We often make our own bread, using this great recipe. A bonus to making our own bread is we have the basic ingredients needed for making a variety of baked foods. We often make pizza at home and use the following scratch dough recipe. It’s not the best I’ve ever had – that would go to high temperature Naples-style pizza – but it’s better than buying pre-made dough and only takes 10 minutes. I had a couple of requests for the recipe so am sharing it here – enjoy!
Chorizo, onion, cilantro, kale, with jack cheese and no sauce. Yum.
Ingredients
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a ceramic bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes.
Stir in flour, salt and oil. Mix by hand thoroughly. Let rest for 5 minutes.
Transfer crust to a pizza pan or baking sheet lightly greased with olive oil. Spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.
Jack and feta cheese with kale and onions. Very tasty, except for the feet.
This recipe is from Allrecipes.com with some tweaks to the instructions. Have another tweak or a topping suggestion? Drop it in the comments or email me and I’ll add.
The following is from Dr. Gabe Mirkin’s website, www.drmirkin.com. It was forwarded to me by a friend and I couldn’t locate it online so am posting here to share the information.
Really enjoyed this somewhat quirky study of energy efficiency in transport and comparing human transport efficiency to a handful of animals. Enjoy and ride on!
Dr. Gabe Mirkin’s Fitness and Health e-Zine September 13, 2015
Bicycles Are Most Energy-Efficient
If you ride a bicycle, be proud. Humans riding on bicycles are more energy-efficient than any other animal and any other form of transportation. Vance Tucker of Duke University compared bicyclists to humans and animals running, birds flying and fish swimming, as well as to people in motor-powered cars, boats, trains and planes (J. Exp. Bio, 1973;68(9):689-709). The less energy per weight you use to travel over a distance, the more energy-efficient you are. Vance found that the most efficient creature without mechanical help is a condor. With mechanical help, the cyclist comes out on top. Here is a partial list, ranked from most to least energy-efficient:
human on a bicycle
condor
salmon
horse
human in a jet plane
human walking
human running
human in an automobile
cow
sheep
dog
hummingbird
rabbit
bee
mouse
Mice, bees and hummingbirds use the most energy per weight and therefore are very inefficient and tire the earliest. This concept explains why pre-historic human hunters could catch faster-running animals. The human would tire later, so it didn’t matter how fast the animal could run; if the human ran long enough he would eventually catch the exhausted animal.
A person on a bicycle is more energy-efficient than one using an automobile, motorcycle, train or plane, even though he is much slower. If you compare the amount of calories burned in bicycling to other forms of locomotion, you will find that 100 calories supplies an average cyclist for three miles, a walker for one mile and a car for only 280 feet. A walking human uses 0.75 calorie of energy per gram of body weight for each kilometer traveled, while a cyclist uses only a fifth as much, 0.15 calorie per gram per kilometer. The WorldWatch Institute reports that when you ride a bicycle you use only 35 calories per mile, while walking requires 100 calories per mile, buses and trains use about 900 calories per mile per person, and a car uses 1860 calories per mile (Ergonomics, 2008 Oct;51(10):1565-75).
Slow Riders Use Less Energy Than Fast Riders
Cycling is so energy-efficient that a good rider can go just about any distance. In 2014, Christopher Strasser won the Race Across America by cycling 3,098 miles in seven days, 15 hours and 56 minutes. He averaged 16.42 miles per hour. The record for a woman was set in 1995 at an average speed of 13.23 MPH. Interestingly, slow riders use less energy per mile than fast riders. During a one-hour ride, a person riding a touring bike for nine miles burns 135 calories with an average power of 50 watts. In an hour an experienced bicycle racer can go 30 miles but will burn 2150 calories and produce approximately 500 watts or 0.67 horsepower. You burn more calories per mile because the faster you ride, the greater the wind and air resistance. Resistance varies with the square of your speed. A recumbent bicycle is more energy-efficient because being lower to the ground reduces the size of the bike and body that is being blocked by wind and air resistance (Proc Biol Sci, 2001 Jul 7;268(1474):1351-60).
