Dinner

We had been talking about getting rid of the rooster. Our yard was too small to annoy the neighbors with such raucous antics so early in the morning. And the last two days it charged us (me on the first morning and my housemate the second) and was becoming quite aggressive. Not that that was reason enough to eat it, but it was a decision made to get rid of him or eat him by both of us.

We were going to trade it for a hen or a few dozen eggs. Instead, I came home from work today with its final dressing completed and ready for cooking. What was a crowing beautiful bantam rooster this morning become dinner this evening. Here is a picture before he took his plunge. A noble life Sid lived.

At any rate, I didn't eat any of him, as I don't really eat chicken. But I was told it was quite good and the leftovers are in the 'fridge. Fortunately we had some friends come over that are excellent chefs and prepared the bird for us.

Time to sleep. More on this weekend's eventful trip to Orcas soon.

South

This is the last of my series of amazing photos of Fairhaven. This is heading south towards the Chuckanuts. Not much to say today other than a trip may be planned for Victoria tomorrow. A friend might fly over in his little Mooney to pick me up to fly back to Orcas Island to sail to Victoria to spend the night. By his calculation, it's much less fuel (and time, of course) to fly from Bellingham to Orcas Island in his single-engine aircraft versus driving. And that makes sense.

Or we might rent a car and drive to Vancouver. Or there's the string-band jamboree, which I've failed to attend in the four summers I've been here. It is uncanny here how time crawls along, or maybe I am more aware of the value of time as the years inch along also. Running out of summer. Today already smelled of fall.

And something funny on the web I found tonight. It was last year's ballot as Proposition Zero: "Just Say No to Mount Baker Eruption:"

The purpose of the proposed regulatory ordinance would be to better control any volcanic activity by Mount Baker in the name of public safety under the Whatcom County homerule charter insecurity acts of 1872, requiring the mountain to give the county executive a minimum of 24 hours advance written notice of any planned major eruptions, as well as requiring a special short-notice burn permit be obtained from the county fire marshal. Accompanying seismic events, such as glacier melts, mudflows, or luhars, would also require special land-use permits be obtained from the US Forest Service if major land-disturbances were also planned by the mountain.

Public disturbances resulting from the mountain throwing burning rocks at the neighboring countryside, or otherwise displaying undesirable tendencies such as huffing and puffing and blowing off of ash and steam from the (EPA unregulated) steam vents on Mt. Baker's south face, would also require stiff state and EPA registration as a large-source geothermal release site. Explosive and pyrotechnical activities that might bother or alarm the nearby villagers, would be limited to certain wind and humidity conditions under proposed EPA and state DOE rules yet to be formulated.

Proposed yearly fees would start at $500 US, require the mountain post a $1,000,000,000 liability bond with the county, as well as requiring the display of a 'Horseless carriage' license plate, issued by the WA state Dept of Licensing, whenever the more than 40 year old volcano is operating on SR542. A new county enforcement officer paid for by Mt. Baker, will hired by the Whatcom Humane Society solely to handle Mt. Baker Eruption complaints, and will be handling the day-to-day operations at the peak. County officials indicating they would begin interviewing applicants by January 2009, with native Bigfoots with intimate knowledge of the mountain being offered special minority hiring preferences.

West

Here is another picture taken at the interesetion of Harris and 11th (I believe) in Fairhaven. This one is looking west towards the ferry terminal.

Another glorious day today in Bellingham. A morning of work, followed by an evening of work, with a drive down to Anacortes in my nifty 1985 pick-up that I'd rather not drive. It's a bit big and personally I like to look out the windows and daydream while others drive versus concentrating on driving. The buses are the best to take down I-5 through the pass in Alger where you can look out the tall windows at the towering conifers above.

At any rate, time to skedaddle. I need to use one of those card lock systems for the first time in my life. Hopefully it will be pretty straighforward, and there's a fueling station close to my house. Fortunately, I am the slow poke on the interstate, as I give myself extra time to take it easy and take in the majestic scenery. I often wonder why people would be in such a hurry to drive through such beauty. But I guess they know no other speed except 'as much as possible.' Poor saps. Rushing through life their graves.

Furniture

Yesterday's picture was of this same intersection in Fairhaven, and was looking north; this picture is looking east up Harris Ave.

I had an interesting conversation with a recent grad in Bellingham that moved back here after graduating and thinking he'd split for good. To create the scenario in parts of Bellingham with a heavy student population: when the leave for the season, they cast away much of their furniture or other belongings (like bilkes), as they probably come from upper-middle class families and find it cheaper to replace things versus move them back in forth to Renton, or wherever the hell they come from.

