacular colourful flower displays. One of them is Mexican Red Bird of Paradise or Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima). The compound leaves and pattern of the shrub is interesting, but again it is the flowers which provide the eye-candy people want. Other similar types of Caesalpinia are also attractive, but only with the flash colour of their flowers. So with numerous examples of what nature does with colours, we can biomimic in our designs in our gardens and large urban landscapes utilizing other plants as companion plantings if all the desirable qualities do not exist on the same plant.

Image - Dave's Gardens

Same is also true of this South American native, Desert Yellow Bird of Paradise - (Caesalpinia gilliesii). Nobody would ever plant it were it not for it's flowers. Because the otherwise dull gray-green foliage is not overly remarkable other than the decorative pattern of it's compound leaves.

Accenting large Chaparral Shrubs with beautiful red flowering vining natives.

Image - proyectos11

Image - Tree of Life Nursery

Many chaparral shrubs around the globe have been described as dull and mundane, but they have interesting partners which provide interest for both wildlife and humans. Take this example. This beautiful native plant to California's interior hills and valley's in it's Mediteranean climate is called, Bush Snapdragon (Galvezia juncea). A coastal or Channel Island variety of this is Galvezia speciosa (Island Bush-Snapdragon). Whenever I have seen this in native plant in the plant nurseries, the people purchasing them usually want them as a specimen plant all by itself. After they get older they generally look like nothing more than a large mounding shrub ball. While the plant is beautiful, the setting is boring. Of course you can do that, but that is not necessarily how I have found them when out hiking in the wild. In landscape design, I want a more wild natural look in the landscape. I deliberately chose both these photos which reveals a pampered plant which is happy because it has all it's favoured conditions met. Notice they have lots of long leggy streaming vine-like branches ??? Where I have found this plant in wild chaparral biome canopy, these long leggy streamers are usually poking straight up through the shrub canopy with vine-like branches flowing over the top of the shrubs from openings. Not overwhelming the shrubs, but just enough to provide wonderful accent of that lipstick red colour. Here is a link to information on this native plant from Tree of Life Native Plant Nursery about them.

Tree of Life Nursery: Bush-Snapdragon – Galvezia

Pipestem Clematis & Chaparral Clematis (Clematis lasiantha)

Image - Las Pilitas Nursery

Image - Philip Bouchard (2010)

This is another one of those interesting vining plants in the chaparral plant community called Clematis. This Pipestem Clematis (Clematis lasiantha) is deciduous and grows to 8-20' and has showy, creamy white flowers from March-August. Pipestem or Chaparral clematis is native in the coast ranges and Sierra Nevada mountains. I've found it previously when I lived in western Riverside County in California just east of Temecula right along Hwy 79. It apparently grows as far south as Baja California. The Clematis fruits are plume-like which you can see here on the right. Another type of Clematis is Clematis ligusticifolia which is a little more vigorous. But it needs a chaparral lattice or tree ladders to climb and support it's vining habit needs. I've never seen anyone use this plant in the landscapes, but for me it has good potential.

Las Pilitas Native Plant Nursery in Santa Margarita California has a link on their pages to a long list on native plant vines.

http://www.laspilitas.com/groups/native-vines.html

Dallas Texas Lanscape - Lee Ann Torrans

Image - Burger's Onion

The landscape above has Santolina and native grasses in a perennial garden. That is Russian sage in the background just about to burst forth in lovely feathery blooms and Salvia Greggii in the front with pink blooms. But in SoCal you can also use various native Sages and even the exotic Mediterranean Lavenders. Also keep in mind SoCal has other native plants like Aloes, Agaves, numerous succulents, even San Diego's native Dudleyas. A good write up on San Diego Dudleyas Yuccas and other native Southern California succulents can be found below.

