Finals week is coming, and those sleepless nights are upon us. The next two weeks is a time of studying late at night, eating junk food, and drinking so much coffee! For those who are graduating, and those who will register for classes next semester, this is a stressful time, yes its temporary, but still stressful. With this academic year coming to a close: full of successes and stresses, going to Ventura Beach will help you manage stress and self care.
Here’s a list of why and how walking or sitting on a bench at Ventura beach will help you destress and make your finals week a memorable one:
The Smell: The scent of the sea is refreshing. Take a few deep breaths and take in the fresh and salty aroma. Taking deep breaths improves lung function, lowers stress, and improves concentration.
The Touch: If you walk barefoot or bury your hands in the sand, its’ particles will stimulate your psyche and your skin.
The Sound: The sound of the waves will help you feel optimistic and positive about your upcoming finals. The sound of nature will help soothe your body and relax your mind.
The Sight: You’ll see many people walking/jogging, long palm trees, and very talented surfers. If you catch a sunrise or a luminous sunset your body will relax and reduce stress. Watching the waves will boost your confidence going into finals, you will crush them!
Make sure you add some beach time to your finals study plans, or go afterwards with friends or alone. Surviving these next two weeks will set you up for a successful future in your awesome future academic endeavors, and it doesn’t have to be chaotic or full of stress.
What do you think about One Bowl One Spoon Living? Does “one bowl, one spoon” 🥣 resonate with your practical experience and beliefs? Can we all eat from the same spoon, the same bowl, the same watershed, the same planet? Ideally, yes we can and we do. However, practically speaking, our mobility and the time and spatial scales of our perception blind us to the reality of one bowl, one spoon.
Our groundwater contamination today may move so slowly that our grandchildren may suffer after we are long gone. Do you love the idea of sharing as much as you find implementation of one bowl one spoon thinking painfully impractical? If so, I feel your pain. May I empathize with your situation more?
Emerging from COVID, most people insist on their own spoon and their own bowl to make sure we aren’t the next ones to die from contagion or at least don’t get inconvenient viruses. Yet how many millions of plastic spoons, bowls, and even gloves have been added to the Pacific Gyre Plastic patch since 2019? If that plastic shows up in the fish we eat as microplastics, that’s bad and sad. So can we agree we need convenient ways to expend less plastic and also keep it out of our oceans?
How can we correct and atone for our and our family’s pollution-sins of the past? Separation for the sake of survival and convenience was important to help us get through the short term emergency of the COVID Pandemic. We survived.
2024 presents longer term threats; slower moving train wrecks. Our emissions of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), r410a refrigerant, sulfuryl fluoride, and other Greenhouse Gases have intensified our weather and our climate. Storms arrive with more intense rain, more powerful winds, droughts last longer with lower humidity and higher maximum temperatures … and in some cases lower minimum temperatures. Bursting water pipes in surprise Texas freezes caused by an unstable jet stream remind us how Climate Change is a more helpful term than Global Warming. Does your (and our) behavior contribute to the Climate Emergency? Can your (and our) choices make a positive or negative difference that is significant? Our tragic, common “too small to matter but too common to not matter” reality of burning and releasing GHG’s merits attention: what we do DOES matter to our climate here, now, and in the near and distant future. Our example to others matters in our community and there are more personal, immediate effects.
As one of 8,000,000,000 people on Earth, can anyone seriously say that a monthly burning of $70 of gasoline, $70 of natural gas for water heating, cooking and clothes drying makes any significant difference to solve our current Climate Crisis? While I admit it is difficult to grasp, the answer is “Yes.” I believe it does make a difference. COVID helped show how. Combustion byproducts from natural gas cooking and clothes-drying have a real effect on millions of asthma victims. People exposed to higher levels of combustion byproducts, including particulate pollution, for longer durations died and experienced complications from COVID at significantly higher rates. Hypocrisy results when we are forced to choose between inconvenient results and convenient bad behavior. Most people choose what is convenient…particularly those who earn less or those who possess less wealth…but also those who have so much income and/or wealth that they are unaccustomed to being held to account for their impacts on others.