But the odd thing is that they get drawn back to Bellingham after graduation, or never leave at all, and now are sucked into the local job market's lackluster $18/hr mean wage. Now they're the ones (and we've all done it) stopping to pick through the students' ubiquitous castaways with a "free" sign leaning against it. Once you settle into a lifestyle wanting to live with less (and not necessarily the newest and shiniest) you realize how less taxing it can be. I gues I'm still a contrarian though. But that's alright by me.

Media

Right: Anther picture taken in Fairhaven yesterday.

CNN and Fox News (and the rest of the MSM) are like McDonalds: if you haven't had it in awhile, you realize how crappy it is when you finally do. I can no longer stomach these news stations when I am forced to watch them. Not only were they flagrantly negligent in reporting of our failed wars (and the run-up), the economic (tech, equity, real estate, commodities) bubbles, the current economic maelstrom, etc. I guess that news bores me and the more I get my news from sources with less fluff, the more distasteful the MSM becomes. For example, what of today's Latest News from CNN is really news?

Latest News:
* Sources: CIA report alleges prisoner abuse 6 min
* Jamaican sprinter Bolt: 'I want to be a legend' 17 min
* Massachusetts exhales as Bill passes
* Voter gripes abound as Afghans count ballots
* Battle on to contain Greece wildfires
* Israel hits back over organ harvesting article
* Violence overshadows start of Ramadan
* Former S. Korea president Kim laid to rest
* FBI: Scottish official 'has rewarded a terrorist'
* Ticker: 'Make my day,' senator tells actor

Like fast food, though though of gaining any sustenance from these sources turns my stomach.

Interesting sources that I frequent, although they are a sometimes technical:
Naked Capitalism
Daily Reckoning
Doctor Housing Bubble

There are many others that I can't think of right now, but not having television makes this disengagement much more pleasurable, as well as making more more knowledgeable on the news. And I try to vary my political views, as it's easy to get sucked into a certain bias on the gravitation of internet sites. Unfortunately, the more technical or factual, the more grim the scenario.

Those are my musings from my Sunday morning gig from my idle time working at my friend's shop on a day-turned-sunny here in Happy Valley.

Tony's

A classic summer day in Bellingham for me.
A Picnic in the park in Fairhaven (for volunteers of rht Food Bank), followed by coffee with a freind in Fairhaven, a part of town although only a few miles away, a place that I do not frequent too much. I should go to Tony's more to work. By the time I left if was pushing three. By four I was on to a bike ride down Chuckanut, turned left at Bow Hill Road, and over to Old 99 North (I always wonder where Old 99 South is?), and back into town.

A good day. A nice fifty mile ride on my road bike. Then another ten miles or so made for a good day of biking. Personally, I am not a big fan of the narow shoulders and heave traffic on Chuckanut Drive, but fortunatley the drivers are accommodating and once in the Skagit Lowlands, things opended up into lush farmlands. Once in a while it's nice to take the day to relax and do nothing.

And I am also geting comfortable leaving my phone at home much of the time. I find the need to always have a phone is a barometer of my level of disorganiztion. Most call nowadays can wait until I return to my office or home. Freeing me from my cell phone is relieving.

Lastly, the season is nigh for blackberries. Not only are the growing out back, but my housemate picked a ton and made cobbler tonight. I chest freezer (to freeze all this local food that overwhelms us over the year) is something I thought of time and again. Warm cobble over vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Economy

So here is a chart of the Dow Jones Thirty Industrials for the last year. We believe the hype the MSM telling us we are pulling out of the recession. It will be a double dip recession here and the second dip will probalby much more severe. Why? In my opinion...

• The Option-ARMs will start to recast this year and peak in 2011. Same thing with the Alt-A paper. Together, they are quite a bit larger than the
• The P/E (price to earnings ratio) of the DJIA (above) is presently 52.48. Historically, the Dow 30 iP/E is in the low teens. Anything over this is considered inflated, and a correction is imminent unless economic growth continues at rates above anticipation. And the earnings portion is based upon future earnings. Once upon a time, it was based on historical earnings. This add to chance that a few earnings reports could send this market into a tailspin.
  