More Cars Than Bikes in North America
The world’s 6.1 billion people own 1.2 billion bicycles and only 600 million motorized passenger vehicles. That’s one bike per five people and one automobile per 10 people. However, the highly-developed countries are dominated by automobiles. The United States has:
* Twice as many automobiles as bicycles
* More than 90 percent of transportation trips done in automobiles
* Less than one percent of trips done by bike
Benefits of Riding a Bicycle
More people should ride bicycles because:
* Bicycles require the least energy to go places. Cars use 30 percent of world’s petroleum.
* Bicycles are far more energy efficient than running or walking.
* Bicycles produce less air pollution than motor-driven transportation.
* Bicycles are manufactured with far less material and labor than engine-driven forms of transportation.
* Bicycles help to prevent disease and prolong life by giving you the health benefits of exercise.
Biking through the Wachau Valley along the Danube River in Austria – fantastic fun!
North Park is an urban neighborhood in San Diego. It is often cited as the “hipster” area of town and is generally known for being one of the more walkable areas in San Diego. North Park is home to the only 2 parklets in San Diego, the majority of the bike corrals in the city, and it is not uncommon to see people biking on the streets.
If there is anywhere in San Diego you would expect to find good bicycle infrastructure North Park would be high on the list, perhaps along with East Village, Downtown, Little Italy, or a beach community like Ocean Beach or Pacific Beach. The reality on the ground is far from good. The reality is a near absolute lack of any bicycle infrastructure.
Here’s a complete map of all the bike lanes in North Park, highlighted in red. The gray, white, orange, and red lines indicate all roadways. There are a total of 2 streets in North Park that have painted bike lanes. One of them is a portion of El Cajon Boulevard, with cars regularly exceeding 40 and 50 MPH. There are no protective measures for biking anywhere in North Park. There is no system or grid to bicycle – if you ride on a roadway with a lane you will be forced to connect to another roadway without any dedicated space for biking whatsoever.
San Diego, and particularly North Park, has very wide streets. There is plenty of room on many of the streets to add bike lanes with the minimal cost and effort of applying paint. Paint is not protection, but it is much better than no dedicated space at all. When conflict occurs due to lack of separated space, as on Adams Avenue recently, drivers can literally run over those biking without likelihood of prosecution.
If a place like North Park that is promoted as being a good place to bike or walk has so little accommodation for bikes what does that mean for other areas that are more explicitly car-first? If our Climate Action Plan rightly targets transportation as a focus area to create a better future, how do we increase biking by a factor of 18 as the plan seeks without facilities to support that growth? We will not get there without meaningful change on the ground.
A couple of bike lanes in a neighborhood of 50,000 people in the core of our city is not good enough. It’s barely even laughable as an attempt at being bike and environmentally friendly. It underlies how unserious we are about moving away from the private automobile as the overwhelming primary transport option. It is no surprise that so few people bike in San Diego when the reality on the ground is unless you are confident and strong enough to bike with zero accommodation on wide, high speed streets you are out of luck.
Parents, myself included, fret about biking with their children or letting their kids bike to school. Would you put your child on a bike on University Avenue (where SANDAG just scrapped a plan to add a bike plan) or El Cajon Boulevard? Or even smaller streets like 32nd Street or Arnold Avenue? On a recent speed survey on Arnold “City Engineers determined 85% of the traffic was indeed exceeding our 25 mph speed limit by at least 10 mph – one vehicle was going 71 mph – and that test wasn’t even on a Friday or a weekend!” Quoted portion from North Park Nextdoor website.
Perhaps the good news is we can only improve from our current status. That is little comfort for those working and fighting to create a safer, healthier future for our neighborhoods and city. Real support for real improvement is needed from our elected officials and transportation authorities. Foremost we need leadership from SANDAG to pursue a responsible future path on both transportation and land use – not plans that ignore climate change, encourage sprawl, and commit billions and billions to more highways and scraps for biking, walking, and transport. Even the scraps committed to healthier transport are back-loaded and likely to be walked back when push comes to shove.
