Jay Gaulard

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Photo Tour To Publix in Palm Coast

I thought this would be thoroughly entertaining. No seriously, I really think if I start taking kind of like “photo tours” of the stupidest things on the planet, people would like it. I certainly would. Not that going to the grocery store is stupid or anything, and believe me, I’ve seen stupider things in my life – let’s just say that it’s not newsworthy.

But friends of mine have been asking me what it’s like down here. I’m kind of used to it now so my responses aren’t exactly what they were when we first arrived. Back then, I was like, “oh man, it’s so…this or that.” But now, I’m like, “yeah, I’m just on my way to Publix to pick up some shrimp.” Not all that, if you catch my drift.

If one of my friends moved, I’d certainly like a little walking tour around town. I love that kind of stuff and I bet a lot of people do. Heck, even if one (or all) of my friends didn’t move started taking pictures and posting them to a blog, I’d be a happy camper. Would someone please start doing that – and not on Facebook? Please?

Anyway, here’s a few photos of my trip to Publix this evening. I went to the one down at Town Center at Palm Coast. After that, I decided to snap a few photos of our house. Pretty neat.

Whiteview and Belle Terre Parkway

Rymfire Drive and Belle Terre Parkway

Royal Palms and Belle Terre Parkway

Royal Palms and Belle Terre Parkway - Toward Canal

Central Avenue and Belle Terre Parkway at Town Center

Publix at Town Center

Driving North on Belle Terre Parkway

Palm Coast House at Night

Our Garage With New Lights

Amaral Home - Palm Coast, Florida


Too Many Herb Seeds

I didn’t know we had this many until I took them out to take pictures of them. Boy, we have a lot. I have no idea where we are going to put them all, but I’m sure we’ll find a place. But first, we need to get them germinated and set up for growth. That can take a while.

We have twelve packets in all. The herbs range from Cilantro to Parsley to Chives. They all look very good and I hope they come out okay. I’ve never grown herbs before, so if we actually get to eat something here, I’ll be pretty amazed.

I took pictures of everything and I’ll post them below. I wanted to do this in case I ever wanted to look back to see what we had in 2013. I do that from time to time you know.

Alright, enjoy.

Culinary Sage, Salvia Officinalis Seeds

Cilantro, Coriandrum Sativum Seeds

Sweet Basil, Ocimum Basilicum Seeds

Thyme, Thymus Vulgaris Seeds

Oregano, Origanum Vulgare Seeds

Mustard, Brassica Juncea Seeds

Italian Parsley, Petroselinum Crispum Seeds

Dill Bouquet, Anethum Graveolens Seeds

Chives, Allium Schoenoprasum Seeds

Garlic Chives, Allium Schoenoprasum Seeds

Summer Savory, Satureja Hortensis Seeds

Sweet Marjoram, Origanum Majorana Seeds


Re-Potting Our Knock Out Roses

When we first bought our small Knock Out Rose bush in the one gallon container, I figured it would be an easy plant to manage. And believe me, I’ve had these plants before and I based my belief on my history with them. They are easy to manage, but I’m beginning to have doubts about that in the soil we have around here.

We have sand. It’s a gray, weird looking sand, but it’s still sand nonetheless. I’m sure there’s organic matter hidden in there somewhere, but I haven’t been able to find it. And being sand with very little organic matter, water retention is somewhat of a problem. I found that out after planting this bush in the front of the house.

At first, it looked great. They always look great right after you get them home from the store and plant them. But after a few days, I started to notice that the leaves were beginning to curl. I watered the plant only to find a slight positive difference. A few days later, the leaves curled again and I watered it again. Same thing – over and over again. I began to think that either there was something wrong with the soil or the water wasn’t hanging around long enough to keep the rose bush alive. I don’t know.

I didn’t want to risk it. I figured that if this thing has been living in a pot just fine, why not put it back into one – but this time, a slightly larger one. So that’s what I did. I took the rose bush from its one gallon pot, planted it into the ground, took it out of the ground and planted it in a three gallon pot. It’s been in this new pot for about two days and I am happy to report, things are looking up. I’m beginning to notice a whole lot of new buds and even a flower ready to bloom. I’m sure the good soil and additional water helped with this.

Knock Out Rose Bud

Cluster of Knock Out Rose Buds

Knock Out Rose Bush in Three Gallon Pot


Fig and Mulberry Trees, Tomato Update and a Whole Lot of Seeds

We received a few small shipments this afternoon. Apparently, Laura has gone buck wild with ordering seeds. I didn’t know she did this. She told me about a few, but not all the ones I took pictures of and will post below. And she says that we still haven’t received the vegetable seeds.

It’s good though. It’ll give us something to put in all those pots I ordered the other day, which, by the way, they shipped. I’m now just waiting for them to be delivered. I still have to run out and pick up some dirt from Lowe’s, but before we know it, we’ll be sitting here on a operational farm.

Also, I’ve been poking around online and have discovered that it may be beneficial to cover my little baby tomato seeds with saran wrap to keep the moisture in. I went out back this morning to take a look at what I had and found the soil looking a little dry. You’ll see how I fixed that in the picture below. My only concern now is them baking in the sunlight. I’m going to have to move them up against the south side of the house. It’s shady over there.