• Consumers are saving versus spending. For a decade or so, the US had a negaitve savings rate. (I read where the 25-34 year-old segment actually had a -16% savings rate.) It has fianlly become positive in the 5% of earnings. So let's see, 70% of the economy is driven by consumer spending a change in savings from -.5% to 5% equals a 5.5% redirection of earnings from discretionary income to savings. Right there equals a 4 1/8% contraction in the GDP. (Results may vary.)
• Credit is still non-existant. Bank were leveraged to the hilt during the good times when was easy. Historically, the banks were leveraged 7-10 times their reserves (for every dollar they had in reserves, they lent out seven). During the credit orgy, this increased to thirty or forty times reserves. So all the hundreds of billions in wealth that you and I handed the banks is going into reserves to bring their reserves back to earth.
  
• Energy is inching up, along with other commodities. Light Sweet Crude has been hovering around seventy dollars per barrel. Today it closed at $72.65/bbl. The rest of the world will stumble along the pathto recovery while the U.S. economy languishes. So prices should settle back to what I consider a reasonable valuation of $100/bbl.

There are probalby a few more items I can think of, but I'm done typing.

More tomorrow on my newly acquired 1985 Ford Lariet XLT crew-cab diesel pick-up. An era of being carless is probably over for now. And that's sad in many ways. But my friend Hutch once told me, "sooner or later in life you're going to need a pick-up. Or a friend with one."

Mice

So there's a little tension in the house. I am getting softer living here in Bellingham. My housemate wants to get those sticky mouse traps that are basically barbaric (in my opinion) and forces the mouse to die slowly and painfully. So instead, I put a tube teetering on the edge of the table with peanut butter at the end. When the mouse walks through the tube to eat the PB, it will fall into a bucket. It's even locally made peanut butter.

Why do we decide the chickens and dog get treated with the utmost consideration and decency, while the mice must die? Where so we draw the line? I guess I draw that line at being with lungs that I choose not to kill for food. But whatever makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Fortunately, I am not exposed to too much pain or suffering in my life. But Unfortunately, I live in a country that feels it is their duty to impose their political and socioeconomic views and ways upon other nations, even if it means killing a million of them, or so, in the process. I am reading an interesting book that discusses this at length. But enough of that.

A day ended at the park sleeping in the grass a few feet from the water while the noises of people all around enjoying the weather filled my head. I intended on flying my kite, but there was no wind. So I slept instead in the setting.

Grant

The whole weekend a grant application hung over me like a cloud. So i came home last night to complete it until 3:30am, only to wake with the dog sleeping at my feet to get right back on finishing the document. I made the deadline with an entire hour to spare. But four hours of sleep followed by fifteen hours of work does not make for very creative writing tonight. So more will follow tomorrow when I am relieved and rested, and back to my more manageable routine.

One thing that got me through the whole application process was listening to the Grateful Dead performance at Woodstock forty years ago (and one day) to the day. I listened to the forty-eight minute version of Lovelight three times as the anxiety grew and the deadline loomed and the last minute changes were "suggested."

Neverland

So we are motoring around the San Juans yesterday, since there really wasn't any wind to speak of, and lo and behold, we come across this island with all sorts of animals grazing on the grassy southern end. After looking through the binoculars, we saw all sorts of funky animals like Big Horn Sheep, elk, rams - all grazing on the side of the hill that looks like the rolling grass hills of Central California (I said around Paso Robles). All these strange animals though, and we labeled it the Neverland Ranch, due to all the exotic animals we saw on the island.

And although I never really liked going to Orcas Island, I have grown a fondness towards the island. Yeah, I can bitch about the tourists rushing to the island only to relax, but I am one too. And to think this weekend I really didn't relax too much because I had this grant/loan application hanging over my head (and it still is), which is due tomorrow by the close of business.

So I should probably get back to work. It's one a.m. now and hopefully I can finish up tonight and not be all stressed out tomorrow. I might actually get this done with some time to spare. Fortunately, a 1978 Grateful Dead concert is keeping me anchored to my desk. And coffee. And many reflections of what a great weekend it was. And although a person of modest means, I sometimes feel like the richest person alive. Now back to work at 1:15am on a Monday morning.

Deer Harbor

Tonogh was an interesting series of events, ending in Disney World. After getting the R60/6 started after some carburetor mischief, I rode down to the ferry and took it over to Orcas Island. My friend got delayed in Portland - evidently they have something called traffic down there - and I wan't able to get on his boat (the HR46), so instead I opted for seerage aboard his old Islander 32 (he's trying to sell this one) in the back of this picture. So I rowed over in a sagging Achilles dinghy, dropped my minimal gear off, rowed back in an old wooden tender, towing the dinghy, rode my BMW into town, had some food at the Lower Tavern (or something like that), returned to the little wooden boat with a single oar, and rowed back to the old Islander. And then the amazement began.