North Park – I dig you. But bicycle friendly you are not.
Granada Avenue – 54 feet wide but not an inch for bicycles or crosswalks. Good luck to those that don’t want to drive.
Multi-day bicycle camping tour highlights natural beauty of San Diego
Thanks to A7D of North Park for design work!
Bike San Diego has had a busy year to date, adding many new events like the Beach Side Bike Ride from Old Town to La Jolla in July, the Bike Month Bash along El Cajon Boulevard in May, and the upcoming Bike to the Border ride from Barrio Logan to the Mexico border later this month on September 19. In October another new event, the biggest for the organization to date, will debut. America’s Finest Bicycle Tour (AFBT), will showcase the natural beauty of San Diego and present an opportunity to connect with fellow participants.
AFBT is a three night bicycle tour of San Diego County with vehicle support for participants. Vehicle support means that participants won’t have to lug their camping gear or clothes while they ride – their belongings will await them at each day’s destination. Campsites are provided for each night, as is dinner and breakfast each day. Food and beverages for the event feature San Diego establishments like Modern Times Beer, City Tacos, Golden Cost Mead, and other great local companies.
The three campsites are Sweetwater Summit, Dos Picos near Ramona, and Carlsbad State Beach – a variety of camping locations that give a broad view of the diversity of topography and climate present in San Diego. Below is a map of the route, click through for a dynamic map you can manipulate for additional detail.
2015 Inaugural AFBT Route
Cost for the event is $205 through September 26, increasing to $255 thereafter. There is limited capacity for the event so interested parties are encouraged to register early to ensure a spot. All proceeds benefit Bike San Diego, an organization working to “establish San Diego as a world-class bicycling city and create a more livable urban community by promoting everyday riding and advocating for bicycling infrastructure.”
For more details and to register see the official website – bikesandiegocounty.org. For inquiries or questions please contact event organizer Tim Stempel at tim@bikesandbeers.org.
As the Airbnb debate continues in San Diego, I found it interesting to receive a warning letter from my previous apartment manager, Torrey Pines Property Management this week informing tenants that using sites like Airbnb is not allowed in the buildings they manage. I contacted Torrey Pines and was informed that this is a proactive measure to avoid issues in future, not in response to issues that have occurred. Good for them for taking a proactive, informative approach to the issue.
I wanted to share this since there are likely many San Diegans that would like to utilize sites like Airbnb to rent a spare room, or their apartment while they are out of town. If you rent a property, or live in a building or community with an HOA it is important to check the terms or covenants, conditions, and restrictions before trying to host a guest on these platforms. Note that this may also be the case even if you’re not receiving money by using a site like HomeExchange or Couchsurfing.
In addition to issues with your landlord, renting a room in your apartment or home is currently illegal in the City of San Diego and you may be liable for tens of thousands of dollars in fines as a woman in Burlingame has found out. To date, this is the only penalty of this sort in San Diego but the Code Enforcement Division will be responding to complaints about this sort of use in the future and I assume pursuing violators with the same vigor as the Burlingame case. Per conversations with Code Enforcement any enforcement will be complaint-driven – they won’t be using the publicly accessible information on sites like Airbnb and VRBO to identify potential violations.
If your lease doesn’t allow you to host on Airbnb but you think it would be beneficial try talking to your landlord. Some landlords are willing to allow the use if you agree to take liability for any issues caused or may be willing to allow it for an increase in your rent payments. I know a couple of people personally using this approach, and in San Francisco it worked out for a couple as well.
Kelsey and Mike Sheofsky achieved that balance. The couple travel frequently for Shelter Co., their luxury-camping business. They had dabbled with the idea of listing their Mission District house on Airbnb. Then their landlord approached them.