Take a look at what we’ve got so far. But remember, the seeds below don’t include the herb seeds we received earlier in the week. I’ll take pictures and post them tomorrow, for those who may be interested.

Germinating Tomato Seeds in Planters

Cigar Plant Scarlet Seeds

Black-Eyed Susan, Rudbeckia Hirta Seeds

Blanketflower, Gaillardia Aristata Seeds

Osmanthus Fragrans, Tea Olive Seeds

Mixed Variety Blueberry Seeds

Bachelor Button Mix Seeds

Honeysuckle Tartarian Seeds

Indian Blanket, Gaillardia Pulchella Seeds

Lavender Munstead Seeds

Small Fig Tree

Small Mulberry Tree


Breaking the Lock Down and Practicing Passing Guard

Last night, we did more of what I described in my last post. We had three guys on the mat and three challengers attempting to pass their open guard. It’s a tough exercise, especially when you’re trying to put into action what you’ve just gone over.

I already told you that we went over the x-pass last week. This is the pass that I’ve chosen to practice for the guard pass exercises and I’ll tell you one thing – it’s not easy. These guys are onto the fact that I’m practicing this pass and don’t just let it happen. I think the only one I was successful with all night was with medium Kevin very early on. And I couldn’t even get the original x-pass. I had to change it up half way through and reverse my direction for a modified knee punch through from standing. It’s a good pass though, but not one that’s simply enacted.

At the end of class, I explained to big Kevin that it’s tough and kind of demotivating when I fail at what I’m attempting to practice. I told him that I could easily revert to my old game and kind of get things done, but then I wouldn’t be growing and trying to learn new things. The problem is, as I’m growing, I’m getting housed by a few guys. I have to suck it up and continue practicing. The game is very different here and it’s definitely a challenge getting down with these types of guards and passes. I’ve always had sort of a modified no-gi type of game. Here, it’s total gi and grips. I’ll get it though because it’s really good stuff.

At the beginning of class, Kevin asked the higher belts to teach one other person their favorite sweep. I worked with medium Kevin and wanted to show him my made up “pop the guy forward while in closed guard, dig my head behind his arm, hook his leg and bend him like a banana” sweep. But that was too simple. I knew big Kevin wasn’t going to leave it at that, so I decided to go with Brad Wolfson’s modified flower sweep. The one where the guy on bottom is in closed guard, takes the top guy’s right arm out of commission, grabs the top guy’s left pant leg and throws his own leg up through the armpit of the top guy to sweep him up and forward. Yeah, like typing that description here works at all. I tried finding a video of Brad going over the sweep but I couldn’t.

After we taught our partner that, we had to rotate and the person who just learned the sweep, had to teach the next higher belt (the guy who just taught one). Medium Kevin taught big Kevin the sweep I just taught him. I know I forgot some parts, but I hope he got the general gist of things.

When I was learning the sweep that another guy just learned, I had to go ahead and suggest a little bow and arrow choke at the end. The sweep originally ended in a choke from back and by adding the bow and arrow portion of it, it was made just a bit more lethal. I’m not sure if I was supposed to do that or not, but it was fun nonetheless.

In the middle of all this, Kevin decided to stop things and show a quick escape from the leg lock down. If you’ve been rolling for any amount of time, you most likely know (and hate) the leg lock down. It’s a stalling or sweeping technique used by a guy who’s on bottom and holding the top guy in half guard. For whatever reason, the bottom guy can figure-four the top guy’s leg and lock it down to slow the game. I know a few guys who use this, really to no avail other than being a pain in the ass, but it works for what it’s intended, I guess. I’ve done it in the past, but only if I’m outweighed by an opponent and I’ve run out of things to turn to. I’ll just lock the guy down to take a break.

Anyway, what Kevin suggested we do when we’re in the lock down and we’d like to get out of it is to reach down and grab around the bottom guy’s legs and continue to push our leg through. This way, we’ll be putting pressure on the bottom guy’s ankles and they’ll either tap or let go. We practiced it and if the bottom guy doesn’t have underhooks, it works really well. The escape also sends a message to those “lock down” types of guys that they better not try it again. Perfect.

I couldn’t find a video of this particular escape. I really have got to start taking some pictures and videos up there because this stuff is gold. Actually, I’m not finding videos of anything we do, which makes what we do even better and more video-worthy. But what I did find was a sweet long lock down escape series put out by Rener Gracie. He shows a few pretty fancy escapes, including setup and where to turn after the escape has been successful. Let me know what you think.

Breaking the Lock Down 101


The Gardening Has Begun

For a few days now, I’ve been all stressed out about our future gardening endeavors. Laura makes fun of me, but my stress isn’t unfounded. The fact is, I’m not sure I’ve ever planted a piece of fruit or a vegetable successfully in my life. I’ve certainly tried, that’s for sure. But as far as heading outside to pluck a few tomatoes off a plant every morning – nope. That’s never happened.

