Indian Rock Native Garden - March 23, 2009

On Monday, March 23, 2009, our class had the opportunity to visit the Indian Rock Native Garden in Vista, California. Driving the the garden was a bit unusual though. Our professor had mentioned that it is in the middle of a residential area, but until you are there, you do not fully comprehend how residential it is. Pulling up to the garden, which is surrounded by a simple, chain link fence, I saw that opposite the garden, the street was lined with homes. I was a bit worried about parking in front of a stranger's house, but I did my best to park out of the way.

After parking, I met up with a few of my classmates and walked through the open gate and up a dirt path. Immediately, I noticed the large, tagged rock on top of the hill. Being the only large rock in the area, I knew that was the Indian Rock the garden's title promised. The dirt trail wound around the hill, curving to the left. As I followed it, I found more of my classmates, and our professor. At the moment, not all of our classmates had arrived for our prearranged tour with Alan, a native Luiseno of Vista, and Greg, our native plant guide. Alan indicated that we could go ahead and walk up the small trail to take a look at the rock while we waited for everyone to arrive. Walking up the hill, it was hard not to notice all the beautiful yellow flowers that were starting to bloom (which I learned were Yellow Mallows from our tour with Greg).

Arriving at the top of the hill, there was a large open area, leveled and paved with stones and concrete. To my right I noticed the leftover foundation of a previous structure, and straight ahead of me was the Indian Rock. From this angle, the rock was clean, and untagged by local gangs. To my left, trees and vegetation grew. Some laurel sumac, a non-native citrus tree, and a smaller rock completely covered by wild cucumber.


Personally, I found the rock covered by wild cucumber to be extremely beautiful. The little white blooms and green, prickly fruit covered the rock, giving it an ancient look. I wandered closer to the larger rock in front of me, and made my way around to get a closer look at the front side I had seen first walking into the garden area. It's face seemed almost scarred by the blue and white paint left by a local Vista gang, better known as the Vista Home Boys. Looking at the graffiti, I felt sorry for the rock, alone on a hill, unable to protect itself in the middle of suburbia.



After exploring the landscape around the rock for about 15 minutes, the rest of our group had arrived, along with other local natives, as well as some Vista city council members. Alan introduced himself to us and his involvement with the Indian Rock Native Garden, as well as gave us the background on the garden. He told us about how the rock was important in coming-of-age ceremonies for young women of the Luiseno people. He further told us about their efforts in restoring the native plants of the garden. At this point, Alan let Greg take over the tour. I was extremely impressed by the vast knowledge Greg had about native plants!!!


One of the most interesting things he told us was how drought and fire resistant the native plants can be, which really surprised me. After listening to this and seeing how beautiful the native plants are, I am really surprised people in southern California are not more interested in using native plants for landscaping. Greg took us from the bottom of the hill, all the way back up to the Indian Rock at the top, stopping along the way to give us information on each plant we saw. At the top, Alan took over again, and got even more in depth in the importance of the rock and native garden in preserving the local history of the area. He even mentioned the pictographs on the front of the rock, which I had not even seen earlier because of all the graffiti. Alan told us that the paint from the pictographs will long out live the everyday spray paint, which helped ease some of my concern. Truthfully, I think it is such a shame that these gang members are so ignorant they do not realize or even care how their territorial tagging is vandalizing an important piece of history.

After our wonderful and insightful tour, Alan and a group from the local Luisenos were kind enough to provide some sandwiches, chips, salads, and drinks for us. I was really moved by how welcoming and generous they were. It is definitely an experience I will not forget any time soon!

Overall, the Indian Rock Native Garden was one of my favorite field trips. After listening to Greg and how passionate he was about all of the native plants, I am definitely considering landscaping my front yard at home with native plants and plenty of mulch!

Here are some more pictures from our trip:

Some coastal oak:

Rincon Reservation - March 16, 2009

For March 16th's field trip, our Advanced Digital Arts class met at the Rincon Reservation to take pictures, and plant some plants. I was a bit lost trying to find the Rincon Tribal Hall, mainly because the building itself was not marked as "Rincon Tribal Hall," but another name in their tribal language. Luckily, during my third pass of the building, I saw my professor standing in the parking lot, so I finally was able to park and join the rest of my classmates.

From the parking lot, we walked around the back of the Tribal Hall area and found a field of little trail of intertwining gravel paths, which divided the field into 4 different sections. Here, we met with our local guide/speaker, and she explained what we would be doing that afternoon. We students were split up into 4 different groups, and each group was assigned a group of plants, and an area to plant those plants. I was lucky enough to get assigned to the desert group, because there were not a lot of plants for assigned to our group. Do not get me wrong, I do enjoy plants and being outside, but only two days before I had had a manicure, and had totally forgotten to grab gloves at home. Needless to say, I was not too excited about doing some planting!




