San Francisco Green Festival 2012

It has been more than 10 years since I attended last Green Festival. I wasn't planning on going when I saw the admission being more than $10. A few days ago, I got an email from Goldstar offering free admission to Green Festival. It was just my luck that I checked my email the minute I received the free offer, so I grabbed a weekend pass for $4.75 of "service charge." I have been a member of Goldstar for many years, and I receive discount and free offers around the Bay Area on a weekly basis. For free offers, they are limited quantities and Goldstar charges a "service fee." That was why I had to pay $4.75 for my free pass.

I was amazed at the huge turnout of participants. I don't remember this being such a huge event last time I attended it. People lined up outside all the way around the corner before 11 a.m.  Once inside, there were countless food samplings and product samples free for the taking. I got many dog food and treat samples including 4 packs of different dog food varieties from Spring Naturals.  I also got a pack of vegetarian dog food. I am curious to find out whether Kelsey will like that.

At 4 p.m., I sat down in front of Main Stage to listen to California's non-GMO leaders talking about "Beyond Proposition 37: What's Next for GMO Labeling."  Last Tuesday was election day, and to my surprise, proposition 37 didn't pass. I couldn't fathom how it didn't pass. Today I found out that heavy advertising campaign opposing 37 was on TV and radio just a couple weeks before the election day. Apparently, every commercial break during World Series was "No on Prop 37." I would have never known since I don't watch TV nor listen to the radio. It's just shocking to me that majority of Americans would rather not know what they are eating. On second thought, there are still plenty of people eating McDonald's hamburgers everyday, so I guess majority of Americans just want cheap food. 

Ford was one of the event sponsors, and many of their electric and hybrid cars were on site for test drive.  They were even giving away SustainU (100% recycled apparel made in the USA) T-shirts just for test driving the cars. I rode in Ford's 100% electric car and was quite impressed. I wonder whether electric pickup trucks will become available soon.

Around 5 p.m. I headed home with bags of samples. Perhaps next year I'll sign up as a volunteer for Green Festival.

Hummingbirds Love Mexican Bush Sage

I planted a bunch of Mexican Bush Sage when I hired Backyard Food Gardens back in November, 2010. I like these plants because they are drought tolerant and have colorful flowers in tubular shape which hummingbirds love. Even though these flowers are not edible to me, they provide a food source for the birds and bees, and I like having the birds and honeybees in my garden. Hummingbirds do indeed visit Sand Village Farm frequently. Sometimes they get trapped in the garage, sometimes they just rest on the clothes lines I put up.

Yesterday morning, I saw two hummingbirds resting on the 2 clothes lines, one on each line. One bird had a red head while the other was all green.  I wanted to take a photo, but I knew that they would just get startled and fly away, so I went outside to take photos of my passion fruit vines instead. Suddenly I heard this noise that sounded like a giant bumble bee zooming pass me.

Sure enough it was a hummingbird. It was the red head. I snapped a few pictures of it, but it was move quite rapidly and always behind some flowers. As it flew away, the green head hummed its way over, so again I tried to take a few shots. This time I had much better luck. As the tiny bird feasted on the nectar, I got many clear shots although it stayed in the shade most of the time.

Isn't it cute?

Baby Chicks Are Getting Big

I visited the 3 chicks next door on October 12th. Today I went to see them again, and they seemed to have doubled in size once more. They are starting to look like chickens although they still make the cute baby chick noise. As usual I picked one up and held her on my chest. It has so much more feather now. She's warm and fluffy.

As soon as they saw me, they just stood in place staring at me. As soon as I stepped away further, two of them started to run around in the small coop and playing with each other. They can make big noise as they jumping up and down in the wooden coop and pecking on the metal heating lamp. The owner of the chicks are planning on moving them outside into a bigger coop this weekend because they are just getting too noisy and messy in the small confinement. 

First Treasure Island Visit

Treasure Island Flea entrance

I came across a blurb on SF Gate that Treasure Island Flea is having a 2-day Halloween party and food drive. I then realized in almost 30 years living in the Bay Area, I have never really been on Treasure Island other than having to turn around due to driving carelessness. Treasure Island is right off the Bay Bridge which I have driven on thousands of times on my way to and from San Francisco. In more recent years, developers have built houses and apartments on the island. People do actually live there. I thought, this would a a perfect opportunity to check out the island. The weekend event is also dog friendly, so I can take Kelsey without lying about her being a service dog.

Large statue on the island

It turned out that it costs $3 to attend the flea market with free parking. You also have to pay a bridge toll of $5 if you are going from the East Bay. It's toll free if you are going from San Francisco. It's not bad considering it was a nice day to be hanging out on the island. You can see San Francisco and both Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge plus Marin County from Treasure Island. There were also a lot of interesting items in the flee market.  I am not into shopping, so I only bought a bag of natural dog treats for Kelsey and a small bag of baked beet chips for myself. I bought them mainly because the vendors were so friendly and kept offering me to try their items.  Kelsey of course loves any kind of treats. She was a good dog to be hanging out in front of their booth.

 gourmet food trucks

I was more interested in the food trucks than anything else they were selling at the flea market. In recent years, due to the economy, many chefs started their own gourmet food truck business instead of opening up restaurants. The over head is a lot lower to operate food business from a truck. The term "roach coach" seems to become more of a thing of the past. The cost of entrées from the gourmet food trucks aren't exactly cheap. A cupcake can cost up to $4. I had my mind set on a Belgian waffle from Golden Waffle. I had the works with fresh strawberries, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream. It was $6 and quite delicious! 

Kelsey again attracted a lot of attention with her friendliness and backpacks. People didn't seem to understand why a dog needed to carry stuff. Kelsey's got her collapsible water bowl, 2 bottles of water, and treats in her packs. With the warm weather today, Kelsey actually drank most of her water. She took every chance to cool off in the shade.  

Kelsy resting in the shade

Robert Sibley Volcanic Preserve

Last month I went to Robert Sibley Volcanic Preserve for a hike and got a little lost while trying to take a shortcut. It ended up to be an almost 6-hour hike. Both Kelsey and I were exhausted when we finally made our way back to the car. Now more than a month has gone by, and I decided to go back and check out other trails. I picked up a few things at Berkeley Bowl and headed over to the hills around 10 a.m.

Today I went toward the opposite side of the preserve. The weather was perfect for a hike since there was very little shade on these trails. Kelsey and I entered the cattle grazing area. We did not see any cattle, only cow pies. There were huge piles of cow pies at the end of the trail on the other side of the second cattle gate. The open space was as far as the eyes could see. I didn't know how far it would go. Base on last month's experience, we just turned back at some point.

Entering the cattle gate

What I did see was a gopher snake. At first I wasn't sure whether it was alive because it was motionless. Kelsey almost stepped on it but I called her to the other side. As I got closer to the snake, it moved forward a little.

We encountered many kids on the way back. They were all very excited at seeing a dog with backpacks. One said that Kelsey was wearing "a purse".  It was a great hike under the blue sky with many friendly dogs on the trail. I think we will go back there soon.

Gopher snake