Rivenrock Gardens Cactus Blog

~Waylon Jennings~
‘I’ve Always Been Crazy’

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 I’ve always been crazy and the trouble that it’s put me through
I’ve been busted for things that I did, and I didn’t do
I can’t say I’m proud of all of the things that I’ve done
But I can say I’ve never intentionally hurt anyoneI’ve always been different with one foot over the line
Winding up somewhere one step ahead or behind
It ain’t been so easy but I guess I shouldn’t complain
I’ve always been crazy but it’s kept me from going insaneBeautiful lady are you sure that you understand
The chances your taking loving a free living man
Are you really sure you really want what you see
Be careful of something that’s just what you want it to be

I’ve always been crazy but it’s kept me from going insane
Nobody knows if it’s something to bless or to blame
So far I ain’t found a rhyme or a reason to change
I’ve always been crazy but it’s kept me from going insane

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‘Don’t You Think This Outlaw Bit’s Done Got Out Of Hand?’

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I’m for law and order, the way that it should be.
This song’s about the night they spent protecting you from me.
Someone called us outlaws, in some ol’ magazine.
New York sent a posse down like I ain’t never seen.

Don’t you think this outlaw bit has done got out of hand?
What started out to be a joke, the law don’t understand.
Was it singing through my nose that got me busted by the man?
Maybe this here outlaw bit has done got out of hand.

We were wrapped up in our music, that’s why we never saw,
The cars pulled up, the boys got out and the room filled up with law.
They came bounding through the back door in the middle of a song.
They got me for possession of something that was gone, long gone.

Don’t you think this outlaw bit has done got out of hand?
What started out to be a joke, the law don’t understand.
Was it singing through my nose that got me busted by the man?
Maybe this here outlaw bit has done got out of hand.

xxxxxxxxxxx~Waylon~ 
‘Are You Sure Hank Done It This-A-Way?’
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Lawd, It’s the same old tune, fiddle and guitar
Where do we take it from here
Rhinestone suits and new shiny cars
It’s been the same way for years
We need a change

Somebody told me when I came to Nashville
“Son you finally got it made
Old Hank made it here, we’re all sure that you will”
But I don’t think Hank done it this a’way
I don’t think Hank done it this a’way

Ten years down the road, making one night stands
Speeding my young life away
Tell me one more time just so’s I’ll understand
Are you sure Hank done it this a’way
Did Ol’ Hank really do it this a’way?

I’ve seen the world with a five piece band
Looking at the back side of me
Singing my songs and one of his now and then
But I don’t think Hank done ‘em this a’way
No I don’t think Hank done ‘em this a’way

 

  That is a question I hear often, it was great to come across a web page that explains it well…. so now you can find about about what the standards for ‘organic’, sustainable, and other categories on the food that you might find in the market.

  New products development can take a great deal of time, and this product was no different,
but we are happy, and proud to be able to say that our cactus is now an ingredient in the
new Aveda product line called ‘Green Science Skin Care’.

  Yes, four different products in that line,
and each one has our Opuntia robusta organically grown cactus.

   Wow, cool!

   This line of products started selling a couple of months ago in parts of Asia,
and now is selling at your own Aveda Salon near you.

   It is a fun thing to be knowing that people the world over will be using and enjoying products that have our cactus as an ingredient.

   Organic farming is difficult to do on a huge basis. Part of the tenet of organics is the pull away from a monoculture environment wherein all the plants in a field, on a farm are of one variety or species. With diversification on a small organic farm, there is more interaction between the groups of plants, more rotation that might be practiced, and the movement from host to refuge plant for the good and bad bugs. This overall can have a very healthy effect on the plants and help to keep pest populations within manageable limits without the farmer having to resort to ‘control’ methods.

   Part of the problem with the modern organics movement is the plethora of large farms now signing on as ‘organic’ and trying to revert to the organic production of their grandparents. Unfortunately, organics is more difficult on a large scale, and these folks who are coming in often seem to be chasing the organic dollar rather than entering into agreements for organic production based upon philosophical reasons.

  Just recently this has been brought into the forefront due to a large cattle operation that is accused of violating organic standards and falsifying records. You can read the entire article at ‘USDA’s Organic Factory Farming Scandal Continues to Unravel’.

