Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Booty from my Garden - no, not that kind. I wish.

Quick post today as I oddly feel in the mood to write.  Gotta capture that feeling when you can.  I know I put a post up a couple weeks ago about my square foot garden and wanted to show you guys the fruits of my labor.  Labour for some of you right?  That pic above, the one I had to choose as my featured image which then doesn’t allow you to caption it, fun, shows some peas, if you can see them, and a cucumber growing in harmony in my messy backyard.  I love it.


I planted in mid-April



garden

Lettuce, summer squash, zucchini, & cucumber.



Yep, got the boxes ready to from last year in like a day or two and put seeds in the ground, and mapped it all out of course, at the start of April.  The picture here is just what I’ve harvested within the last, I don’t know, 5 days?  I was able to start pulling stuff like the sugar snap peas and beans from early on, they’re continuous.


Other stuff like the squash had to grow, sprout, flower, and such.  I have learned a bunch.


Both varieties of squash, the green and yello pilgrim kind there, take up a frickin’ ton of space.  No idea how it’s supposed to fit in a square foot garden.


Also, they pretty much grew, flowered, produced and were going for a 2nd production but some bug got into 3 of the 4 plants and ate through most of the main vines, killing the nutrient supply.  It’s cool though, part of nature.


So less than 3 months and I was pulling stuff a couple of weeks ago?  And now is when things are really starting to take off?


Check out these melons!



square foot gardening pics

Come on little fella, grow.



Well it’s just one but you wanted to see it right?  Yummy.  just the kind I like.  I am talking about this watermelon perv.  I’d like this one to be bigger but we’ll see.  Last year I had 2 sweet ones going but again, destroyed by bugs.  The 2 that flowered this year just don’t seem to be growing?  Time for implants maybe?


What would you grow in a garden?


Like I said, I’ve tried to grow broccoli, cauliflower, and onions both years here in the mid-South, they don’t seem to take well to the climate.


Lettuce seems to be awesome because it loves the sun kind of, and you can take outer leaves from all the plants every day.  It tells the plant – crap!  Grow more!


Peas and beans do well, constant harvesting once they start.  I wish I had more fruit though.  And like one of the pics above, my harvest is kind of like Plymouth Rock.  A guy can only eat so much guldanged squash.


I am pretty excited about this next one though.  Would you be?


Oh sweet corn


corn square foot gardening picCannot wait.


Last year I didn’t know what I was doing with the corn.  Of course I have seen corn.  I rode my bicycle across the state of Iowa for crying out loud.  I just never looked at corn growing before.  In fact, here is a link to the route me and my Grandpa took in 1987.  He was in his 70′s, I was 14.


Last year I tried to grow corn.  Along the way, I grew some spinach and lettuce as well.  When those two were all done, they went to seed, or flowered, don’t know the proper term  :-D , they stopped producing.  That’s what the corn looked like to me last year so I yanked it.  I thought it had gotten pollinated, or not, lol.


This year, I just let it go.  I now see that the ears come out of the side right by the leaf nodes.  Crazy.  Moron.  So now I have some decent stalks growing.  One good one and two runts.  Hope it tastes sweet.


So you have a garden?  Want one?  Dream of having one someday?  What would you grow?  Would it be all fancy like with timers and sprinklers?  Or just you walking around with a tin watering can in the sun?


Oh, if you would like to check out that other post where I try to get you to go to Amazon and buy a square foot gardening book, click here.



Booty from my Garden - no, not that kind. I wish.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Eddie Bravo - jiu-jitseiro, innovator, lightning rod

If you’ve been a part of the Brazilian jiu-jitsu community for any significant amount of time then you have probably heard the name Eddie Bravo.  Eddie Bravo first appeared on the bjj scene in the early 2000’s and is best known for his submission of Royler Gracie in 2003 by triangle choke, while still only a brown belt.


10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu


Bravo refers to his particular style of bjj as 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu.  10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu is a no-gi style that utilizes some techniques that may be oddly named but are extremely effective.  Some of Bravo’s most popular moves are called the twister, the truck, and the infamous gangsta lean.   He has released a total of 3 books on his 10th Planet style outlining techniques.  Bravo’s first book was released in 2005 and it was entitled Jiu Jitsu Unleashed.  Jiu Jitsu Unleashed introduced his infamous 10th planet style of jiu-jitsu to the world.  His later additions of Mastering the Rubber Guard and Mastering the Twister are definitely must haves for any serious bjj practitioner.  Mastering the Twister is specifically valuable to the bjj student who is looking for clarity while in side control or mount, or anybody looking to sharpen up their ground game in general.