No moon, but a million stars accented by the anchor lights in Deer Harbor. But paddling through the water stirred up all these little plankton that lighted the water green with every stroke of the paddle. Literally, I was seeing trails. Bright green trails through the water. I wanted to stay in the little boat and play with the little minially-celled creatures in nature's display of its awe. But instead I climbed aboard and tried to recall some of the infinite stars above and their constallations. And tomorrow is supposed to be better...

Calm seas, not too chilly, and my friend called from the ferry landing. He's towing an airplane that he building, but that's another story for anohter day.

Bantam Rooster

So it's quite obvious at this point that Sid (in the video) is a rooster. Hi morning crowing begins around six a.m. on sunny days, and a bit later on days like today (not so sunny). So far the neighbors haven't complained. And hopefully we can keep him and not send him the McNugget route.

Another Wednesday night at the Honeymoon, which turned into a late evening. Although I've demonstrated many times that I can get by on virtually no sleep, I have grown accustomed to a full night's rest. Fortunately I do not go out at night too much. So I don't know if it's age or just taking better care of myself. Back to the salt mines at 1:30 on a Thursday afternoon.

Credit

A few points that may or not be related.

• The chart indicates that consumer credit is reduced during recessions. One could surmise that this is due to belt tightening in tougher times with consumer sentiment being generally negative during uncertain economic times,versus taking on additional debt in time of aplenty.
• Consumer credit has decreased in eight of the past nine months (as of June 2009, according to the Federal Reserve, a privately-held entity that I consider to be a racket).
• Around 70% of the GDP is driven by consumer spending.
• In a time of stagnating (or declining) wages, money is spent on debt reduction, or buying shiny wheels for their SUVs or flat-screen televisions or vacations to Wally World, but not both.
  
• As easy credit has a tendency to inflate asset prices, the opposite would logically hold true that tight credit will deflate asset prices, especially in the extreme sense that we've seen easy credit for years while suddenly credit on all levels extended to anyone (other than the federal government) is virtually non-existent.
  
• Although deflation is caused by tightened credit, once the other component of inflation is the need for the US to effectively peddle its increasingly risky debt to foreign entties by increasing the interest rates on it debt instruments. Also, deflation will be offset by the increasing demand of raw materials by emerging economies Consequently, deflation will be distorted by this tug-of-war.

An interesting post (click here) yesterday on a web log that I read frequently. Imagine the day that consumers find out that a huge home or many vehicles and other material goods only lead to increased angst and strife in their lives? Obviously, these people are not wealthy, but consumers. The former will invest or hold on to liquid, non-depreciating assets; the latter will invest in items that either lose value, or lag other investments that potentially generate returns that exceed those of the market. Houses are really unwise as an investment (unless they cash flow, like rental properties) and have historically lagged most other assert classed. (But that goes back to the easy credit distorting asset prices.) People that feel they will rely on their homes as retirement assets would've been better off putting money into a CD.

Just some meanderings from my home office on a sunny morning in Bellingham, although some clouds are rolling in for an afternoon shower.

Qwest

After finally realizing that my broadband is dismally slow, I finally gave up my Qwest 256Kbs cheap-o DSL (ye, they do make it that slow) to go with Clearwire (now called Clear). So for the same price, I will get 3Mbs (or 3,000Kbs) and hopefully allow me to work a bit more efficiently and listen to Grateful Dead bootlegs without have web pages load painfully slow. And my housemate will be happy that she can watch Family Guy online again. And oddly enough, why do companies likw Qwest offer to reward you with deals when you threaten to leave? Where were they for the past three years when I diligently paid my bill on time and never asked for a thing? Oh well, good riddence. They must be awash in cash since they could afford to purchase naming rights to a baseball or football stadium down in Seattle. So maybe it's now time to upgarade my low-end ASUS router. Why, now, is it fluctuating between 18Mbs and 54Mbs?

But a refreshing day to awkaken to the sound of rain on the roof, and rain all day. A good soaking rain that was welcomed by everyone with plants in the ground. And more rain is forecasted. I remember what fall and winter feels like. But summer will return soon.

Another picture from the wonderful garden tour last weekend.