“She said, ‘What do you think about Airbnb-ing your place when you’re gone?’ ” Kelsey Sheofsky said. “I thought, ‘Perfect, we’re ready to go.’ Now we do it, and we give her a 20 percent cut of any money we make after cleaning expenses. Some months we give her an extra 600 bucks.”
Your landlord may or may not be open to Airbnb – make sure you are informed and if you have a question make sure to ask.
Our most recent Airbnb stay was in Budapest adjacent the Opera House.
Below is the letter from Torrey Pines in full.
Dear Resident(s):
The increasingly popular site airbnb.com where individuals can post short-term, vacation rentals is a growing concern for Landlords in San Diego due to the noise, strain on resources, and lack of regard for the property that comes from using any residence as a “Hotel” or “Bed and Breakfast”.
We would like to take this opportunity to remind our valued Residents that posting your apartment on this, or a similar site is considered a breach of contract and could result in legal action including eviction from the premises.
We take this matter very seriously and will be moving forward with legal action should your unit be located on a listing site for the purpose of subletting without our expressed written consent. Please contact your Property Manager if you have any questions or wish to report suspect or known violations.
Sincerely,
Torrey Pines Property Managment, Inc.
(858) 454-4200
www.torreypinespm.com
Ocean Beach is one of my favorite neighborhoods in San Diego. It’s where our family typically goes for beach trips and I recommend it as a great place to visit for all our friends and family from out of town. Recently I rediscovered a great pocket beach in Ocean Beach at the foot of Santa Cruz Street, dubbed “Santa Cruz Cove”. Officially, the beach is known as Santa Cruz Avenue Beach but I like the Cove version better.
The beach is a great spot to take our young children due to the wide variety of natural elements present. There are two separate sand beach areas with waves that are mostly gentle and the ocean floor has a gradual slope so you can swim out and remain in mostly shallow water. Tide pools are present with a variety of anemones, crabs, snails, and other small wildlife. There are rocks to climb (and jump off of) and you can adventure north or south along the coast for more exploring. If you enjoy the sound of waves crashing it’s a great place since the cliffs rise quickly behind the beaches, amplifying the sound.
There are typically not many people at Santa Cruz Cove so it’s also a good place for sunbathing, reading, or taking a nap.
The main negatives are that there is not a public restroom near (the closest is the lifeguard tower north of the pier) and there can be trash issues at times.
To reach Santa Cruz Cove walk south a few blocks along the ocean from the Ocean Beach Pier or descend the steps at the terminus of Santa Cruz Avenue. (You can use 5098 Santa Cruz Avenue, San Diego, CA 92107 as your search address if using GPS or a mapping app.)
Have a great day and I hope you enjoy your visit to a great beach in San Diego!
View toward the coast from furthest rock.
Another coast view.
From the top of the stairs, the north beach area.
South beach area from top of stairs.
View from stairs.
View up the stairs, with Ocean Beach fitting graffiti.
San Diego County has a large beer industry, there are currently more than 110 active breweries. Along with high numbers, San Diego has earned a reputation as a leader in the craft beer industry. Many would rank it as the top craft beer city/region in the United States – whether it is the top dog or in the top five isn’t especially important. It’s a leader however you measure – top ranked beers, top ranked breweries, number of breweries, or gallons produced annually.
As craft beer has exploded it has increasingly come at the expense of the “big brewers” – InBev and MillerCoors. In 2014 craft breweries saw production growth of 18% while beer overall saw an increase of only .5%. Read between the lines and that means that the “Big 2” are losing market share while smaller craft brewers are experiencing a decade of double digit annual growth. Many places in the U.S. have embraced craft beer as a marketing tool and part of civic identity – San Diego, Fort Collins, Grand Rapids, and Portland would certainly fall into this category along with many others.