Burger's Onion: "Succulents of Coastal Southern California: Dudleya"

Challenge yourself next time with landscape design ideas and concepts bordering on those gray areas 😉 

Bitter-Sweet Vacation in Southern California (April 2018)

Cambrian College Grapgic Design 

[definition - "pleasant but including or marked by elements of suffering or regret"]

Image - David Broberg

First the Bitter: I suppose this really starts with the world being turned upside down over the past two years since my last visit in early 2016. There has been a constant barrage in the Media of social unrest and combative ideologies claiming to have the moral high ground over the other side and the reality on the ground is that both sides being dead wrong. No wonder I previously lived for 20+ years in a rural mountain environment on the edge of wilderness where TV reception was lousy and summer thundershowers were the main entertainment on the covered porched. On landing at LAX, renting an SUV and driving south to San Diego, it was clear from the start just how far down hill California has really gone into the proverbail cesspit. First indicators of course were the deteriorating visual of the area's native vegetation as we drove along. Seriously the native vegetation has gone incredible down hill, despite all the smokescreening wildflower photos by the local SoCal non-profits who try and reassure their followers on social media that all is still well in Nature because it's so resilient in the face of mass degradation. Then in almost every major city we went through, there are literally 1000s of homeless everywhere. BTW, for everyone's information, Sweden is having the same cancerous pains as everywhere else, despite the propaganda to the contrary. Homelessness and increased crime are found everywhere. My hometown, El Cajon, is overwhelmed with homelessness and the culture has become over 30% Arabic speaking. Not that, that is a negative, but like many other immigrant migrations, the refugee peoples are finding that the grass hasn't been as green as they were first promised it would be in so-called progressive industrial secular nations. Same exact issues exist over here in Sweden, but you won't hear the Media uttering a peep about this. Then came the incredibly sad news of so many friends, family and former neighbours who either have gotten Cancer, Alzheimers, Parkinsons or have simply died. This later news hung over me like a dark cloud my whole trip, much like the cool dark clouds in the SoCal weather which characterized my whole stay when I was so looking forward to a striking contrast of warm hot weather with clear blue skies as opposed to the cold wet of the Scandinavian climate.

Gardening/Landscaping is my only real therapy away from Sweden  

(generally when I return, I need a vacation from my vacation because I work so physically hard)

Image - Mine 2018

Photo - Mine 2018

The Sweet The well known familiar looking plant above is called by a number of common names. Desert Bird of Paradise, Yellow Bird of Paradise, etc, but it's science listing is Caesalpinia gilliesii. This plant is native to Argentina and Uruguay, but has now naturalized in portions of the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts in close proximity to inhabited areas. I've also seen it naturalize in some places around San Diego County in close proximity to urban areas where gardeners have installed it within their landscapes. One of it's amazing qualities aside from being a tough drought and heat resistent small tree or shrub, is it's magnetic attraction to Hooded Orioles. I'm not sure what's in the flower's nectar, but they love it. So it was pleasant to watch them spend a lot of time in my mum's yard at these small trees. Also pleasant to see them finally taking more interest in the native Fan Palms which have grown bigger, allowing them to gathering and harvesting of palm frond fibers for their perfectly woven nests. Maybe one day as the palms gain far more height, they will finally build their nests in these palms. They are shy birds and tough to get close enough for photos. The other long time favourite is the Mexican Red Bird of Paradise or Pride of Barbados whose science name is Caesalpinia pulcherrima. Very heat loving plant and easily propagated from seed and once germinated, grows faily quick with the right care. I've often wondered why folks would purchase one at a nursery when germinating seed is so easy as is the care for this plant. Once innoculate with a healthy mycorrhizal fungal blend, just mulch once a year and NEVER feed it with science-based junk food from the local Home Depot or Lowes. Just leave it alone and carefully prune and thin it once a year like I'm doing above along my mum's driveway. Of course, the strict nativists won't like these plants, but I have no problem with them and neither does it seem the wildlife.

