September 16 – 28

As mentioned in the last post, a few weeks after our return from Europe I had a total right knee replacement.  The surgery went well as did my recovery, which is long and somewhat arduous as one must be diligent about protecting the limb while it is healing as well as put in the time and effort required to make the difficult process of physical therapy effective. 

And so, for a couple of months we were housebound but as I began to become more mobile, we visited the kids in Oakland at their new house for five days at the beginning of September.  Located about five miles from their former downtown apartment, it sits on the border of the Fruitvale neighborhood, which means lots of new shops, restaurants, and drinking establishments to explore. The first of those we’d visit, and one we would return to multiple times, is Ghost Town Brewing, located on McArthur Blvd as you head up into the Oakland hills.  Known primarily for its IPA’s, their other beers are good to drink and combined with a decent menu and great outdoor dining space, it’s a place you can easily spend time at. 

The next morning, we made a run to Hasta Muerte Coffee on Fruitvale Avenue, known for their array of excellent empanada’s.  As Kim and Marty were also with us, we ordered a complete assortment including but not limited to chicken, potato, savory beef, and barbacoa and cutting each one into bite sized sections, we all got to taste a bit of their goodness. 

We returned home to Los Angeles and the night before embarking for almost two weeks for one of our jaunts to the east coast, we stopped in at Citizen Public Market in downtown Culver City.  Housed in an historic 1929 Beaux Art and Art Deco landmark, that was once the home of Citizen Publishing Company, which produced a local newspaper known as the Citizen.  It eventually ceased publication and the building was subsequently used for other purposes until a group of investors took it over and it became the home to a new market hall featuring at least 10 different food stalls offering up a broad list of dining options for its patrons.

In 1972, I worked nearby at an insurance agency that was affiliated with Bill Murphy Buick, and remember this building in what was for then, a not so savory part of town.  Fast forward to the present day and Culver City has done a masterful job of re-developing this area into an attractive magnet full of food and things to do.  Joanna and I split up, she heading to the Jolly Oyster for an order of their Bay Scallop Ceviche (Baja Bay scallops, market lime, mint, and cilantro) with furikake lavash while I hit up Go-Go Bird for their Fried Chicken Sandwich (with pimento cheese, lettuce, tomato & pickles). 

Both dishes were quite good, the sandwich one of the best of this nature that I have had recently.  That being said, $16 and just the sandwich and a side of pickles, it was a bit dear.  But this is Los Angeles, and it is a market, so one should expect what I would refer to as theme park pricing.  All in all, though, it was a great way to kick off what would prove to be a very fun trip as I set our for Cisco Fest 2023.

Joanna and I would be heading out the airport the next morning together, but flying separately, she to Charlotte to meet up there with her book club friends for a weekend outing to a mountain cabin.  I would be joining the Cisco’s, JB, Evan, and Rendy at Cincinnati International Airport where we’d pick up a rental van and motor to Doug’s (aka the Griz) for what promised to be an excellent edition of our annual meetup.  Our plan was to spend two nights at Doug’s place and then drive down to Louisville, Kentucky for three nights of tasting bourbon in the bluegrass state. 

After some confusion with the rental car, we soon found ourselves heading east to Hillsboro, arriving at Doug’s a little over an hour later to be greeted with a couple of pizzas (it had been a long day of travel with little opportunity to eat in between flights), beer we like, and of course, some Courvoisier.  And, unlike my visit here earlier in the year, we didn’t have to contend with icy conditions, but instead got to enjoy delightful fall weather.

The next morning, after the late sleepers arose, we made our way to the Classic 62 Diner for breakfast.  Doug and I had eaten her during my first visit as we experienced then, the food was good and plentiful and reflecting its location in rural town, exceedingly affordable, averaging $11.40 apiece for our meals including coffee. 

Next, we drove to a dairy farm owned by Mike, one of Doug’s nephews, for a very interesting look at what it takes to make a living producing milk.  With 300 cows total (for rotation, breeding and replacing old ones) and 110 for milking, we got an in-depth schooling in how advanced this seemingly ancient practice has become.  For most of us, we think of working on a dairy farm as being a twice a day, every day, ritual of trudging out to the barn to milk each cow with one’s hands, or with an automated milker.

We would find out that technology, as is so often the case, has dramatically changed this through a process known as automatic milking systems (AMS) or voluntary milking systems (VMS), which developed in the late 20th century allow for complete automation of the milking.  Voluntary milking allows the cow to decide her own milking time and interval, rather than being milked as part of a group at set milking times.  AMS requires complete automation of the milking process as the cow may elect to be milked at any time during a 24-hour period.

The milking unit comprises a milking machine, a teat position sensor (usually a laser), a robotic arm for automatic teat-cup application and removal, and a gate system for controlling cow traffic.  When the cow elects to enter the milking unit (due to highly palatable feed that she finds in the milking box), its cow ID sensor reads an identification tag (transponder) on the cow and passes the cow ID to the control system. If the cow has been milked too recently, the automatic gate system sends the cow out of the unit.  If the cow is to be milked, automatic teat cleaning, milking cup application, milking, and teat spraying takes place.  As an incentive to attend the milking unit, concentrated feedstuffs are fed to the cow in the milking unit.

The use of computer control allows greater scope for data collection and allows the farmer to improve management through analysis of trends in the herd, for example response of milk production to changes in feedstuffs.  Individual cow histories may also be examined, and alerts set to warn the farmer of unusual changes indicating illness or injury.  

It was fascinating to watch the process unfold, the degree of sophistication in the robot components, the amount of detail recorded for each cow allowing for a more scientific management of a farmer’s herd.  We all walked away with a greater appreciation for that creamy fluid we consume in various products and left the farmer, indeed, much wiser than before we arrived. 

Links

Ghost Town Brewing: https://www.ghosttownbrewing.com/

Hasta Muerte Coffee: https://hastamuertecoffee.com/about-us/

Citizen Public Market: https://www.citizenpublicmarket.com/

Jolly Oyster: https://thejollyoyster.com/?location=the-jolly-oyster-bar

Go-Go Bird: https://www.go-go-bird.com/