In response to loss of market share, the big brewers have adopted a strategy of purchasing craft beer brands to get a share of the sales and production growth. With enormous assets and resources why don’t the big brewers simply establish new craft beer breweries in markets with potential? Most likely because craft beer brands are typically tied to local markets and seen as the “little guy” or underdog that embraces the community and builds a loyal band of followers. It’s hard for InBev sell beer as an underdog.
So InBev and MillerCoors come to town and write a check with a bunch of zeroes, hope someone takes the offer, and then do their best to make sure that as few people as possible know that a big brewery now owns the “little guy”. Craft breweries purchased by “Big Beer” have included Goose Island of Chicago (2011 for $39 million), 10 Barrel of Bend, Oregon (2014 for undisclosed amount), Elysian in Seattle (2015 for undisclosed amount), and many others. Redhook, Widmer, and Kona breweries are owned by Craft Brew Alliance – a publicly traded company with substantial share (more than 30%) owned by InBev.
So does it matter if a brewery is owned by a person in your neighborhood or a large corporation like InBev? For many it does. In San Diego the economic impact of the craft beer industry was estimated at $600 million in 2014 and growing at a substantial rate. This number might be sustained if a brewer (or a few brewers) were sold but the profits earned would be sent to the corporate shareholders, not to the pockets of local owners. There would almost certainly be a reduction in headcount for administrative positions like marketing and sales and possibly in the brewhouse as well, if production is moved to larger, more efficient facilities.
Do consumers care? If the beer is good, the beer is good. In Chicago it does not seem that Goose Island selling to InBev has had a negative impact. Their annual release of the acclaimed Bourbon County Stout is a huge event. Does it matter if the beer is brewed in Chicago, and Fort Collins, and Portsmouth? Perhaps not.
And there are enormous advantages to the brand. With the increased assets of a large corporation, craft breweries that are sold can afford to buy end caps in Whole Foods (where I’ve found Goose Island prominently displayed here in San Diego). This success can be multiplied through scale even if the brewer that created iconic beers like Bourbon County has since left to be a cidermaker in Michigan. (The head brewer for Elysian left soon after the sale of that company as well.)
San Diego has earned a reputation for being a leader in the craft beer world. From Stone’s early role in super hop-heavy beers, which has become the signature calling card for San Diego and inspired it’s own style: San Diego IPA or San Diego Pale Ale. Ballast Point has brought hot pepper beers to the mainstream and constantly is experimenting with herbs, citrus, and other flavors. White Labs is located here in town and allows brewers to access top-quality yeast strains, and new experimental strains as well.
The current rumor is that Saint Archer is being sold to MillerCoors. This would be the first San Diego craft brewery to be sold to “Big Beer”. (There have been other sales like the recent acquisition of Alpine by Green Flash.) Losing one brewery out of 110 isn’t a large percentage. The bigger risk is that utilizing bigger assets the San Diego brand will be eroded. If Saint Archer, or any brewery, is sold what will happen when that brewery buys premium space in grocery stores? If the label says “San Diego beer” and is next to Stone, Green Flash, and Modern Times will a person in Texas or Wisconsin know which is owned by San Diegans and which is owned by a faceless corporation? Maybe they won’t care. Worse yet, if the quality of the beer is reduced to drive sales and is affiliated with San Diego it could damage the overall reputation for quality currently enjoyed by the industry here. Whether Saint Archer is actually selling or not, a sale is likely to occur in the near future given the trend of purchases by the large brewers and the reputation of San Diego beer.
For me, the ownership of our breweries matters. When friends and family, or strangers, visit us in San Diego I love highlighting unique experiences that are rooted here. Local hiking trails, coffee shops, breweries, restaurants, etc. When I travel it’s the same – there is enjoyment derived simply from the fact that what you are partaking of is part of the place where you are. The fast food nation America became in the 20th century of universal sameness erased much of the uniqueness of our country and our experiences. The recent rise of craft beer, craft coffee, and other artisan offerings is a welcome breath of fresh air and a reminder that quality and locality matters. Is it pretentious? Sometimes, maybe most of the time. Does that make it bad? Absolutely not.
