Reflections on the Price of Victory

Victory At Any Cost (April 8, 2008)

General Petraeus, your mission is dragging
Cheney is willing but spirits are sagging
Vict’ry you say is round the next corner
Explain to the mothers who wait by the coroner

The specious invasion at five years and counting
Our country it suffers from backwards accounting
Library hours grow shorter and shorter
Money for textbooks they’re spending on mortar

The bloodshed increases and George doesn’t see
He said it was finished in May of 03
Each day your forecast grows fairer and fairer
When did that country get riddled by terror?

With 4,000 dead, on our side alone
It’s too soon for towels or fits to be thrown
Now is the time to be hopeful and strong
But glasses in deserts aren’t half full for long

I hope we aren’t half as dumb as you think
The longer we stay so the deeper we sink
Protecting your honor, young gentlemen die
While Exxon sees profits go straight through the sky

You entered their land with a force of deceit
And coming back home is the mark of defeat
So send the boys in for another attack
If you had your way they would never come back

Free Days With The Condor

The most recent excursion in our series of non-bamboo field trips took us up to Big Sur where we camped two nights at Plaskett Creek and explored the back country of Julia Pfeifer Burns. From the high ridge of Elwoodson Trail, we had a close encounter with what appeared to be a flock of Turkey Vultures.

Closer inspection, however, revealed these giant birds to be California Condors. According to Wikipedia there are fewer than 300 California Condors remaining in existence, and about 147 in the wild. We saw at least 8 individual Condors. In contrast to their more common relatives, the Condors have a far more graceful flight pattern, a much wider wingspan, and number tags under each wing (because they are monitored by wildlife biologists.)

These amazing creatures, relics from a bygone prehistoric era, will mostly likely become extinct within our lifetime, so we relished in this rare opportunity to see them up close and personal, high above the dramatic Big Sur coastline.

Spring for it!

Wildflowers are blooming in profusion, and the bamboo shoots are bolting upwards. It's only the first week of spring, but here at Bambu Batu we can feel the change in the air.

We rang in the new season with a short adventure up to Pinnacles National Monument, roughly 2.5 hours north of San Luis Obispo, 20 minutes northeast of King City. In other words, it's pretty much the middle of nowhere, which means perfect conditions for rare wildlife, including several species of bats and the endangered California Condor.

The Future of Bamboo is Here

Always at the cutting edge of sustainable natural materials, Bambu Batu is delighted to announce the arrival of solid, Hardwood Bamboo Furniture.

This is bamboo furniture like you've never seen before, nothing like the traditional rustic furniture fashioned from hollow poles strapped together. Just like the bamboo flooring and cutting boards, these pieces use layers of compressed bamboo to maximize the plant's natural strength and resilience. The result is an incredibly smooth, dense wood, harder than oak, with a stunningly attractive grain.

Come in today and see for yourself the future of bamboo, sleek and modern designs from the world's fastest growing plant. Or visit us online at http://www.bambubatu.com.

Solid Hardwood Bamboo Furniture

Bamboo for the Road

While on tour through Arizona last week (see the "Refreshing" entry below), we put our Bamboo Sporks to the test. Not surprisingly, they passed with flying colors. No need for plastic utensils at our road side picnics. Everything edible, from granola in the morning to thai noodles in the evening, with one handy spork.

Come in and check them out for yourself, or order them online www.BambuBatu.com

Refreshing

Because there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, we took a few days away from Bambu Batu last week to explore the scenery of neighboring Arizona. Last Friday, as we charged from the California Coast to Kingman, AZ, the Grand Canyon area was buried by its biggest snowfall in years. The next day, we drove into Flagstaff with clear blue skies and a thick blanket of fresh powder covering everything.
Much of Arizona sits on the Colorado Plateau, at around 7000 ft. altitude, so snow is common there, but this was an unusually heavy fall. About an hour south of the Grand Canyon, the world's largest contiguous stand of Ponderosa Pines surrounds Flagstaff, AZ, and for the 3 days we spent there, it was the quintessential winter wonderland. Meanwhile, the Grand Canyon, ordinarily swamped with visitors from around the globe, glistened in icy silence. A dearth of tourists at each overlook and on every trail punctuated the vast scope of the canyon itself.
Starved as we were for snow, not having seen a single flake since my expulsion from Germany in March 2004, we reveled in it, building snow men and pummeling each other with snow balls. But as the snow melts and the wild flowers open, so the season of our adventure came to a close, and we trekked across the Mojave through Quartzsite and past the windmills of Palm Springs, back to our little parcel of paradise in Grover Beach.