   Sideways is a different kind of movie. It won high awards and acclaim from many major movie critics and independent film reviews.
    But locally it is very popular due to the fact that the majority of the filming was done in Santa Barbara County in the Buellton/Lompoc area. It also features wineries quite prominently, and the beauty of the local wineries and the scenery of the miles of vineyards in the area cannot be beat.
    The main character of the movie talks throughout the movie of his love of a particular wine grape and the resulting wine; a locally-grown grave vine called Pinot Noir. I am no wine aficionado, yet I found it interesting to hear the ‘Wine talk’ in this movie. I felt like I learned a lot about wine, but what’s the use since I don’t really go for wine? (I’ll take a good stout brew over a wine any day).
    An interesting thing about this Pinot Noir wine grape that I learned from the movie, is the fact that it is a thin skinned grape, and as such it responds more quickly to environmental changes. The warm days (for months the daytime temps have been in the mid eighties, and the cool nights on the Central Coast (in the mid fifties, even down to the high forties here in the canyon). This quick reversal of temperatures causes the grape to fill to bursting with rich juices, making for a richer full-bodied wine.
    That is what is explained in the movie, and it’s a good lesson. But there is another side to this movie. It is a story about ‘Jack’ (played by Thomas Haden Church) who is getting married in a week, and desires to spend a last week with wine aficionado ‘Miles’ (played by Paul Giamatti) who is an aspiring writer. These two unsavory characters careen along on a wild orgy of wine tasting and partying with the ’soon-to-be-married’ man on the prowl to find women with whom to spend his last days of ‘freedom’. This bothers the hero of the story, but why I don’t know. He already had proven himself to be a low-life by stealing money from his little-old-lady mom while stopping by to say hello on his way to peruse the wineries of the Santa Ynez area.

    If one is easily offended do not watch this movie. It has a fair amount of cursing and some lewd and raunchy behavior with the occasional foray into criminal misadventure. But when one watches the whole movie one sees that this is not a paean to an immoral lifestyle, for both protagonists suffer damage as a direct result of their actions.

    But the highlight of the movie was the scenes of businesses I have been in, roads I have driven. To watch the evening haze coming in from the Pacific as the sun sets is a marvelous sight. But to see the same scene on television and knowing that what you see every day millions across the world can now see, that is an exciting prospect. The people here all know of the special scenery we have that we drive through daily, but when one passes beauty daily it can become commonplace. It is nice to see that beauty out there for all others to admire.

    All-in-all I enjoyed the movie immensely (mostly due to the local scenes). But young children might perhaps be better off when shielded from this language and behavior.

Follow your dreams

    Follow your dreams, and work toward them with diligence and intelligence.
    Someday when you’re old and live in your mind, you will regret the dreams you never tried for, more than for the dreams you tried for that never made actualization.

    We watched ‘Racing Stripes’ tonight. It is a truly delightful movie about a zebra who aspires to be a Kentucky Derby Racer. The movie is made charming by all the animals that are anthropomorphized through digital effects and voice-over’s by well known stars.
    This movie is a characteristic Disney production in that it ignores reality, and shows the depths of life’s possibilities through extreme characterizations.
    But it also shows the realities of life in that what we aspire to accomplish, we can usually attain through perseverance, training, and proper preparation. And we should never let the nay Sayers stop us from our quest: to attain the highest level of excellence we can in whatever our chosen field may be.
    It is also such a special movie, that only the most hardened and bitter would not have tears at some time during the showing of this movie. And they would not be the ones to watch it anyway.
    The talking animals, from the singing jive-talking flies, the humble goat, the racing-technique smart but physically inadequate Shetland Pony, the gangster Pelican from New Jersey, and more all conspire together to help their zebra buddy realize his dream: to be a Kentucky Derby winner. And together, they all do it, and win the top honors.

    I’ve known people of all stripes (no pun intended) in my life, and the saddest ones were the ones who never had a dream, something high and lofty to reach for. To dream, is to reach far. But not to dream, that is a real sadness. Perhaps in some ways, dreams are more real than reality. For from the ether of dreams can come the reality of a fulfilling life.

    Don’t give up on your dreams, don’t give up on your life!

    Persistence is needed in life, and if you think you’ve had it hard on your clawing way to the top, think about what President Abraham Lincoln went through. We all have huge amounts of power in us, it is bred from all these generations of living through the adversities of life, and we can make it! But you can’t stop.

   The last e-mail I got from a good friend, just a few days before he died in a vehicle accident was “follow your dreams”.  And he was a fellow who worked hard and diligently for his dreams, he was in the process of selling his two homes in California and moving onto acreage in another state… he was driving to that new home when the accident happened. He was only a half year from retirement.  He got religion just weeks before the accident, and I’m glad he did. God Bless you Jay.

~Desiderata~
‘Max Ehrmann’

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Factory Farming is a word that means the overcrowding of animals in miserable conditions, depriving them usually of sunlight and the ability to feel the ground underneath their feet. It is a modern response to a system in which animals are regarded as having no value other than their inherent value as a commodity, their own feelings of discomfort are relegated to inconsequential if they are even regarded in any way at all other than as a value product.

   This type of close-quarters stocking results in cannibalism and other severe psychological distress on the animals. Due to the quick and easy transmission of disease in these unnatural conditions, the animals are dosed regularly with high amounts of antibiotics, as well as hormones to increase the meat production.