My hope is that if a brewery is sold to “Big Beer” there will be a penalty to be paid. Local consumers will choose to support breweries based, owned, and operated here. Hopefully the San Diego Craft Brewer’s Guild will not allow a member that is not included in the definition of craft beer.
InBev and MillerCoors are welcome to create craft beer. They’re welcome to buy craft breweries. But doing so in an intentionally misleading way is wrong. If drinkers want to buy a McPorter or a McIPA they can choose to do so. I’ll be sticking with a Stone Enjoy By or Modern Times Black House. I hope you’ll join me for a round to celebrate the great place we live in. Cheers.
KPBS recently ran a story mostly lamenting the lack of parking for vehicles at Balboa Park in San Diego. I strongly disagree with this premise, particularly because of the lack of parking studies to support this viewpoint. I posted a bit on my Facebook page (re-posted below) and was surprised and grateful to see it included the next day in both the San Diego Free Press Starting Line and the Voice of San Diego Morning Report.
If you live in San Diego or like to follow news from San Diego these are my two favorite daily sources for information and viewpoints from the area. You can subscribe to both of these sources via email if you’d like to get them in your inbox.
Here are my brief thoughts on proposals to pave more of Balboa Park for parking lots, garages, and roadways. It is very sad to me that in some of our most precious locations – the beachfront, the bayfront, Balboa Park, and so many others – we actively go out of our way to spend millions to erase the natural beauty that exists here. Hopefully we can start to change our ways and live in a more sustainable, and enjoyable manner in the future.
This is so terrible it’s not even funny. In San Diego, our biggest and most well-known, and well-visited, park is Balboa Park. If you’ve been to San Diego you may have been there.
Instead of preserving our park space we are actively trying to pave more and more and more of it to accommodate vehicle parking. If parking were difficult, this might be a cause worth considering.
But facts like usage of existing parking spots won’t be found in articles like this or conversations with our “Balboa Park leaders”. Maybe a quick anecdote to note that yes, there are almost always open parking spots, but then back to visions of parking garages and multi-million dollar roadways that taxpayers will pay for.
Fresh on the heels of a huge parking garage built by the San Diego Zoo (which all San Diego property owners pay for) we have visions of parking on the East Mesa (which is already a parking lot used by city trucks), and a parking garage behind the Organ Pavilion.
More parking, more cars, more pavement. Less open space, worse air, and more congestion. Everybody clap.
Ocean Beach to Julian is a long way to bicycle. About 65 miles one-way, and entirely uphill with nearly a mile of elevation gain. It’s a test worth taking, and one you’ll savor when done.
This is the 4th year I’m organizing the Ride for the River Park and I hope you’ll join me. The event will take place September 26 and 27, 2015. It’s been a great time riding with friends old and new and pushing through one tough day of riding to enjoy the mountain town of Julian, some good stories, and some good San Diego beer. The upside to a really tough first day is cruising back down the entire way on the return trip.
The first year I organized this ride it was my longest ride ever – by a long shot. I had never ridden more than 30 miles in my life, maybe not even 20. If you’re concerned about your ability and the difficulty of the ride you’re not alone – most of us that have participated were in the same boat. If you’re looking for a good challenge, and a good group to cheer you on I hope you’ll consider coming out.
Riding from coastal San Diego, through Mission Trails Regional Park, through vineyards near Ramona and Julian, and eventually through pine shaded roads is a wonderful experience. The amount of diversity of natural beauty in San Diego is astounding and seeing it first-hand (no, out a car window is not the same) is something I look forward to every year.
I’m proud to support the San Diego River Park Foundation with this event and regular donations. The organization does great conservation and native space restoration work to preserve and enhance the native landscape. Additionally, there are year-round clean-ups, educational workshops, and many other programs. If you can’t join the ride I hope you’ll consider supporting the foundation financially or volunteering for a clean-up this year.
