June gloom

Ah, summer! Schools out, it's time to hit the beach! Grab the sunscreen and get ready to join the crowds soaking up some rays on the sand. Unless you live here, then hardy souls don their wetsuits while jackets are recommended for picture-taking moms.
A big thank you to Kirk and Tara Lantz at Alive Surfing for the awesome wetsuits. The sun and the crowds will arrive next month, along with bigger produce numbers.

June 2011 Harvest tally:
23 lbs. of fresh fruits and veggies
33 eggs

Year to date:

219 lbs. of fresh fruits and veggies

256 eggs

We live on a 1/10th acre lot and rent a 20x20 foot community garden plot and go to the beach even when its cold.

Today's Lesson: Boogie Boarding 101

Go ahead and be jealous. This is what my kids and I did today. That's right, on Wednesday, October 1st. A glorious, hot, sunshiney day. First of all, the kids got their laundry folded and put away, their beds made and their rooms clean in record time with no whining, complaining or playing around! I think I'm on to something here.

Then we hit the beach. We had almost the entire beach to ourselves. We saw a few kayakers, some joggers, and couples strolling, but mostly it was just us and the freshly raked sand. Oh, and that guy who paddles himself around while standing up straight on his surfboard.

We built sandcastles, chased the sea gulls and splashed around in the waves, then the kids got serious about learning to use their boogie boards. They've had them for a year or so, but never dared go in very far. Usually they would just let the last few feet of muddy wave push them onto dry sand. Like in this picture. But today, I waded out with them and taught them how to hold on, lay on the board and get turned around so they could ride a big wave. They were thrilled! Even when they took a tumble and went under, they came up smiling. The waves were quite calm today, and the sand actually settled between waves enough for me to see a few feet down. I found two beautiful sand dollars! I forgot to take pics of them.

We often see dolphins at our beach, but every time is still exciting and they didn't disappoint us today. For birdwatching, we saw a new bird to me; I think it is a Royal Tern. Of course there were the ever-present brown pelicans, gulls, pigeons, and the little sandpiper-like ones I need to identify one of these days.

Today was a good day.

Happy birthday USA!