At least a sort of sweet surprise in Idyllwild California - Western Redbud

Photo mine in Idyllwild California 2018

Image Mine 2018

I purchased this Western Redbud from Lawson Valley Native Plant Nursery (1983), donated and planted this one gallon Redbud (Cercis occidentalis) which was about 10" tall, in front of the Kingdom Hall in Idyllwild California in 1983. It's amazing how large and wonderfully healthy it has become with little to no care. It's actually one of the few healthy living things in Idyllwild. I neglected to bring my camera from Sweden, so all photos are from my wife's phone. Most of the pines up there are sickly and dying. I've previously made mention of my conversation with former US Forest Service, Wildlife Biologist, Tom Roberts, back in 1983, who told me that one dat all the pines in and around Idyllwild would eventually die out and their best replacement would be Giant Sequoia (Sequoia giganteum). Well that doesn't seem to have worked either since all the Giant Sequoias in Idyllwild are in steep decline now. (HERE) is a 2009 photo in Wikipedia where the decline of Seqoias in downtown Idyllwild is evident. The newspaper there, Idyllwild Town Crier, however has written an article about the decline back in (2017) and appeared encourage by improved health, which may have come from the higher than normal rainfall after the drought the five years previous. But the Sequoias in that new Park (with restaurant now gone) didn't look at all healthy and vigorous when we were there. As of my visit in April, I'll predict next year that some will most likely be taken down. I've already posted about the massive old Ponderosa that finally had to come down in Fern Valley (HERE). On a bright note, La Casita, our flavourite Mexican Restaurant is still there with great food and atmosphere. Now look below here.

Photo was taken by Frazier Drake  (June 1, 2018) & publiched in My-Idyllwild

Thomas Roberts

More Bitter This is the worst photograph I've ever seen of Idyllwild, California. The entire ecosystem up in the San Jacinto Mountain is collapsing before our very eyes. Actually, this is what I saw on the ground while driving through all the community backroads and streets, but it becomes far more dramatic when a view is taken from a drone by Frazier Drake from Idyllwild Elementary School playground. You can clearly see at the bottom of the photo all of the Giant Sequoias are dying, not to mention 1000s of the Ponderosa and Jeffrey Pines. So much for everyone's Mountain getaway paradise. Garner Valley and Anza Valley are not much different just southeast of here. Tom Roberts was both right and wrong at the same time and that's doubly sad. Well, in a bit of an update, here is Thomas A. Roberts obituary from last year, November 27th, 2017 in Legacy.com. I seriously do not know if there is even anybody left in Idyllwild California who would even remember Tom Roberts. Most of the people I remember from there are dead or gone elsewhere.

Okay it's official, you really can never go home again

Image is mine from 2012

Image Mine 2013

More Bitter Went for a visit on the way to Idyllwild and stopped by my old place in Anza on 60180 Burnt Valley Road and to visit two old neighbours. The first neighbour is a French couple from Paris who moved here before I left and they're doing fine. But the long time Anza postman, Charles Confer, isn't doing so well. He is bedridden and has a terrible time with Parkinsons. He was always such a tall strong man and well liked by everyone. He's so frail now. Standing at his place and looking back up the hill at my place, the property has been stripped of most all of it's native vegetation (Old Growth Chaparral) and numerous greenhouses have been installed for the purpose of growing Marijuana. It made me sick. They did leave all the pines, but the entire perimeter now is giant chainlink fencing with black heavy greenhouse shade fabric to prevent anyone from viewing inside the property. Some Asian investors from Los Angeles bought my old place and they have someone else living and caretaking the plantation now. Dobermans run loose everywhere. It's like some kind of military build up and fortress compound. Amazing how rapidly down hill everything has gone in California. After the amazing documentary "Weed" on Marijuana by CNN's Dr Sanjay where they showed the almost miraculous change effect of children with over 300+ epileptic seisures a week and no normal life or speech making complete turn arounds with a single dose or two of cannibis oil (not the THC junk that makes stoners high), I wrote a post about the amazing effects of the Cannibis Oil parents placed on the child's food. Three months ago I deleted that post because all manner of annonymous dope sellers were posting comments with their filthy website links to sell weed. So Colorado was the first State to legalize and others have dominoed ever since. 

