WATER CONSERVATION GARDEN 2012 WINTER/SPRING CALENDAR OF EVENTS
March Members Month, The Backyard Flock: Raising Urban Chickens, Village Aquaponics Workshops, Fall in Love with Bees!, Designing a Small Space Garden and The Spring Garden Festival. January 10, 2012 (Rancho San Diego)—The Water Conservation Garden invites the public to enjoy its 2012 winter and spring events. Gardening classes help residents save water and money by focusing on water-smart landscaping techniques and plants. Classes are taught by experts and topics include lawn removal, water-smart landscape design, backyard composting, irrigation design and gardening for children. Pre-registration is required for all classes. To enroll call 619-660-0614 x 10. ONGOING EVENTS Ask the Designer: Professional Landscape Design Consultations The Water Conservation Garden offers 45-minute landscape design consultation services. A professional landscape designer who focuses on drought tolerant landscapes will meet with you, one-on-one. You will leave with a design plan and a list of suggested plants. Bring a photo of your house and area you want redesigned, the dimensions of the space and photos of designs styles you like. Call the Garden office (Tuesday-Friday 9am-4pm) to check availability and make your reservation, 619-660-0614 ext. 10. $60 Members, $75 non-Members. Payment due at time reservation is made. Ask the Garden Staff Tour First Sunday of the Month at 9:30 am; January 8, February 5, March 4 and April 1 Enjoy an informative walk through the Garden with one of our professional staff members. Bring your questions and prepare for an interesting tour from the perspective of someone who works in the Garden daily. Meet at the front entrance of the Garden. Free. Special Access Tour Selected Sundays at 9:30 am; January 22, February 19, March 18 and April 15 This special tour is offered monthly for individuals who may have difficulty navigating the terrain of the Garden. Explore the Garden from the comfort of the Verbeck Shuttle with one of the Garden’s staff members. This tour seats 4-5 people. Reservations are required; please call 619-660-6841. Free. Spanish Language Tours The Garden is pleased to offer Spanish language tours, by reservation only. Tours are free of charge but donations are always appreciated to defray the cost of our Spanish language guides. Contact the Garden at 619-660-0614 ext. 14 for reservations. Free. Homeowner Association Tour Last Saturday of the month at 9:30 am, January 28, February 25, March 31 Learn how to save water and money for your homeowner association by designing a beautiful, drought-tolerant landscape. Reservations are required. Minimum five tour participants required for tour to run. Contact 619-660-6841 for reservations and information. $5 per person. Ms. Smarty-Plants School Tours and Assembly Programs Bring your class to the Garden for a rousing good time and learn how to save the world with your own two hands. Ms. Smarty-Plants will share the secrets of plant adaptations and the magic of our precious water resources. These State Standards-based programs will become treasured memories for your students. Contact Ms. Smarty-Plants (AKA Pam Meisner) at 619-660-0614 ext. 16 for information about programs and program fees. By reservation only. Home Composting Workshop Saturday, February 4, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm FREE home composting workshop taught by Certified Master Composters from the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation. Learn the basics of composting, how to compost with worms, and how to save water in the process! To register for this class, please call The Solana Center at (760)-436-7986 ext 225. FEBRUARY NEW! Explore American Sign Language Saturday, February 4, 10:00 am-12:00 pm Are you curious about Sign Language? Have you wondered how you might be able to use Sign Language in your classroom or with your family? Wonder no more, come and learn for yourself! Join the Garden’s education specialist and her alter-ego, Ms. Smarty-Plants, for this 2-hour, fun-filled class. Learn many basic Signs, as well as a little about Deaf Culture. You will be Signing to music by the time you leave, and handouts will be provided so you can practice at home. FREE for Members, $15 Non-Members The Backyard Flock: Raising Urban Chickens Saturday, February 11, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm Raise farm fresh eggs in your own backyard! The Garden’s education director, Laurie Furry, will share everything you need to know to start enjoying fresh eggs while keeping your new flock happy and healthy. Topics include determining if you are legally allowed to have a flock in your community, deciding between chicks or laying hens, what to feed and not to feed your hens, housing needs, protection from predators, and the benefits of raising your own hens for eggs. You’ll meet a couple of little ladies from Laurie’s flock in this class and see a slide show of other interesting breeds available for a home flock. $15 Members, $20 Non-Members NEW! Village Aquaponics Workshops; Presented By Ecolife Foundation Saturday, February 11 or 25, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm Aquaponics is the symbiotic growing of plants and aquatic animals in a recirculating environment. Water is cycled between fish tanks and vegetable growing areas, and fish waste acts as a natural fertilizer for plants. Use 90% less water than conventional vegetable gardening; grow fresh fish and vegetables in your own home, school or community! Learn how to build and maintain your own system through demonstration and hands-on practice. Includes light refreshments and a manual. For more information or to register for this offsite workshop, contact Ecolife Foundation at 760-740-1346 or email admin@ecolifefoundation.org. $25 Members, $30 Non-Members to NEW! Fall in Love with Bees Sunday, February 12, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm Bee Advocate Geoff Kipps-Bolton of bees-on-the-net.com will share the secrets lives of bees and get you excited about the bees visiting your garden. Geoff will share an introduction to beekeeping, removing the shroud of mystery and uncovering what those veiled bee-wranglers are up to. Learn why bees swarm and what to do if a swarm lands on your property. Walk through the Garden with Geoff after your seminar and see the bees in action! FREE for Members, $15 Non-Members Designing a Beautiful Small Space Garden Saturday, February 25, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm Good things come in small packages!
