Blogging

Part of the April harvest

Jib Jab styled click here
The picture is the latest harvest from the garden.  I am at the point where, Spring is here, but I've only got my trees in, and a couple summer squash and cucumbers in the ground.  The irrigation system is still not working, so I am hand watering.  It's a race to get some plants in the ground, and get those roots started.

Coming Soon!
I get so many lemons from this tiny tree.  These are the incredibly flavorful Meyer lemons.  I have a goose laying golden lemons.  They just keep coming and coming and coming!  So, I gave some out at work, and to my sister, and last weekend I put some to good use:  I made:

• Limoncello
• Preserved Lemons
• Lemonade
• Grilled chicken with dijon mustard, lemon, rosemary, pepper flakes marinade

The Limoncello and preserved lemons take like 80 days until they are ready.  Okay, at least a few weeks.  The point is, I will be posting, and the recipes are coming.  My goal is 1 recipe a day.

Jib Jab
I've been feeling a lack of JibJab. At the top of my mind are:

Mexico mission trip
Patrick is building houses on a Mexico mission trip.  I'm pretty excited for him.  It was a moving experience for his sister, and me when we went a couple years ago. 

Blogging
I've been thinking a lot about blogging, and writing, and photography and small businesses.  I'm not sure where it's all going, but I'm enjoying and thinking.

It's Spring!
I feel this tremendous energy developing as the days get longer, more sunny days, so much is in bloom.  It's time to plant! And plan. And yeah.

Swimming
I've been setting personal best times.  It's really kind of exciting.  I don't think I'm peaking yet either, from the new techniques I've been using.  I'm trying some new things, and it's paying off.  It's still raw, but it's working!!  I've hit some good (for me) times in 25 M, 50M, 100M, and 300M.  I do want to work on the longer distances.  Stay tuned.

Finally, the Giants!!
Wow, here we go with another season.  This isn't going to be a slam-dunk season for the Giants, even at this early stage of the season, they've shown some weakness.  Yes, these guys are World Series Champions.  Yet, they have struggles and challenges every day.  Every day!  It's been impressive to see them win more games lately, and come back from deficits to win.  They came so close to sweeping the Diamondbacks.  So so close.  It would have been incredible.  And, not the Giants.  They are earning their 'Torture' stripes again this year.  This is a big week.  Playing the Rockies, in Denver, and the Rocks are red red hot.  Already 4 games up, and have won 12 of their first 15 games.  WOW!

Try this link I keep popping in here and there.  It's a fun little feature of blogspot.  It takes my content and formats it in interesting ways.   Try the different options on the top right.  Let me know what you think!

1000 Visits!

Yahoo!!

If you notice my little counter on the right nav bar, it counts 'unique visits'.  The idea is, if you have been to the site before, it doesn't recount you.  It figures this out, based on 'cookies'.  The thing is, it's not very precise.  I haven't read anything on the accuracy, but based on my experience, it's off by about a factor of 5 or even 10, meaning, actual number of unique visitors may be more like 200.  Anyways, it's all relative, and what's exciting to me is, the more I write, the more visitors, which makes me want to write more...and so on.  I really am motivated by connecting with all of you.  Thanks for reading!  ...So glad to have you as visitors.

A special thanks to those who comment!  I read all these enthusiastically, and I haven't been consistent about it, but I will try to comment back on all of them.

Add yourself as a follower too.  I love these!! The concept is cool.  To be honest, I am not sure what it gets you.  Somehow it seems like you would be notified if I repost, but I don't think that is a given.

Jib Jab
It's been kind of interesting to watch.  I get a few different web metrics, like the geographic location of all my visitors on a map.  It's pretty fun to know people from across the US are reading my blog.  Okay, fair enough, there are some concentrations where my siblings live...  SF bay area, Denver and Cortez CO, and then Ellicott City, MD.  So, those were some of my first, and then, in addition, I notice a bunch of hits around Denver, the bay area in general, the northeast coast, and then some good traffic around Portland and Seattle, my Pacific NW contingency.  And then, I also have visitors as far as Australia, and Germany too!!  Very cool!  I haven't looked to see what gets read the most, but if I had to guess, the mountain biking stories seem to draw a lot of visitors...

Extra Jib Jab
I am watching the SF Giants game as I type.  They are playing the red-hot St Louis Cardinals, and so far, are ahead 2 games to zero in the 3 game series.  Go Giants!!  It's the 4th inning, and we are behind 2-0, so we will see.

Blueberries

I am determined to get my blueberries planted today.  Yes, I should be out there now, but if I commit to my blog, hopefully, I will get it done.  I bought my first blueberry start about a month ago.  Maybe more.  I got it in a small tube, just a stick with a plastic bag of dirt around it.  I got it at Whole Foods of all places.  It was like $6.99 and I thought, wow, cool.  I am getting it, and then go to the Nursery to get some more.  So, a few weeks after that, I finally get to the Nursery, and they don't have any.  I go to another, and yes, they do.  $27.00 each (now they are in 2 gal pots).  Mine in the little tube has since sprouted a huge set of leaves.  I got 2 others from the nursery too.  Here's what comes into play with blueberries:

1)  they like acid soil
2) they need something like 600 hours of cold or up to a lot more per winter (somehow, that's not freezing, but the hours of cold make a difference)
3) they have varieties that apparently grow in Northern California
4) they need to be planted together, at least two plants, preferably 3 different ones.

So, I have 3.  They are a early, mid and late season plant.  Hopefully I can find the types.
One is a berkeley.  I forget the other two but will check into it.

I am planting Misty (from  Whole Foods)
Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County has some good information
Yes, I am planting 3 types for cross-pollination.
Some serious N Cal blueberry growers

Jib Jab
Okay, so I am thinking about this, and I do a search.  The Internet is such a cool thing.  I find a great posting by another blogger when I was looking to plant around here.   So, first, the information is great.  Some nice pictures and so on.  He, like me thought it would be cool to have blueberries here.  We picked some in Michigan, growing wild, one vacation..and they were so good, and fun.  So, anyways, I notice, dang, nice site altogether and start looking around, and notice he has over 1M visitors!!!   Okay, now I am a bit jealous.  He has all these comments on his posts, and he comments back.  It's a whole connectivity thing.  I am impressed, and admire the whole thing. 

So, I am, (after this post I hope!) over 1,000 unique visitors.  I know.  Unique has a different meaning on the Internet, but I've been growing my audience little by little.  So, I start reading around on this guy's site, who lives pretty close to me, in Sunnyvale, and he has all these topics I am interested in, like marketing, high tech, and it turns out, did you guess yet?  He is the founder of Linked-In.  Okay, fine.  Adam Nash on growing blueberries in the bay area.