We are constantly rewarded when we respond quickly and early to opportunities as they arise, with seemingly no time to pause to observe and consider the effect of our exhaust. The struggle is real. With pressure to do more, stay up later, yet still arrive to appointments on-time it is so common to feel that pressure to drive what ever car we can afford. With electric cars generally costing over $20,000 used and over $40,000 new the shift from gasoline to battery-powered is challenging, with or without range anxiety. The financial barriers to converting are significant and compelling. More financially accessible options include:
$7 to eat a meal (or cake+ice cream?) with less meat, fewer food-miles, and/or prepared with 100% Renewable Clean Power Alliance electricity…you know, compassionate eats.
$70 +/- induction plate to cook with Clean Power Alliance 100% renewable electricity,
$700 e-bike to commute carefully with commutes twice as long as car commutes,
$70 monthly bus pass with commutes that involve meeting new friends on the bus,
$700 electric clothes dryer,
$700 upgrade for your home/apartment’s electric panel to power electric dryer &/or car charger,
$70-700 of air-sealing and insulation improvements,
$700+ portable dual function heat pump air conditioner plus heater with air filters,
$70 Lyft or Uber rides where you specifically request or select electric only options.
$170 or less on a good pair of running shoes (good for you and your planet!).
FREE and FUN: collaborate with your neighboring renters to lobby your land-lord’s conversion to 100% Renewable Clean Power Alliance Electricity.
May I challenge you to cut your CO2e in half every year? Meet your needs, while considering Our Earth Community’s needs. If you do, you might just learn valuable expertise and meet interesting friends to help you build a more compassionate and abundant reality for you and those you affect. When it gets challenging, please know I feel it too and reach out to friends to talk about your struggle and successes.
May you Balance2thrive®
G Naugles, MSBio, MBA, GISP, M.Ed., CalBRE, RCE, BSCE, CPHT
Do you enjoy camping and hiking, well backpacking is a combination of both of these. To start we’d need to begin with collecting our gear for the trails. In this instance, we shall say we are backpacking at the Punch Bowls in Santa Paula.
1. Backpacks
We will have to start off purchasing our pack before we start buying anything since this will be where you put all the gear you need. It’s important to have a backpack that feels comfortable for you. This means all the weight from the pack should be put on your hips. You can always go to a store where you can get fitted for a pack by someone who has backpacked before. A weekend pack will be ideal for a starter pack.
2. Backpacking Tents
Now we need to look for shelter these tents aren’t the tents you typically use when camping these are going to be lighter. These tents are intended to be lighter because we will have to carry our tent in our pack. Typically the lighter the tent the more expensive they will be. You can also do a two-person tent with your friend or significant other if you are trying to split the costs. There’s a variation of tent brands from Nemo to REI, MSR and more.
3. Sleeping Pads
Sleeping Pads are needed to keeping you above ground to sleep comfortably and not constantly cold from your body trying to absorb the cold ground. There are different lengths and widths to buy from which depends on how tall you are. They have the mummy shape, I have and bought it from the resupply from REI. You also don’t want to forget to buy a pillow so you can sleep comfortably.
4. Sleeping Bags
Sleeping bags have two different types of insulations synthetic being affordable but also heavy and bulky since they won’t compress done as small as down will. Down sleeping bags are made from goose feathers, very lightweight, compressible and will be on the pricier side. There are four different shapes to choose from mummy, semi-rectangular, rectangular, and quilt. It’s all preferences to how you want to sleep because a quilt will feel like sleeping with a blanket. As for a mummy sleeping bag, you might feel restricted especially if you are a crazy sleeper. Temperature wise getting a three-season sleeping bag would be ideal.
5. Water Filters
Having a water filter is ideal, especially when you are near water streams. Having a squeeze filter is practical at least for me because I can use the bag they give for my dirty water. Then squeezing the the clean water into my Nalgene. There are different types of of filters like bottle filters, purifiers, straw-style filters and squeeze filters.
6. Chairs
A backpacking chair is ideal for being comfortable when sitting down near the campfire. You can also use a stump or a rock but you might not find one near your campsite you can use. Backpacking chairs have different varieties of materials to choose from the lighter they are the more expensive they will be. Having lighter gear will only make it easier on you but will also me you can pack more in your backpack as well.