READER’S EDITORIAL: CHILD HUNGER AWARENESS
By Rikki Borkowski, Rancho Santa Fe January 10, 2012 (San Diego) — One in 16 children in the U.S. is suffering from food insecurity, the state of not being able to provide nutritious foods to you, oneself or family. This is a major problem all around the country, even in our own backyard. How can a country so advanced still be living in the 1950s in terms of food insecurity? This question shows how vulnerable the children of this country have become in families that may not be able to provide food again. We need to protect our newest generation from what the world can harshly bring into the lives of struggling children and raise awareness of the many problems associated with food insecurity. Fewer and fewer people are remembering just how important the major problem of food insecurity is and how it has impacted so many lives in this country. Tom Vilsak, the U.S. Agricultural Secretary said "These numbers are a wake-up call for the country," referring to the 13 million people who became food insecure within the past years. As food insecurity grows more distant in the eyes of government officials, the amount of children that are affected each day rises. According to Feeding America from, 2006 to 2008, 13,911,774 kids under the age of 18 became food insecure. Also in California alone, 1,757,375 kids were faced with the same problem of becoming a member of the 4.75 million children in the U.S. who are food insecure. To raise awareness, we can do many things with our communities to tell others about this problem and even take a step towards erasing child hunger. We can donate to food banks, conduct our own food drives and many other effective activities. Personally, I ran in a "Run for the Hungry" which donated your paying money to the food bank. I have also volunteered at the San Diego food bank, and am very excited to return. Doing your part in the community can make a larger difference than what you see on the surface; start raising awareness about child hunger, now. Communities across the nation need the help of their newspapers and other organizations to begin the journey to create a better tomorrow. The opinions expressed in this editorial reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of East County Magazine. To submit an editorial for consideration, contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org.
CAL FIRE TO CONDUCT CONTROLLED BURNS IN MCCAIN VALLEY WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY
January 10, 2011 (McCain Valley)– If you see smoke this week, don’t panic. Cal-Fire will be conducting a prescribed burn in the area of McCain Valley in San Diego’s East County during daylight hours January 11 and January 12. Approximately 90 acres of brush will be burned over the next few days as part of a vegetation managegement burn plan. Burning will commence around 8:00 a.m. and be completed no later than 5:00 p.m. Smoke will be visible in many areas of the county. Here is a Google Maps link with a general location of the burn project: http://bit.ly/Aq6p0d
SDG&E CELEBRATES SAN DIEGO’S BIGGEST ENERGY SAVERS
Lakeside Winner Achieves Nearly 50 Percent Energy Savings January 5, 2012 (San Diego’s East County)– An energy efficiency program piloted by San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) succeeded in more than doubling energy savings among participating residential customers during a three-month period. Erica Faunce of Lakeside, Calif., was declared the Biggest Energy SaverSM contest winner in San Diego after achieving a 46.5 percent energy savings, equal to 1,356 kilowatt hours for her family of three, and won a new laptop computer. From Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, approximately 200 participants were selected to pit their energy-efficiency skills against one another, sharing their results daily online through a social gaming application developed by Simple Energy and monitoring their savings in real-time through in-home energy management devices developed by Tendril Networks and provided by SDG&E. The Biggest Energy Saver campaign was kicked off in June 2011 by Grid 21, a nonprofit organization committed to engaging electricity customers in using a new generation of tools and technologies to better manage their electricity consumption. Grid 21 developed the campaign based on a call to action by United States Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, who urged the public to engage in a national White House initiative to empower customers to benefit from smart meter technology and move the smart grid forward. The contest