# Mom's front yard



## sachem allison (Sep 24, 2012)

I thought you guys my get a kick out of my mom's front yard. My parents live in Southern California, El Toro, actually. My mother is Vietnamese and we think subconsciously she is trying to recreate Vietnam. This is just the entrance to the front yard mind you. The part before the gate is the street view and as we walk past the gate you will see a pond filled with water hyacinths. My father and I built that when we first moved into the house in 88" it's about 1500 gallons and three feet deep at the deepest. As you walk over the stone bridge you pass by the waterfall and head into the house. The front yard is full of fruit trees (papayas, mangos, persimmons, longan, litchii, sapotes, donut peaches, white nectarines , many kinds of bananas, guavas, kumquats and the large canopy tree is a cherimoya that puts out 2+ kilo fruit. She is one of the few people in the California that grows pineapples consistently. You can't even fathom what is going on in the back yard. Between the hundreds of varieties of orchids, epiphyllums, 40 different fruit trees and literally 20,000 plus plants, 2 ponds, 1 waterfall, five shade houses, 20 hummingbird and dove nest throughout the yard and dozens of exotic amphibian species that just showed up with the plants. Not to mention the racoons, possums, great blue heron, egrets, hawks and what appears to be a wild family of four long tailed weasels that have taken up residents. The ponds were filled with very large and rare species of koi that we raised from goldfish size to 24in before the damn raccoons and heron ate them all. We had 2 dozen in the 12 in to 24 in range. Now we just have goldfish, salamanders, turtles and giant apple snails. Hope you guys like it.


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## sachem allison (Sep 24, 2012)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8ggEVRpPJ0


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## Johnny.B.Good (Sep 24, 2012)

Can't see the video, Son..."private."


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## sachem allison (Sep 24, 2012)

try it now


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## Johnny.B.Good (Sep 24, 2012)

Fixed.

Pretty amazing...a jungle!


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## Ucmd (Sep 24, 2012)

Holy smokes. That is a full time job.


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## knyfeknerd (Sep 24, 2012)

It definitely has the whole "jungle feel" going. You should get some monkeys to put out there.


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## ecchef (Sep 24, 2012)

Wow! What's the back yard like!?!


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## Zwiefel (Sep 24, 2012)

wow.....I'd love to have something like that, but I wouldn't have any time left to play with knives! :tease:


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## DeepCSweede (Sep 24, 2012)

No wasted space on that property. Very cool, Son thanks for sharing.


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## mhlee (Sep 24, 2012)

Of all places, El Toro. I grew up in Laguna Hills. What a small world. 

Thanks for sharing!


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## Deckhand (Sep 24, 2012)

Wow such a nice garden and right down the street. I had raccoon problems with my koi pond until I got a dog. They wanted nothing to do with that. My parents were afraid my kids would hurt themselves in it and so I had to take it out. I will put another one in soon as the kids grow. I used the dirt from making the koi pond hole to make the waterfall. Your parents yard looks very peaceful. Hope our paths cross someday out here.


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## Miles (Sep 24, 2012)

wow....


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## Lucretia (Sep 24, 2012)

Just beautiful!


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## chinacats (Sep 25, 2012)

Makes me 'green' with envy--that seems very tranquil...thanks for posting!


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## Korin_Mari (Sep 26, 2012)

Thats so awesome!


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## bluntcut (Sep 27, 2012)

S&#417;n, &#273;&#432;a cho bà bác nghe t&#7841;m http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZwz1wn5r7o. Sounds from the past.


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## sachem allison (Sep 27, 2012)

bluntcut said:


> S&#417;n, &#273;&#432;a cho bà bác nghe t&#7841;m http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZwz1wn5r7o. Sounds from the past.



That is totally cool, I remember my mother playing Vietnamese music when I was real young. Unfortunately, I don't remember how to speak it. I have been away from the community for over twenty five years and when I was growing up a lot of Vietnamese had nothing to do with us kids because, we were half breeds. I have been thinking about re-learning our language, maybe taking lessons or getting some tapes.


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## sachem allison (Sep 27, 2012)

Deckhand said:


> Wow such a nice garden and right down the street. I had raccoon problems with my koi pond until I got a dog. They wanted nothing to do with that. My parents were afraid my kids would hurt themselves in it and so I had to take it out. I will put another one in soon as the kids grow. I used the dirt from making the koi pond hole to make the waterfall. Your parents yard looks very peaceful. Hope our paths cross someday out here.



our raccoon weighs the better part of 65 pounds and he is one of four siblings, he don't give 2 shits about our 95 pound doberman. He took 2 hits with a subsonic 22 and he just got up and walked it off. We leave him be after that. Figured anything that tough earned his meal.


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## bluntcut (Sep 27, 2012)

sachem allison said:


> That is totally cool, I remember my mother playing Vietnamese music when I was real young. Unfortunately, I don't remember how to speak it. I have been away from the community for over twenty five years and when I was growing up a lot of Vietnamese had nothing to do with us kids because, we were half breeds. I have been thinking about re-learning our language, maybe taking lessons or getting some tapes.



Your half vn is mighty big, case-in-point SON'S NUTS!!! thread. Oh, I enjoy your damsel truck story.


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## sachem allison (Sep 27, 2012)

c&#7843;m &#417;n


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## Burl Source (Sep 28, 2012)

Looks like a jungle of paradise.
I would understand if your mom never wanted to leave home to go anywhere.


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## Don Nguyen (Sep 29, 2012)

sachem allison said:


> That is totally cool, I remember my mother playing Vietnamese music when I was real young. Unfortunately, I don't remember how to speak it. I have been away from the community for over twenty five years and when I was growing up a lot of Vietnamese had nothing to do with us kids because, we were half breeds. I have been thinking about re-learning our language, maybe taking lessons or getting some tapes.



It's incredibly hard to re-learn the language, especially if not exposed to it all the time. My Vietnamese has gone way downhill from the time I started in school when I was about 5...


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## SpikeC (Sep 29, 2012)

I have a Vietnamese phrase book from back in '69, but it doesn't have much in the way of culinary terminology!


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## Don Nguyen (Sep 29, 2012)

I also gotta learn how to make Mom's Pho already!


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## SpikeC (Sep 29, 2012)

Damn straight you do! And share it with us!
I have my own rendition of SE Asian style noodle soup, which I developed to avoid shrimp paste, butt I am always looking for more!


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## bluntcut (Sep 29, 2012)

SpikeC said:


> I have my own rendition of SE Asian style noodle soup, which I developed to avoid shrimp paste



Yummy - kill flies off the passing by garbage truck - paste :lol2: in bún riêu.


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## SpikeC (Sep 29, 2012)

If I was not allergic to crustaceans I would be all over shrimp paste! Butt as I put a priority on breathing substitutions are required!
So Son! What is your recipe?


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