7. Camping Cooksets
It’s essential to have a spoon or spork with you which makes it easier to eat your dry food. There are different types of materials that cook sets are made from that are lighter from each other. This is typically what you use on your backpacking stove.
8. Backpacking Stove
Backpacking stoves are what you are going to need to cook your water for your dry food, and water for your coffee or tea. There’s also different sizing which depends on how big you want them especially if you are going with more people or if you are going solo, something smaller would be ideal. You’ll also need your propane.
9. Insect Repellent 
Insect repellent is more important when it’s hot out and the mosquitoes come alive looking for their next victim to attack. There are different forms of insect repellent from the spray to the wash and the lotion. The lotion seems to be the most effective for me.
10. Camp Trowel
Second to last, you will need a poop trowel just in case you need to go in the woods. Make sure to have some handy toilet paper as well as digging a proper hole.
11. Packing Your Pack
Finally, we have all that we need it’s time to pack your pack, the lightest things will go at the bottom like your pillow, and sleeping bag that should be put into a compression sack and sleeping pad. The heavier things will go in the middle which is closer to your body like a tent, backpacking stove, or cook set. The top can be filled with any things left over, like your dry food, base layers, first aid kit, headlamp, portable charger, hygiene items (toothbrush and deodorant), snacks that can be put in dry sacks with your water filter and your poop trowel should be in a Ziploc bag. On the outside side pockets, you’d want to put your poles for your tent and your Nalgene’s.
Are you planning to go backpacking or have you done so already? Let us know what your backpacking essentials are, as well as any tips and tricks for backpacking, in the comments section.
Love was still lingering in the air at this month’s VC Plant Swap with a space full of vendors, artists, beer, music, and plants! On February 18, 2024 the VC Plant Swap: Sweeties Only edition, took place at one of Ventura’s well known breweries, Poseidon Brewing Co. As a plant lover and first-timer attendee at this pop up event, I had no idea what to expect when I walked through the door so I will walk you through my overall experience at this past VC Plant Swap.
What was the VC Plant Swap all about?
The VC Plant Swap is a free and public event that is hosted once a month at different locations in Ventura County, where one can socialize with other community members, creators, and organizers that share a mutual love for plants. When I met with the creator, Mari, she shared with me the origin of this pop up, which began in January 2020 as an idea where people can bring pest-free plants, cuttings, gardening tools, soil, or seeds they would like to mutually swap all while meeting others and share plant knowledge. This was the very first thing that convinced me to participate in this plant swap where I had to write my name on two name tags: one placed on myself and the other on my plant I brought from home. All plants were placed on a selected table and if any particular plant caught your eye, you were to hunt for the person with the same name on the tag and ask if they were willing to swap plants with you. This might sound intimidating for some, but I could attest that everyone at this pop up radiated genuine positivity and made you feel as if you were speaking to your best friend. Aside from plant swapping, there were plenty of drinks, food, and leisurely activities that helped build this plant community.
More plants, pots, stickers, seeds, art, jewelry and resources can be found and were available at multiple participating booths for free and for purchase. If this is a pop up you would like to participate as a vendor, or would like to share your love with plants at the next anticipated pop up, I encourage you to follow them on Instagram @vc.plant.swap to receive real-time updates.
Views are a refreshing reward after the climb. (photo by George Naugles)
Ventura offers some of the cleanest ocean air in the world, as well as beautiful views, and invigorating walks in between. Various loops & starting points are available.
One favorite loop begins at the Main Street Bridge over the Ventura River and proceeds clockwise along Main, to the Natural History Museum, up staircases to Poli, up to or just below Grant Park, and then on the ridge to the top of the Botanical Garden, then descending into the upper Ventura Botanic Garden and then either through the lower Botanic Garden, west along the Botanic Garden’s west edge (very steep decline) or the Botanic Garden’s east edge (more gradual but still quite steep and with no sidewalk in portions). Crossing over or under the 101 by returning to the shore via San Jon, the pedestrian bridge over the 101, California Street Bridge, or the Figueroa underpass are all fun, with Ventura’s Promenade and Ventura River Trail closing the loop that allows you to return to the Main Street Bridge. The views are spectacular from many points on this loop, the air is very clean when it is blowing in from the ocean unless recent rains have washed polluted water to the surf. Check NOAA or windy.com for the best forecasts regarding wind speed and direction, as well as fog and rain.
