September 2015

State Sen. Joel Anderson (R-38th District) comes home to ALEC

Earlier this year, following his sub rosa Washington D.C. meetings with the chief Geico lobbyist, we asked the question: Where in the world is state Sen. Joel Anderson, R-38th District? He’s your state senator in case  you didn’t know, and he was about as far from Sacramento as possible. Answering that question is easy this week. Anderson is at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San…


First mention of 2016 as in Welk Theater announces the 2016 season

Hello 2016. Welk Theater producers this week announced the 2016 line-up. “Meet Me In St Louis” will run through January 31, 2016. Look for the classic “Fiddler in the Roof” in February. Vista’s Kathy Brombacher directs. It’s time for “Jesus Christ Superstar,” directed and choreographed by Ray Limon in May, followed by “Sweet Charity” in September, also directed etc. by Limon. The holiday show brings back…


September Horticulture: Plan your landscape and garden for fall

Okay, ready, set……no wait!  This is the month for planning your landscape and garden areas.  Careful planning ahead can save you a lot of time, energy, money and regrets. It is still summer weather and  can be quite hot and dry this month.  Don’t worry, next month is the best planting time of the year.  Try to hold off your Fall planting for a few…



Seafood on the go: El Crazy Fish reeling in customers at North County intersection

Fish up. While developers dither and county officials dally about doing something at the confluence of Valley Center and Cole Grade roads, Gabriel Pasdor is on the scene. El Crazy Fish is the name of his happening food truck game, and the people are eating it up. “There’s no other sea food around here,” Pasdor said between hearty rounds of dishing up the likes of…


Where have you gone, Pete Verboom Dairy?

Wind kicks across the site of the old, abandoned Pete Verboom Dairy just off Highway 76, west of Pala. Once an iconic and important dairy farm among hundreds of San Diego County dairy operations, Pete Verboom Dairy No. 1 and No. 2 are no more, and left blowing in the Pala Valley wind. Verboom was president of the San Diego County Milk Producers Council. He…


Drought-tolerant plants bloom at Waterwise Botanicals mega-nursery

There’s a drought on don’t you know, and Tom Jesch, founder and general manager of Waterwise Botanicals on Old Highway 395 knows it all too well. Waterwise, as the name implies, specializes in drought-tolerant plants and succulents. And when you say specialize, it means one of the most amazing displays of such landscaping materials here, there or anywhere. “Being water wise doesn’t mean it has…


A good egg is a little harder to find due to new state chicken cage law

Egg-laying chickens at Armstrong Egg Farms off N. Lake Wohlford Road “have less friends in their cage,” said a wry Ryan Armstrong this week, and egg prices have doubled since California’s Proposition 2 went into effect on January 1. That proposition approved by state voters in 2008 calls for 25 percent more room in chicken cages, effectively cutting the number of hens per cage in…


Art is not a thing

Art is not a thing; it is a way. Elbert Hubbard Desperate to restore a greater sense of beauty in my life, I was to discover a pulsating heap of it in an unexpected place—at the Oceanside Museum of Art. And while I can find beauty in the smallest crevice sprouting a delicate tendril flower, there comes a moment when searching for another’s vision is required….


A Gaggle Of Goats

I live next door to a gaggle of goats, 4 to be exact. Now, I know they come in herds but I like alliteration so gaggle it is. Anyway, my next door neighbor, LizzyGal, has these 4 goats that live in a penned area out back, just before the land slopes down to the creek below. In the ample pen, there are 3 little outbuildings,…