Cataloging plants

We've suddenly realized we have quite a few natives. Here's a list of what natives are currently growing.

Brewer's Salt Bush (we think)
Cleveland Sage (x2)
Manzanita (1 ground-hugging, 1 Howard McMinn)
Wooly Blue Curls
Deer Grass
Ceanothus (several types)
Artemisia (California Sage)
Island Bush Poppy (Catalina Poppy)
Primrose
Sugarbush
Desert Lavender
Chamise
Galvezia Speciosa
Heuchera
Fuschia
Willow mint/coyote mint
Buckwheat (2 kinds)
California poppies
Tufted Hairgrass (I think)

Backyard is coming along

Well. It's been a long summer, but the patio is taking shape now that the wall is done. We might actually have some time to blog it now!

I'll be taking some pictures of the setup tonight. Until then, here's VP (Veeps, Veepster, etc.) among the capstones.

Pictures...

Hi, Everybody.  Thanks to all our friends who've been helping us out, we're nearing completion of the wall.  That means we actually have time to post!

Picture 1 (Has nothing to do with the wall): Leslie, Jeff and I ran the SF marathon.  It was as hard as...building a big wall. Picture 2 is just the wall, and Picture 3 is Anne and Jeff laying down geomat.

 

Building a Block Wall

More time-lapse photography to document the hard work of all our friends. We're building! We're building!

Thanks to Jeff, Leslie and Seamus!

Still digging, after all these years.

but until then, we wanted to bring a word about:

SEDIMENTARYAND VOLCANIC BEDROCK UNITS
La Habra Formation, undivided (late Pleistocene)Siltstone, thick-bedded friable sandstone, pebbly sandstone, and pebble-cobble conglomerate; locally abundant clasts of platy white siltstone.

This stuff is really hard to dig.  Also, it wasn't created 6000 years ago, but you can believe that if you want to.

Behind Schedule

It's funny to look at our to-do list that we made a few weeks ago:

 

Needless to say, we're way behind.

Earthquake!!!

It's quite odd for me, not being Californian, to feel the earth move back and forth and up and down. Add to that the fact that I was standing right above a wall we had just built, and you might have an inkling as to what I felt when the earthquake struck this morning.

We heard a rumbling, creaking sound coming from the neighbor's and then the shaking started. I started looking around wondering whether I should actually be on top of a newly built wall, then a jolt hit and my feet started sort of doing little circles while I tried to hold still, like I was standing on a ball or something. Anne said, "You looked like you didn't know where to run." Probably true.

In any case, the wall, our friends and neighbors, our cats--everybody made it through just fine. Pretty extensive testing, I'd say.

Of course, I was on the USGS website in about 2 minutes, so you know I'm going to share some pictures with you.

One of the most interesting is this first one, which is the "intensity map." It's showing that here in Whittier, we felt it at a level VI, which is similar to what they felt a few miles away in Chino and Yorba Linda. Though it's not depicted on the map, it was also interesting here in that the p-wave didn't seem to come from the east, but rather the SW. You never know how the shock waves are going to bounce around.

T

p-wave travel times (in min):