included participation from two Texas utilities, with SDG&E as the only California utility tapped to participate because of its advanced smart meter deployment and energy efficiency programs. The average savings of the San Diego participants who used the social gaming app integrated with the automated control device was 20 percent, compared with 9 percent for those who used the devices alone. Random drawings for tablet computers and gift cards to local restaurants were used to reward participation, and the winner received the distinction of the Biggest Energy Saver title and a top-of-the-line laptop computer. The competition’s prizes were sponsored by both Simple Energy and Tendril Networks. “We didn’t win any of the three drawings for an iPad,” said Faunce, “but now that I think about it, we saved more than enough money to buy a brand new iPad!” “SDG&E has more than 30 years of experience in implementing successful energy efficiency programs, and with our smart meter rollout largely complete, we are now turning the corner with tools to provide meaningful energy usage data and value for our customers,” said Ted Reguly, director of customer programs and assistance at SDG&E. “The Biggest Energy Saver campaign is a great example of the creative ways that we can facilitate a higher level of engagement with customers and demonstrate how technology can leverage smart meter data, providing real benefits.” Many customers have said they want access to their energy usage information online, according to SDG&E. Smart meters – one of the foundational elements of the smart grid – allow access to this data to provide customers with greater choice, convenience and control in how they access and use the information. (Smart meters have sparked controversy as well, with some ratepayers filing complaints alleging health concerns; the CPUC is currently weighing whether to approve an opt-out plan for consumers.) Tips that people can put to use today to reduce their energy use just like San Diego’s Biggest Energy Savers include: switching to compact fluorescent lighting, lowering water heater temperature, using the minimal amount of lighting needed for a task, washing and drying dishes and clothing by hand, using smart power strips, and turning off computers and monitors when they aren’t in use. To learn more about the Biggest Energy Saver campaign, visit www.biggestenergysaver.com. To participate in future SDG&E energy efficiency and other pilot programs, contact ESC@semprautilities.com. SDG&E is a regulated public utility that energy service to 3.5 million consumers through 1.4 million electric meters and more than 850,000 natural gas meters in San Diego and southern Orange counties. The utility’s area spans 4,100 square miles. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy(NYSE: SRE), a Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in San Diego.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: FULL MOON
January10, 2012 (Lakeside) – ECM photographer Dennis Richardson snapped this photo of the unusually bright full moon this weekend at his home in Lakeside. “I took it from my back yard using a 100 X 400 mm Canon lens set on 400 mm,” he said. Do you have a fabulous photo taken in East County or San Diego’s inland region that you’d like to share with our readers? Send it to editor@eastcountymagazine.org.
4 MAJOR MAYORAL CANDIDATES TO DEBATE ON FRIDAY
January 10, 2012 (San Diego) – For the first time, all four of the leading contenders running for San Diego Mayor will debate this Friday, January 13 at 4 p.m. Bob Filner, Bonnie Dumanis, Nathan Fletcher, and Carl DeMaio have all agreed to participate. The event will be held at the U.S. Grant Hotel. In the public interest will jointly sponsor this debate by The City Club, Lincoln Club, Independent Voter Network (IVN.US), and the U-T San Diego. Panelists include Gene Cubbison, NBC Channel 7/39, Tony Perry with the Los Angeles Times and William Osborne – U-T San Diego. Cost is $30 and includes a wine and cheese reception. For reservations, call 619-687-3580, or email cityclubofsandiego@prodigy.net For details, visit www.cityclubofsandiego.com.
KROC CENTER OPEN HOUSE JANUARY 14
January 8, 2012 (San Diego) – The Salvation Army Kroc Center invites guests to visit the facility at 6845 University Ave La Mesa, CA 92115 on Saturday January 14, 2012 from 10a.m. to 2 p.m. Bring the family and enjoy child care, tours, fitness assessments and drop in on exercise classes in the gym and pool. All activities are free during the open house. For additional information, call 619-287-KROC or go to: WWW.KROCCENTER.ORG.