I love plants. Trees, shrubs, and especially in San Diego native species like manzanita, oak, sage, and pine. I am frequently in the yard trying to find more space to add additional plants or replacing ones that have died. (My approach to plants is mostly trial-and-error and learning as I go about what thrives in San Diego so there have been some poorly picked casualties along the way.)
However, plants cost money – especially big trees. Recently I’ve recently reading a lot of books and articles about personal finance and philosophy like the Mr. Money Mustache website and the book Early Retirement Extreme. These readings, and others like them, are focused on thinking about priorities and lifestyle, not penny-pinching though the names may suggest otherwise. In regard to my quest for trees for my property it led me to think about other methods than buying trees at a nursery to get some nice specimens.
I started with calling a number of nurseries to comparison shop and get an idea of the price for 3 good-sized trees (24 inch planting box or larger). After calling around the best price I could find was $680 for 2 Palo Verde trees and one New Zealand Christmas tree. That’s a good amount of money but plants are something I feel ok spending money on since you can’t make up the years it takes to establish a tree.
I talked about making this purchase with my wife and we decided to wait a couple of months and think about it. As with many purchases, delaying for a bit is a good way to step back and contemplate to see if it’s really a legitimate desire/need or just a short-term itch wanting to be scratched.
During the “waiting period” I decided to search on Craigslist for free trees since I had gotten some plants and trees on the site in the past. In San Diego most of the free trees are palms which I wasn’t interested in but a quick search for “tree” or “trees” in the morning took less than two minutes and I thought worth doing for a week or two to see if something more attractive might appear.
Was I in luck! In less than a week I had found some large, gorgeous trees – an Australian Flame tree and a few African Sumac trees that were 100% free and within 10 miles of my house. Since I care for two young kids most days, I scheduled a Saturday morning to go get them. I arrived to the first tree, in Coronado, with a spade and my mini-van. It was advertised as 12-15 feet but was easily 20 feet tall. Undeterred, I spent the next two hours digging out the root ball and calling for a UHaul truck and a friend to help me carry the tree.
I headed home after the tree was out of the ground for lunch, the UHaul, and a good and willing friend. We returned and loaded up the tree in short order then dropped it off at my house before heading to East Village for the other two
trees which were thankfully already in boxes. 24 inch boxes were advertised but this ad overdelivered as well and we found three 36 inch boxes awaiting us, along with two 60 inch boxes. The three remaining trees are in the Pocket Park at J Street and 13th behind Mission if anyone is interested.
We proceeded to use a dolly, which broke, to move the trees into the UHaul. With the dolly broken we slowly shimmied the trees up the ramp and then headed home.
Flame Tree planted in yard – beautiful
That evening and the next day I dug 3 large holes – 36 inches cubed – to fit the trees. All told, I spent about 12 solid hours digging and moving plus about 6 hours of time from my friend and wife. 18 hours plus a total of $92 ($76 for the UHaul rental and $16 for celebration beers) for three amazing trees. My original budget was $680 so this seemed like a great deal. Then I priced the trees that I did get – $450 per for the Sumacs and $1150 or likely more for the Flame. Awesome! Not only had I saved 86% from my original budget but I’d received far larger and more valuable trees as well. Based on the nursery prices, I’d paid 4.48% of the value of the trees I ended up with. Better yet, I’d potentially saved 3 gorgeous trees that may have ended up in the trash. Someone else may have taken the trees, but if not they likely would have been chopped down.
If you’re looking to add some trees to your yard, take a look at Craigslist and save some major money. It’s also a fantastic place to get free or discounted furniture and other goods. (And also a great way to get rid of items you don’t need anymore.)
If you live in San Diego you can even get free street trees that come planted for you! It’s a great program and you can even apply online. I received a Hong Kong Orchid tree under this program that has done great and has beautiful flowers.
space to add additional plants or replacing ones that have died. (My approach to plants is mostly trial-and-error and learning as I go about what thrives in San Diego so there have been some poorly picked casualties along the way.)
