Hi Grandma,

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you are feeling well and enjoying yourself.

I am still living in Santa Barbara and will soon be finished with my Masters degree. It has taken me a pretty long time – almost three years, but I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It took me quite awhile to figure out exactly what I was going to write about but I have finally collected and analyzed all of my data and now I am in the process of finishing the literature, methods, and conclusions sections. They are all partially finished as I have been writing it in a rather piece meal fashion. I spoke with my advisor about it the other day and he is very pleased with the analysis and results. He expects that I will be able to publish in a peer reviewed Behavioral Science journal.

I must say that taking a long time to finish my thesis has not been a bad thing at all. I have been enjoying myself immensely here in Santa Barbara . The weather is fantastic, I have become somewhat of an avid surfer, I live in a great house with a big garden, and have a very satisfying social life.

I live in a neighborhood called Old Town Goleta. It is a pretty nice neighborhood in that we are able to walk to a lot of amenities rather than having to drive everywhere. We are also about 10 minutes drive from our favorite surf spot. We have a big yard that allows us to have a good sized garden. This Winter we are growing broccoli, snap peas, cauliflower, lettuce, onions, garlic, onions, and a lot of flowers (pictured to the left). I also recently built a chicken coop.

The chicken coop is about eight feet by eleven feet it consists of a little house surrounded by chicken wire walls and ceiling (there are pictures of it on the next page). We currently have three chickens but have ordered five more. We originally had four chickens but one of them turned out to be a rooster. He alerted us to his gender by crowing before the break of dawn and then continuing until slightly after sunrise. Given that we have neighbors and my household doesn't usually begin to stir until around 6:30 or seven we couldn't really have him doing this. About three weeks ago I gave him a last meal consisting of corn tortillas and spinach (his favorite foods) and then dispatched of him. I was a little sad to kill him, but he had a better life than the chicken that we buy in the store.

Aside from killing him, the hardest part was getting all his guts out without making a mess. Pulling his feathers out went a lot more quickly than I had expected it would. Two days after I killed him, we invited some friends over and fried him, he was delicious. As weird as it may sound, I kind of enjoyed the experience of killing my own food and I was actually thinking about building another coup to raise turkeys and chickens in for meat.

The hen house

The coop

We will hopefully be getting around five eggs per hen weekly within the next month or so. Three people, including myself live at the house so that will almost be enough for one fresh egg a day.

I live with my girlfriend Lisa (see the picture of the two of us below), and our friend Mike Vergeer. Lisa is also a graduate student in Geography who is finishing up her Masters degree and Mike is a lecturer at Santa Barbara City College and Ventura College.

Lisa is from Buffalo , NY and studied Industrial Engineering as an undergraduate. She moved here in the fall of 2004 and I snatched her up shortly after that by offering to teach her how to surf.

We also have a fluffy, overweight, snuggly cat named Sonny. He is pictured below playing piano.

Here is a photo of Lisa and I. She is very sweet and very intelligent.

Sonny on the piano.

This winter has been a lot of fun. Right before Christmas, Lisa, my cousin Johnny (Mary and Scott Sammis's youngest son) drove half way down the Baja Peninsula in Mexico in search of surf. We found some and had a great time. I experienced my first tube ride in the small fishing village of Santa Rosalillita . It was amazing. The waves were breaking off of the edge of a man made jetty and formed up spectacularly. I paddled as quickly as I could, stood up, dropped into the wave, and crouched down. The wave swirled up over my head and I was peering down a perfectly circular tunnel of cool blue water.

For Christmas most of the Salzman side of the family came to spend Christmas in Santa Barbara . My mom and Uncle Scott rented a house in town and every body had a great time. Steve, Sally, Herb, Scott, and a number of cousins were all able to make it down for several days. The weather was great and we took a lot of walks on the beach and up in the hills above Santa Barbara .

Lisa, me, and John in the desert part way down Baja California.

Here I am surfing at Playa Grande.

I'll write you again soon.

Love,

Ben

ps.

You can write me back at turner@geog.ucsb.edu