HAWK WATCH WINERY SEEKS DONATIONS FOR LIVING FREE ANIMAL SANCTUARY
Buy a bottle of “Sequoia” wine and help save animals at a no-kill shelter By Millicent Arko January10, 2012 (Warner Springs) — During January, the owners of Hawk Watch Winery in Warner Springs will be accepting donated items for Living Free, a nonprofit no-kill animal sanctuary. Dog and cat collars, beds, food, scratching posts, treats, biscuits, and items the staff needs to maintain the animals’ living spaces and grounds are all needed. In fact, Living Free has an animal “wish list” posted on its website www.living-free.org/about/our_wishlist.html You can also buy a bottle of “Sequoia” wine and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Living Free. The Hawk Watch Winery is a small San Diego mountain winery in Warner Springs founded by Mike and Lisa Schnell in 2008. Hawk Watch Winery opened to the public. The wines are hand-crafted using Old World winemaking techniques. In the first year of operation, inaugural wines won 13 medals in regional, national and international competitions. The winery and tasting room is located at 27054 Chihuahua Valley Rd., Warner Springs and is open for tasting Friday 12:00– 5:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00p.m. The tasting fee is $8.00 for six wines and includes a crystal logo wine glass. For the past three years, Hawk Watch has produced a Dry Rose called “Sequoia”. A donation of $2.00 for each bottle sold is given to the Living Free Animal Sanctuary in Idyllwild, CA. From the sale of this wine, and through the publics’ generous contributions in the winery tasting room, a check for $2000.00 was presented to the Living Free this week. This makes the winery’s total contribution to this no-kill animal shelter over $3,500. Living Free Animal Sanctuary is a donor supported 501 (c) 3 non-profit, no-kill animal sanctuary that saves, rehabilitates and finds qualified homes for orphaned and abused cats and dogs facing imminent shelter euthanasia. Learn more at http://www.living-free.org/ For more information contact the winery at (951) 326.4692 or visit their website: hawkwatchwinery.com
SUPERVISOR RON ROBERTS BECOMES CHAIRMAN OF THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
January 9, 2012 (San Diego) — In a ceremonial changing of the gavel, Ron Roberts assumed Chairmanship of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors today, Monday, January 9 at 9 a.m. at the County Administration Center at 1600 Pacific Highway in San Diego. Each year, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors selects a new member to serve as chair. This year Supervisor Ron Roberts, the current vice chairman, takes that role. The County of San Diego provides health and justice services to all 3 million residents of San Diego County and municipal services to the county’s unincorporated areas. Supervisor Roberts will present his vision for 2012 on February 8 during the annual State of the County Address.
JANUARY EVENTS AT MISSION TRAILS REGIONAL PARK CENTER
January 9, 2012 (San Diego) — On Sunday, January 15, 2012, the San Diego Clarinet Quintet will perform at Mission Trails Regional Park at 3:00 p.m. in the Visitor & Interpretive Center theater or amphitheater. The quintet is part of the San Diego Clarinet Society, and is composed of professional musicians who have performed with the San Diego Symphony, San Diego Ballet Orchestra, San Diego Opera Orchestra, and Starlight Opera. Their programs are diverse, ranging in styles from the classical chamber music of Mozart and Debussy, to jazz arrangements of music by Duke Ellington. Their interpretations of music by Scott Joplin and George Gershwin are stylistically accurate. Also, interested audiences may attend a one hour program by John Clements on Saturday January 21, 2012 on the Old Mission Dam, Flume, and the San Diego River, in the Visitor Center Theater starting at 7:00 pm. John is a member of the California Missions Studies Association. The majority of this program is taken from the 1930’s "F. E. Green Report " and the Mission Water system. He has all of E. F. Green’s 1930s pictures of the dam, flume, kilns, and other related items including pictures of another dam 1.5 miles downstream of Padre Dam, and an eyewitness account of another dam less than 2 miles above the mission. In addition descriptions of a possible dam at Adobe Falls (in Del Cerro), at least one mechanical well at the Mission, lavanderias, and several ditches taking water all the way to Old Town. Mission Trails Regional Park Website www.mtrp.org One Father Junipero Serra Trail San Diego, California 92119-1008 619-668-3280