no-till minimal-till experiment

I've been interning at Bayside Park Farm here in wonderous Arcata, CA.  Learning about no-till farming on youtube (mostly) we are starting an experiment in leaving cover crop residue on top of the soil.  I'm glad we didn't get cable, because i probably wouldn't have learned that there is a LOT of cool, quality content for free on youtube!

This cover crop is mostly cereal rye with a little bit of hairy vetch (purple flowers) and possibly some weeds, raked into a row to terminate the plants in the row. Termination of plants in the row was not necessarily confirmed.  The weed cloth is to shade out weeds, or at least weaken them to the point of easy heavy hoeing

Here is a strip of "terminated" cover crop via rake and hoe and scratched with a four pronged cultivator/rake thing.  Buckwheat was broadcast and scratched/raked again while stepping in the row.

stay tuned for more updates

Mad river

After participating in the mad river clean up event for coastal clean up day with the canoe already on the car, and after brunch, I paddled from the county park to the bend. Then a seal/otter/sea lion? splashing told me to call it a day

Latest solar oven

Pretty stoked with this design. The box and reflectors are all corrugated cardboard. Still working on the angles but getting closer to a totally recycled design. Need a shop to fine tune the process/construction

Stone lagoon

wrote a letter (in their online form) to the city of Glendale, CA. and wanted to share it here...

Greetings, I am writing as a Hoover High School alum, class of '93 and a currently active skateboarder.  I don't live in Glendale currently, but I return often to visit my parents who still do, and I have made numerous visits to the skatepark in question.  The park itself is unique and a worthy destination for any level of rider and the city should pride itself for building the facility, however, like the majority of similar facilities in similar cities all across the country, it should be free!  I find it dumbfounding to see free parks in LA, SF, Eureka, St. Helena, etc, etc. and then learn that now even glendale residents must pay to skate...gee i wonder what that's gonna do to usage rates (ie more skaters in the streets)? 

I love skating Lafayette skate plaza in LA because not only is it fun to skate, I like seeing how it functions as a social gathering spot. Everytime I'm there I see kids of all races exercising and developing skills and challenging themselves and making friends.  Skate culture is here to stay, not to mention a huge industry and the city of Glendale is treating it like an overprotective parent.  Its time to fully support skateboarding in Glendale and free the park like all other communities in the US. Furthermore, in the spirit of keeping kids off the streets and buildings and serving its population, the city needs to build a "street plaza" because Verdugo is too vert for a lot of kids these days. Its rad, don't get me wrong, but skaters also need some nice ledges and manny pads and mellower transitions to learn on. Take a look at Stoner Plaza in West LA. 
Thank you for your time and consideration

Lafayette Plaza/spot

seen this place for a few years now but didn't get to skate it til 2012.  just east of K-town.

super fun manny pad/ledge combo. kids had it waxed up good too! the five stair in the back finally went down (ollie), was super stoked about that

Carl's Jr star in a poor location, or the banked ledge, one or the other.  3 stair got me thinkin i could still ollie stair sets

big ledge...got up on a slappy noseslide a few times...made my trip

5 stair from above

its not much but for some reason i loved skating here.  kids were pretty chill and whatnot.

Belvedere Skatepark, East Los Angeles, CA

This place was super fun also

got boardslide on this beast! yes i was stoked

line of the day...up and outta the bowl, to the left

heres the other side of the line of the day...right in front of this kid

got airout over the little box on the far side

gnar ledge...didn't touch it

the big stuff...didn't touch it

the big bowl.  pretty challenging...didn't skate it much the coping in the shallow was super chewed up

St Helena Skatepark, Napa Valley, CA

this place is awesome.  super smooth and makes you want to try things you normally are too scared to try

that pocket was super fun to just speed through

made me want pads and helmet...that vert wall was so big...and the shell

got ollie up the step up gap and onto the manny pad. ollied the four stair and was stoked! i think i could've got boardslide on these rails but never got around to it

fun pyramid, you could adjust your angle to make the table top bigger or smaller...

super launcher.  worked on getting the gap to the bank and was successful! yes

hip of flight...think i actually got over the coping on this one once

vert bowl.  even the shallow was vert. very tight and steep and a real workout

i was lookin at the back 50-50 going straight. reminded me of corvallis skatepark where i never had the sack to try it...

this place has lights too, so you can rage it while the woman is off tasting wines or whatever