Jerry Garcia

Another day of clouds. But warm. Sitting here trying to get over the hurdle that sometimes prevents me from writing a lengthy document. And the internet is a good distraction, but I need to start writing.

As I sit here listening to a 10/31/87 JGB LaFontaine show in NYC on Sirius, I realize that today was the day Jerry died fourteen years ago. This band has had quite a profound impact upon my lfe, as I began going to shows in the late eighties while in undergrad and follwed the band somewhat intensely for almost a decade. Although I only saw fifty shows, I was able see the diverse venues where they performed in almost twenty different US states, and Canada too.

The carefree lifestyle of making it to the next town with nothing more than the contents of your VW and a dwindling wallet realizing that if you didn't think of something to sell, you'd be stuck in some place in god's country with no money to get home. But whether you sold Grilled Cheese in Alpine Valley (WI), Veggie Tempeh Sloppy Joes in Kansas City or Busch Beer in in St. Petersburg, you always made it. I think the Grateful Dead parking lot scene was the last vestige of pure capitalism in the United States. Adam Smith would have been proud, had he participated in this market.

But I've stopped going to any concerts by the remaining members of the band. Instead, I keep the memories fresh in my mind, and listening to a show from the past evokes the same memories that a photo album that I frequently take down from the shelf might. So much has happened in my life since Jerry's passing. And predominantly things in my life for which I am quite grateful.

"Its a far gone lullaby, sung many years ago.
Mama, mama many worlds Ive come since I first left home."
- R Hunter

MiFi

Here is a picture of the little wireless portable router that I carry around with me and conventional wireless or ethernet is not close at hand. Press the power button, and voila, you have internet. It's a pretty nifty device, and I'll no longer need to seek out seemingly elusive free wifi in airports or strange coffee houses in the shady parts of town.

I was going to write last night but something happened. Again. After sleeping and reading for a chunk of the evening, I decided to go to the grocery store around eleven pm - the Haggen over on Meridian. So my journey (that should've been about a mile and a half) turned into heading into to town, turning right on Holly, up through Columbia and onto Northwest, all the way past the interstate and up to Bellis Fair. Then back down Meridian to the Dark Haggen. Running a simple errand can sometimes evolve into an extended jaunt around town on my bicycle. And what a beautiful night it was to ride. So needless to say, I got home much later than I'd anticipated and didn't feel like writing.

So it's another cloudy, chilly sixty-one degree Saturday morning here in Bellingham.

Chill

Another picture from a few days back. The sun has been appearing closer in the past few days. Much larger than in this picture. Maybe the earth is careening towards the sun and the mainstream media is keeping this from us, the masses. Evil CNN and FOX.

But you couldn't tell today. I wore fleece atop a thick Woolrich shirt. Summer? And the kids (those that were born here, at least) are running around in swimsuits and bare feet. I am getting used the the maritime chill that may never be too far from the heels of a sweltering heat.

But I stepped into this century's technology with a MiFi card, something that I'd better quickly get in the habit putting it in one place. It's convenient, and gives me a WiFi hot spot by pressing a little button. And it's a little bigger than a credit card. And about ten times as thick. Unfortunatley, I only get 5GB of bandwith a month. But I don't even know how much that is, so maybe I shouldn't be too concerned yet.

Ship

Someone told me that this ship is a stand-by in case another is ever out of service with this shipping lines. I've personally never seen it move. But that's alright. It stays docked in the middle of town and helps me to recall that I live where I do. Fortunately, I volunteer at the food bank on Wednesdays, otherwise I might never know what day of the week it is. Other than that, my schedule never remains consistent. The food bank helps ground my week.

Another glorious sunset tonight. And then to the Honeymoon to see the open mike, and the people were plaiying little ukuleles and mandolins. We left when the big guns (the steel guitar) came out. More tomorrow. I ran out of things to say. Summer is waning and there is too little of it left.

Subdued

Wow. As I pull up my Firefox, my home page tells of a shooting near Pittsburgh, a city where I spent ten years of this life. But there hasn't been a good shooting spree in this country in a while, which is odd because of everyone in this country being so uptight with the economy and everything in the crapper, as well as the passing of Michael Jackson. Things are bad, I tell ya. For some reason, there will probably be a few more shortly.

But this web log is frequently read by people searching Bellingham and gangs (Blogger.com has some neat analytic tools to play around with). Now I'm sure that there are guns and drugs and wannabe ganstas here in The 'Ham, and maybe a few fringe groups that I've been told about down in Happy Valley, and possibly off Northwest or Alabama. But the view from the 4,000 square feet of grounds of my estate where my 800 square foot manor over here in Sunnyland is that any town will have bad people, but I see little evidence of anything of substance regarding gangs. People still sleep with doors and windows wide open here. And shootings are rare. Maybe the gangs too are subdued here in this City of Subdued Excitement.