After grabbing our plants and retreating to our assigned area, we had to come up with a layout for where to plant the plants. To be completely honest, none of us were really sure where to put them, so we just came up with a few ideas for our oak trees (I believe we had 4 or 5 coastal oaks to plant), and then just put everything else away from the oaks. The problem with having so many oaks though was that we knew they were going to get tall, so we had to space them out. By spacing them out though, we knew that would create a lot of shade in our area. A lot of the other plants we had to plant were plants that require full sun, so who knows how well they will do once those oaks get really big.



With our plants plotted out, we got approval for our layout and started digging. I have to admit, the soil was pretty strange throughout our section. You would dig up soil at one part, and it would be regular soil, and then you would go 10-20 feet to the left to start on the next plant and you would be digging in sand! I guess it works for our "desert" team, but not knowing how each plant will respond to the soil types made me a little nervous.




Within about 20 minutes we had all of our plants planted! We then put our mulch down around the base of our plants and were ready for watering! Now this is where we all started to get a little frustrated. We were not given very much info or instruction on how to water our newly planted plants. They told us to try and find the end of our irrigating hoses (long black hoses with drip nozzles in them; they were already laid out in our field for some existing plants), but our hoses just continued on into the other fields, so we had no end to ours. After that, we got no further instruction on what to do (even after asking three times about what we needed to do for water), and after standing around doing nothing for 15 minutes we decided to just start helping other teams finish, in hopes that we could leave early. Of course, that did not happen, but I did stick around and help another team with irrigating their area.



At the end of the trip, I was dirty and ready to go home. It was interesting in the fact that I got a chance to plant plants I have never handled before, but overall, it was not as exciting as the Pechanga trip we had last week. Here are some more pictures from the trip:


Adina planting a plant for her team:

Mohave Yucca:


Our Lord's Candle:

Incensio:

Pechanga Indian Reservation - March 9, 2009

On our last field trip in my Advanced Digital Art class, we had the privilege of visiting the Pechanga Indian Reservation in Temecula. Our guide for the outing, Mr. Willie Pink, was extremely nice and extremely helpful in teaching our group all about the cultural background and preservation efforts of the Luiseno band of Native Americans.

I arrived a bit early to the Pechanga gas station (where the class was suppose to meet up), and was able to use the restroom there before we left on a shuttle bus to tour the reservation. I was extremely glad I did this, because port-o-potties are something I try to avoid at all possibilities!

Our first stop on our tour of the reservation was the Great Oak. This coastal oak was AMAZING! At over 100 feet high, and around 1,000+ years old, this oak is a magnificent tree! Mr. Pink told us of the history of the tree (how flooding had brought in more silt to the valley, raising the ground level to the tree's branches) and how the tree was used for boy scout camp outs. The tree was absolutely beautiful though. No matter what angle you looked at it from, it truly had it's own personality. Looking up into the branches, you could almost feel the tree looking back at you. The most beautiful part of the whole experience was just standing there, looking up at its huge branches, and seeing the sun glint through its leaves.






After spending about 30 minutes at the Great Oak, Mr. Pink decided it was time to move on to our next destination. We piled back onto the shuttle and drove over to an area of an old Luiseno Village. The first thing we saw was this cool rock with petroglyphs on it.



Next, we were able to look at the village. Though the original structures no longer exist, Mr. Pink explained to us a summer program the reserve has for the young Luiseno members, where they build their own structures, learn about the land their ancestors lived off of, and help to preserve their ancient culture by learning both language and customs passed down by generations. Mr. Pink explained how even the mentors are learning much about the work it takes to run and maintain a Luiseno Village. Many of the structures there do not last the winter, because they require constant care (the care it would receive if someone lived in the huts around the clock), but because the program is only a summer program, the structures are normally inhabitable after being vacant half of the year. The structures were extremely neat looking, and I could not resist getting an up close picture of some of the materials used.













In the same area, Mr. Pink showed us some of the native plants used in traditional basket weaving (such as the juncus Mr. Pink is holding in the above picture), along with some petroglyphs. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed in myself for not checking my camera settings along the trip, because between the stop at the Great Oak, to the Luiseno Village area, I think I accidentally changed something, because a lot of my pictures came out over exposed. I was so angry at myself when I got home and discovered this!!! Luckily though, I was able to use Photoshop to fix a lot of them.




After finishing up at the Luiseno Village, we piled back on the shuttle one more time, and headed to a nursery on the reservation. The nursery was pretty small, but is completely dedicated to growing natural plants for the reserve. There we found juncus, yucca, and oak seedlings just sprouting. There was also different types of willows being grown, which can be used in both basket weaving and hut making.