Mastering the Twister



eddie bravo

Mastering the Twister



In Mastering the Twister, Bravo not only outlines how to properly apply his patented and once outlawed Twister, but also offers solutions to focus your ground game.  Bravo points out that a major problem for a lot of bjj practitioners is the fact that once they get to mount they suddenly have no idea what to do.  He helps remedy this all too common problem.  Bravo does this by outlining various options and a plan of action for after you reach mount, so no more, “Oh, I finally secured the mount.  What the hell do I do next?”  In Mastering the Twister (click here to check out my review), Bravo gives you the tools you need to submit your opponent from the mount.  He also delves into his infamous gangsta-lean position that he claims he perfected with the help of copious amounts of marijuana.  That’s what sets Eddie Bravo apart from others, he’s controversial, but he backs it up with an extreme amount of dedication and skill to the art of jiu-jitsu.


Don’t Be Fooled


Eddie Bravo may be controversial in traditional Brazilian jiu-jitsu circles because of his no-gi approach or his open comments about marijuana, but nobody can knock the guy’s track record as an accomplished martial artist.  His 10th Planet style of jiu-jitsu has been utilized by fighters in both the bjj realm and mma with moderate(?) success.  Bravo’s 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu has even been tested in the octagon and came out victorious on a few occasions, people like Shinya Aoki come to mind.  Don’t let the oddly named moves or the rumors about Bravo deter you from reading up on his deadly style.  Eddie Bravo may be a bit controversial and flamboyant at times, but rest assured, this dude can back it up with pure skill.



Eddie Bravo - jiu-jitseiro, innovator, lightning rod

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

New Killer in the UFC? Robert Drysdale signs

Little Bobby Drysdale is set to make his UFC debut on August 3rd after being added to their light heavyweight division a couple weeks ago.  Who is he you ask?  Come on now, you hopefully don’t consider yourself a fan then.


I am excited to see how he does.  That particular division has probably one of the most dynamic fighter in Jon Jones sitting atop it currently.  After having 6 pro fights, Drysdale, all ending with 6 first round submissions, can his striking defense even simply hang?  I have seen two of his fights and they were both the standard get a hold of the guy, get him down, and submit him.  I enjoyed them, they were very effective.  I just don’t think it will work at the highest level quite yet.



from cagepotato.com

from cagepotato.com



I sure hope it does because Robert Drysdale is one of the few big dudes that brings it grappling.  He is an ADCC champion, submitting Marcelo Garcia even.  Which you can probably see from this picture.  He is a big boy though, apprently only 205 now though.


Drysdale’s got an interesting story or background.  Rather than me tell it, I think I’ll let wiki do the heavy lifting for me.  If you like, you can click here to check out his wiki entry.  Or you can just listen to me paraphrase.


He moved to Brazil when he was 6 with his Brazilian mother and American father, moving back as a young man for college.  He began training bjj in 1998, moving back to Brazil in 2000 to focus on training.  He got his submission win over Marcelo in 2007 while on the way to winning the open division title.


So yeah, I’m pretty jazzed up to see how he does inside THE OCTAGON.  I think he can easily submit over 3/4 of the fighters in there but will his perhaps unpolished striking allow him to get the fight there?  What do you think?


Here is his twitter handle in case you’d like to follow him – @DrysdaleBJJ  I think his gym follows me but not him directly.  What up with that?  How do you think he’ll do in the UFC?  How do you hope he does?  Would you like to see big success or a big flop?  I think total ownage or domination by Drysdale could do wonder for bjj.  It would once again explode in popularity which lets the sport grow for the rest of us.


Below is the link to where I saw the story, thought I’d give credit where very little credit is due.  That site outranks me in the biggest of ways and it puts up high quality content such as that.  Fair times.


BJJ ace Robert Drysdale signs with the UFC MMA News | Mixed …


http://www.bjpenn.comWed, 05 Jun 2013 12:20:54 GMT


Brazilian jiu-jitsu whiz Robert Drysdale has joined the UFC light heavyweight roster. Drysdale, who has won a world grappling title, will make his.


 



New Killer in the UFC? Robert Drysdale signs