Key challenges may include finding public restrooms available when and where you want them, choosing footwear and socks compatible with hills and beach, and finding free parking. So approach this outing with agile flexibility along the loops when and where parking and restrooms are available. Wear bright-colored or white reflective clothing, face oncoming traffic, and keep an eye out for cars when making your ascent on roads where no sidewalk is available. Walk roads designed for cars at your own risk, and use pedestrian walks when possible. Also enjoy delicious meals, refreshments, Farmer’s Market Saturday Mornings, and even the Refill Store as needed along the way. Hiking poles with shoe attachments that cover the pole spikes can be helpful to reduce knee strain on the descent, as long as your shoulders and arms can handle the additional loading. Real Cheap Sports and Target are places you can find them, also known as trekking poles.
This Opuntia’s condensation-sipping spines catch the sunset light.
The Importance of Spending Time Outdoors and How to Enjoy the Best of Nature in Ventura County:
In this episode the students Ana Zanin, Amber Cedillos, and Schuyler Arevalo talk about reasons why being outdoors is so important to our bodies and hormones, and how to enjoy nature more often in a practical way, with examples of daily activities and places to go in Ventura County.
San Buenaventura State Beach is a great place to park the car and get the most out of this stretch of coastline. You’ll encounter the pier with Beach House Tacos and Madewest Brewery (highly recommend). You’ll pass by a newly renovated playground for the kids, the iconic surfers point lookout and the bird estuary before turning back. This is a popular spot amongst locals and you’ll find its also a great path to enjoy a leisurely bike ride.
Ventura Botanical Gardens
Easy / Moderate
Located behind city hall in Downtown, Ventura Botanical Gardens has 107 acres of land with over 100,000 plants in the ground. The gardens showcase 5 different Mediterranean climate zones each with unique plants, a steep incline and ocean views. There are many places to sit and admire the view along the way. Admission is free for children under 18 and every Friday is a free day! Come enjoy the mindfully crafted landscape.
Harmon Canyon Preserve
Easy / Moderate
Harmon Canyon is located off of Foothill Road and features 2,100 acres of vast land that is covered with oak groves, streams, mountain ranges views and coastline. It has become a popular destination for biking, trail running and hiking. Parking is free off the trailhead and this preserve allows dogs on leash to also enjoy a bit of fresh air.
Grant Park
Moderate / Difficult
Grant park is truly a gem in Downtown Ventura and while it is considered to be a part of the Botanical Gardens, it features a vibe all its own. With breathtaking ocean and community views this spot is perfect to enjoy a short but rather strenuous walk around the eucalyptus trees and grounds. This steep incline will get your heart pumping but once you arrive at the top of the park, it features tables to enjoy a meal and a nice grassy area to relax. I highly recommend starting this walk off of Poli street and head up to Ferro street to get the most out of this walk.
Arroyo Verde Park
Easy / Difficult
A place for everyone to enjoy! Arroyo Verde is the ultimate park and hiking destination for an easy outdoor stroll or more rugged incline hikes. Make a day of visiting this park as it features picnic tables, bbq’s, dog friendly, two playgrounds and 14 acres of open grass area. This is a favorite to locals as it’s centrally located and full of possibilities.
As students we spend most of our time either stressing out about homework or procrastinating to do our homework (I am guilty of this). However, sometimes all we need is a break, a moment of peace and nature to recharge our batteries.
We happen to live in one of the most beautiful places in Southern California, but we hardly take advantage of it. We have a beautiful spot in our very own backyard, it’s called the Ventura Botanical Gardens and if you haven’t visited already it’s time you do. Would you like to see what it’s like to spend a Sunday afternoon there? Click the video below and watch as I take you guys on a quick tour of the place.
Ventura Botanical Garden – HOURS
TUESDAYS — SUNDAYS from 9am – 5pm. Closed Mondays. $7 Admission for the general public.
(Members are free, children 18 and under are free, EBT cardholders are free and every Friday is a FREE day.
Leashed dogs are welcome Wednesdays, Fridays and monthly FREE days.
VC Social 