And speaking of subdued, the Subdued Stringband Jamboree is coming up. There are way too few weekends left in this summer and I am panicking when I think of things I'd still like to do. But the jamboree might be a weekend to camp somewhere up Mount Baker way on Thursday and come back to the festival on Friday. And I think I can do most of it by bus. (Okay, and a mile or two by thumbing past Glacier.)

Monday

A night where I was subjected to CNN Headline News. How shallow and tasteless. I couldn't wait to turn that bile spewing box back to the reggae channel (#6084) on Sirius. And later the Grateful Dead (#6032). I've read (and do not know how true this is) that in North Korea it is mandatory for every home to have a radio on at all times for the occupants to listen to propaganda broadcast by the government. How different is this than the few corporate run media outlets are where the majority of Americans get their news. Alarming.

But oddly enough, democracies (although actually we are a republic; I wonder why a republic - take the United States, for example - would kill millions in the name of democracy?) are relatively short lived and through our military overstretch, financial tailspin, crumbling infrastructure, threadworn social safety net, and the list can go on...but what will the future hold for our aging oligarchy? And now the market-state (ie, corporatism) shadows the traditional nation-state, which replaced the church-state, replacing the city-state (way back in something like the Medieval times, although history is not my cup of tea).

And the picture was taken a few weeks back while sailing: more Chinese crap coming into the country so we can send out dollars (assets) to China to turn around and buy our debt (a liability) from us. And if I get this right, dollars that are enacted by Congress that appear out of thin air to be lent electronically (few dollars are actually printed) by the Federal Reserve (a private bank whose books have never been audited and whose shareholders are cloaked in secrecy) to lend to national banks at the arbitrarily determined fed funds rates, and you and I incur record levels of debt and are required to pay interest for your home, car, boat, or other crap on a fiat currency that really doesn't even exist. Creating some of such substance out of nothing fascinating.

I remember back in the seventies how the increased productivity would give us much more leisure time and create an entire leisure class. But unfortunately American doubled the square footage of their homes, the number of cars they owned, and myriad other things (including their waste lines, probably) and now we work more than any other industrialized nation, as well as being more in debt, less healthy, etc. Forty hours a year more the average American works, I've read, than their workaholic Japanese counterparts. All for a lifestyle that Madison Avenue told us would make us happier, sexier, more successful,...

Yeah, it's Monday. Where did that blather come from?

Some interesting and varied news sites I read, mostly finance and economics:
Naked Capitalism
Doctor Housing Bubble
The Daily Reckoning
Party for Socialism and Liberation
Z Facts
Brookings Institute

Trouble ahead, trouble behind,
And you know that notion just crossed my mind.
- Robert Hunter

Gardens!

This was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my like. A true inspiration with an unmatched vibrancy of colors and scents. And the garden went on and on and I wasn't even able to even see as much of it as I'd've liked, as I was busy trying to stay on a schedule, which is impossible in relaxed mode of my Bellingham contemporaries - especially amongst such utter beauty.

Today, sun. Working and gardening and glad that I can wear shorts most days (with occasional khakis thrown in there) and can regain my personal stock of Vitamin D and get a nice tan in the process. It's always cool to have sandal tan lines on your feet. I did splurge and bought a pair Olukai sandals at Hinton's Shoes in town a month or so back.

I always think of something during the day that I want to bitch about on this web log, but it always seems to dissipate by the time I sit down to write. And I finally think I devised a fencing configuration that will keep the crafty chickens enclosed in their pen. We'll see.

Garden

So today was the Summer Tour of urban gardens in Bellingham. We left me place around eleven and went to two different places in Sunnyland, a community garden in Lettered Streets (picture), and then two more, both (I think) in Birchwood and at the last one we had a great meal. And the possibility arose of going to a conference in September down on the Hood Canal.

The temperatures have returned to a tolerable level here. A beuatiful day in Bellingham and the one garden we toured (I am sure you'll see a picture soon) inspired me to keep forging ahead with my small lot. I finally planted the salmonberry and added a bit more fencing for the chicken coop. Four feet is not enough to keep the chickens in, so I added anouther four. And another twenty-five bucks for food and not one single egg yet. Humph.