As the sun went down and the wind got cold, our field trip had come to an end. It was the first time I had ever been on the Pechanga reservation, and our guide, Willie Pink, did a wonderful job of showing us around and teaching us about the Luiseno culture. I feel very lucky to have been able to participate in this trip, and the Great Oak will always be a wonderful memory for the rest of my life!

March 2 - Sally Mann

We finished watching the Sally Mann documentary on "What Remains," and I was extremely moved by it.

Mann's series of photographs about death was a bit strange, and unnerving at first, but the more she explained her inspiration behind the photographs, the more interesting the whole concept became. One of my favorite photos she took was the photo of dog bones she lined up in a line. The picture of the bones, in black and white and surrounded by "bone dust," really epitomized the idea that all that's left after death is this shell of what you once were.

Another photo that I really like by Sally Mann is one of a tree with a cut through the middle of it. In black and white, it almost looks like the tree is bleeding.



Her work definitely inspires me to try and experiment more with black and white photography, because if done right it an convey very powerful messages.

Quiz Blog

Tierra Miguel - February 23, 2009

On Monday, February 23, I was able to go on my first field trip with my Advance Digital Art class to the Tierra Miguel Foundation farm in Pauma Valley, California. Driving east along Highway 76, I was slightly skeptical on what I would find out in the middle of nowhere. I have driven along Highway 76 before, on my way to Santa Ysabel, but had never stopped in the Pauma Valley area before, except for the occasional visit to the Pauma Casino. I had some trouble finding Cole Grade Rd to turn on, mainly because I am still waiting for my new prescription for my eyeglasses, but I did find the turn, and I was a bit surprised when I arrived at Tierra Miguel.

I am not sure what I expected, but what I found at the Tierra Miguel Foundation was nothing like I expected it to be. To be completely honest, after viewing their wonderful website, I was surprised to find a humble looking barn structure, with limited parking in front of it. It felt like I had just pulled up in front of an old run-down farm, and had there not been any other cars parked in the parking lot, I probably would not have stopped. After parking, I found my way inside to where a bunch of chairs were set up, with a laptop, projector, and projector screen. Inside was a bit sparse. An open structure with colorful, old mural paintings that reminded me of the beautiful Pauma Valley hills that surround the area.


I took my seat and waited for the presentation to start. After more students showed up, the presentation began. A spokeswoman, Beth, talked about the history of the Tierra Miguel land, and then proceeded to explain the purpose of the farm. I way absolutely blown away by the information she told us! I had no idea that San Diego was one of the biggest agricultural areas in California, and that our top grown crops are flowers and sod! Learning about the agricultural state of San Diego county really made me think about all the vegetables and fruits I find in my local grocery store, and makes me wonder how many of those are imported from other counties and countries, just so we can have the veggies we want year round.

One of Tierra Miguel's goals that really impressed me was their goal of teaching and helping with sustenance agriculture in Pauma Valley, and with helping the local community reconnect with the food they eat. Overall, I was extremely impressed learning about all that Tierra Miguel has achieved during their 8-9 years in Pauma Valley.

After sitting through the presentation, we finally got a chance to get up and take a tour of some of the field areas with our guide Jonathan. It was not as green as I had hoped it would be, but then again I probably was expecting something more like a normal industrial farm, which Tierra Miguel is not. We were able to walk through their small orchard area, past their strawberry fields, and past fields of "green cover," which they use and till into the ground to enhance nutrients for growing crops.






One of the fields that I found especially interesting was the kohlrabi field. As I was looking at the plants, all I could think to myself was "What the heck is a kohlrabi?" Unfortunately, I missed what our guide told us about the plant, but luckily there is always Google to help me out! Apparently, kohlrabi is a German turnip and "is a low, stout cultivar of the cabbage that will grow almost anywhere." Jonathan showed the class how to pull them up and which part to eat, and within a few minutes, everyone was trying to find themselves a kohlrabi to try, fresh from the ground! I grabbed myself a kohlrabi, broke off the leaves and the dirty roots and bit in! I was pleasantly surprised to find it tasted very much like a cabbage! It was a bit gritty since it was straight from the dirt, but the whole experience really made me feel connected to the food I was eating. I could not help hamming it up a bit and taking a picture of myself with a kohlrabi in my mouth for my friends and family to see (I wish I had used my Canon instead of my iPhone though). Later in the tour we got the chance to pull up baby carrots and eat them as well, which were absolutely delicious!





We finished our tour just as the sun was going down, which made for a beautiful opportunity for sunset pictures. As the sun disappears behind the western hills, the eastern hills turned a wonderful pinkish/purplish color, and looked almost as if they were painted that way. Overall, it was a wonderful experience, and I look forward to stopping by Tierra Miguel again next time I am out in the Pauma Valley area.