Image from Google Maps

Above is my former acreage and house presently turned into a disgusting Marijuana Farm where most of the manzanita and native pines have been bulldozed for the greenhouses and other side plantings. The disgusting thing about the legalization, especially for the kid's sake, is that during all the petitioning and activist movement towards legalization, all the recreational marijuana using stoners refused get on board unless their addictive recreational use habit could be included in the new regulations and laws. And it was all rammed thru with no real world forethought of things like dangers of driving under the influence, etc. Oh well, that place above and the photo below are no longer mine and ultimately none of my business. So they have the right to do with it as they will. But they did leave a few trees around the house.

Image Mine 2018

This is the view looking up at my old place from Burnt Valley Road at Jim and Margarite Saunder's old place. This view is looking west from the new owners (nice couple from Paris), place at the Geodesic Dome house on Burnt Valley Rd. The smaller Coulter Pines which were not visible from this spot when I left have now risen above the Chaparral (Redshank) and looking quite healthy with five and six years old growth of pine needles still hanging onto the tree and amazingly all that through the worst 4 or 5 years of drought the State has experienced. Through all the negatives I saw however, these native trees I experimented with (Torrey, Coulter, Jeffrey, Tecate Cypress and Aligator Juniper) are still successfully surviving with zero supplemental watering through all those years of horrible drought is a real bonus. Their success provides proof of the value of utilizing native Chaparral to provide hot summer period hydrological services by means of the natural phenomena known as Hydraulic Lift and Redistribution.

Nice Friday evening at Barrett Junction Cafe near Mexico

Image, Elisabet and Mum 2018

Image - Barrett Cafe

More Sweet Barrett Junction Cafe is quiet location away from the insanity of all the cities to the west in San Diego county. All points east from Barrett Junction Cafe on the Hwy 94 drive are Tecate Mexico and the Railroad Museum in Campo and eventually ending in the towns of Boulevard and Jacumba and then back to Interstate 8. The Cafe hasn't changed it's decor nor menu from the day of it's opening. It's like stepping back in time to the 1930s or 40s. I mean the Cafe counter and furniture still look early 1940s. It's loaded with antiques of all sorts, some of them for sale. In the old days it was more packed out on a Friday evening to where the overflow room in the large old military styled Quonset Hut was used more often than now. My wife and I took my mum there to get away from El Cajon. It was truly relaxing. We often vacationed in the past with a month or more to do things, but this time we had less than three weeks visit. So every day we had things to cram into our itinerary. But the Barrett Junction Cafe trip was perfect. Nothing changed.

"I wish there was a way to know that you're in "The Good Old Days" before you've actually left them.." Ed Helms

Image - Barrett Junction Cafe

Yup, Barrett Cafe's Menu's signature plate hasn't changed in decades one iota. And it's not just what is on the menu, but the flavours are exactly the same as I remember them from my very first visit in the 1960s. But it was nice to do something for my mum and sprucing up her landscape. Getting back to Sweden is always a let down weatherwise, but believe it or not  the weather every single day from May 1st to June 6th today has been hot and dry (temps - in the 80s F - 30C), with the except of one day of thunderstorms. The plants here in Scandinavia cannot take heat and they are so entitled (which requires life-support), because it generally rains almost every other day here and is most often cool or cold. They simply wilt and die in prolong heat with no rain, often with many of the forest trees dying. It's pleasant today, work has picked up incredibly, so hard to finish posts like I wanted. The Media over here is still pimping their usual lousy new reports. A recent Gaza Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony news video yesterday was posted over here in Europe, in which the school authorities in Palastine had the kids stage a mock military attack and hostage-taking play. I watched not even 30 seconds of the 5:00 minute video which was all I could stomach. How in all good conscience can mature adults do this with children ??? It's amazing and we keeping hearing about how things are improving and getting better. Yeah boy, "Peace and Security" just around the corner. So anyway, how's your summer vacation going ??? 😆😎

Image MovieStillsDB.com