   “you are what you eat’ is the old axiom… but why is it when it comes to this method of ‘animal husbandry’ (I can’t really regard it with those words I learned in Ag. classes), we don’t apply the same thinking? It is precisely because these farms are not at our doorstep.  No one really sees the miserable conditions of the average ‘laying hen’, kept with a dozen other hens in a small area just large enough to stand in, with no nesting box, the hard wire cage floor designed to roll the egg down the bottom and out a chute where it will roll on to it’s eventual cleaning and crating.

   Yes, this makes for a low-cost food source in terms of economics. But what is the cost to the body of the hormones and antibiotics in our foods? What are we doing to our children, the next generation when we encourage them to eat these chemicals? Might there be a correlation in the age of puberty American children are now entering so early and their food sources? The rise in autism is attributed to several factors, but none have been proven yet, might the meat ingested by the mother while pregnant be a factor? The aggression seen among young women now, how much of that is merely sociological, and how much might be attributable to high levels of chemicals in their blood and brain from before birth?

   One thing to know, if you buy your meat from an organic farm, the animals cannot be given antibiotics unless there is a definite reason to prevent the death of the animal.  And as I recall, that animal cannot then be sold as organic. (we don’t raise meat animals, so I never studied the rules too closely). Animals on organic farms are also required to be allowed to get out into the sunshine a little each day. The sun is the great giver of energy, it enters the body and the cells and gives us vitamins that the body cannot properly make without it. It is essential for animals also. When I go by our neighbors cattle pastures, and see a ten acre field with twenty head in there, I see the young calves playing, butting heads, I know those are well-cared-for animals with plenty of room to roam.

   I don’t know the solution to this issue… primarily I guess it rests on the shoulders of the government to pass laws to restrict or eliminate factor farming. this will doubtless cause meat prices to rise a bit, but it will also result in more rural jobs for farm workers to care for the animals, the factory farms are designed to be as low on human labor as possible to decrease costs. The huge amounts of manure from the concentrated animals would be spread over a larger area, resulting in less localized pollution from manure. And perhaps the food supply would be healthier than we now have, with less antibiotics messing up our own immune systems, and fewer growth hormones causing rage incidents and ten year-old women.

   At any rate, the article that caused this rant is at the NY Times, ‘The worst way of farming’.

   Who hasn’t ever gotten an e-mail and been afraid to hit the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom? We are told this is the way the Spammers determine when they have a ‘live’ e-mail… then they go and sell that e-mail address to lists that will sell it on to all kinds of businesses and Spammers. But our e-mail list you can subscribe to is different, we will go and remove you, and not sell your e-mail on… so the old saw is not applicable in every case.

   But what of those annoying phone calls at dinner from telemarketers? What of credit card solicitations? There are ways you can opt-out of those deals without getting burned… go to a great article in the NY Times called ‘Don’t Call, Don’t Write, Let Me Be’. In this you will find the number to compel phone solicitors to stop calling your house….go to donotcall.gov. Or call toll free, (888)382-1222.
   You can also end credit card offers by going to (888) 567-8688. They will want your SSAN, but you will end the unsolicited credit card offers, (but not if you are a business…Rivenrock Gardens continues to get offers, but John and Vickie the owners do not).
  
   Getting lots of unsolicited e-mail and other offers through the phone is a hassle, and no one likes this form of ‘in-yer-face-advertising). We use our e-mail list to (mostly) pass on useful information as to the specials we might have coming up due to weather or other factors. Also our e-mail list is a double-opt-in, meaning first you have to enter your e-mail to the form, you then get an e-mail sent to you which you must click the link to let us know it is really your e-mail and that you really do wish to join. Yes, some folks might say it’s a double hassle, but it ensures that people cannot maliciously input someone elses e-mail causing us to ’spam’ them unintentionally.

   Privacy is something we treasure in our own private lives, and we wish to extend the same courtesy to all we deal with.

Our neighbors Al and Val of the ‘Blues Doctors’
helped on the film score of the film ‘The Ballad of Dorothy Dunn’,
the true story of a lynching that happened near here in the thirties.

You can read about the film at the producer’s website.

They are having a screening tonight and tomorrow night at the SLO library.
You can see the screening and meet the production people
including Al and Valerie Ingram.

Lompoc California, 1969: Crossroads of the Drug Trade

   Timeline 1969 - Lompoc, on California’s Central Coast was at the crossroads of the drug trade. The psychedelics came through from the Bay Area on their way to the California Southland. As if in exchange; from the Southland came the Mexican marijuana and the South American cocaine. Amphetamines were already being ‘cooked’ in houses near Lompoc. And out of the exotic orient came small parcels of heroin, courtesy (it was alleged) of military members coming back from Vietnam and Thailand.