I remember a few years back when we purchased a nice full strawberry plant. My parents came to visit and one of our activities was to show them a local farm. While there, we got suckered into picking up one of the largest and most promising looking plants – with little mini strawberries hanging all over the place. I can recall thinking of how much fun it would be eating all those red ripe strawberries every day. Unfortunately, the eating part of that story never happened. The squirrels or mice or bears had their way with them first. Something did, because all I know is that there were fewer and fewer little mini strawberries every time I looked at that plant. It did last until the end of the season though and after the season was through, I chucked the whole thing in the woods.

We even tried to get tomatoes to grow one year. I can remember back to when I was a kid – my mother ended up with big huge tomatoes for what seemed like an entire summmer. She grew them in 5 gallon buckets, you know, like the rest of the world does. I even had a better setup than that, but our dog ended up plucking, one by one, every single red tomato we grew. By the time we discovered that she was the culprit, it was too late.

Seriously, I’m just sick and tired of hearing successful gardening stories from people. And since we’ve somehow ended up living someplace where the growing season is like 9 months long, I figured we should take advantage of it.

We’ve been running over to Lowe’s quite a bit lately. Not too much, but just enough to gather a few bags of dirt and a couple of plants here and there. While it seems simple and even though we’re at the beginning of things, I am slowly becoming a little nervous about our lack of organization. I keep comparing gardening to owning a fish tank. Once you enter the store, you lose all sense of rationality and start piling everything into the cart. The dream of having a beautiful fish tank, or in this case, growing your own food is too much for the beginner to handle. But we’ll get the hang of things soon enough, I guess.

I took a bunch of pictures today to show you where we’re at. We’ve got two main areas so far – one in the front of the house for colorful, flower type plants and one in the back of the house for vegetables and stuff like that. I’m sure we’ll be shuffling buckets back and forth if recent history is any predictor of the future. I honestly don’t know what I’m doing because more and more seeds keep coming in the mail. Laura is taking care of that. It’s just happening kind of fast.

We’ve decided that planting in pots is the way to go around here. I don’t have a rototiller and ordering a dump truck full of manure and top soil really doesn’t make all that much sense. Picking up one or two bags of garden or potting soil is probably easiest. I even ordered 26 three gallon and 10 seven gallon black flimsy nursery planting buckets from Amazon last night. They are less than a dollar a piece and should help out tremendously.

Here’s our inventory so far and here’s what I think I just took pictures of. We did get a shipment of herb seeds this afternoon, but I’ll include them in one of my following posts because I haven’t explored them yet.

– One Spartan Blueberry bush
– One Double Red Althea bush
– Multiple Avocado plants
– One Knockout Rose bush
– Multiple Lily of the Valley plants
– Multiple Beefsteak and Red Cherry Tomato seedlings (hopefully)

I also took some pictures of an open bag of Scotts garden soil and my ten pound bag of Jobe’s Organics all-purpose fertilizer. That was just for good measure. When I look back at this post, wondering what I had at one point, I’ll know.

I think I may begin documenting my what happens with our gardening. That should be fun. That way, all of you out there with tips can offer up some comments in the section below. Thanks ahead of time.

Spartan Blueberry Bush From Lowe's

Unripe Green Blueberries

Double Red Althea

Double Red Althea Buds

Avocado Plant Leaves

Black Planting Buckets

Black Planting Buckets Holding Tomato Seeds Ready To Germinate

Tomato Seeds In Small Containers

Jobe's Organics All-Purpose Fertilizer

Miracle-Gro Garden Soil

Seeds of Change - Beefsteak and Red Cherry Tomato Seeds


Practicing the Half Guard Escape and Sweep

Another good time last night, but nowhere near as grueling as the past few classes I’ve had to endure. While we did sweat, the doors were open to offer a slight (warm) breeze and we didn’t free roll at all. Not that I mind that – I actually prefer the strenuous side of BJJ. But, I will tell you that last night’s classes were good and that, like usual, I was able to play with a few things I had on my mind.

For the fundamentals class, we basically went over x-pass drills. From all my study over the weekend, I was able to put two and two together to realize what we were doing. I kept telling my partner that I like to focus on the end result position, which, in turn, helps with with the drill in its entirety. We did a few of those drills for the hour and then I did, in fact, attempt a few x-passes during the next class. I’ll talk about that later.

For the second class, the advanced one, we went over some fairly sweet half guard escapes and sweeps. I was lucky enough to have Darec (the brown belt) as my drilling partner. Which is good because Darec is very enthusiastic about his Jitsu and was all too open to passing it along to me. I’m fine with that. During last night’s drilling, Darec shared something called the high knee block (I think) he picked up at a seminar once. He said he absolutely loved the setup and sweep we were working on and that it was one of his favorites. That’s good because as I mentioned earlier, he’s an awesome BJJ player. To see him get so excited about a technique we were drilling and for me to pull it off effectively, was a good sign.

After playing with the half guard sweep for a while, we did some drills where we had four guys on the mat. Others would come in, get one grip on one inside knee of the other’s open guard. The goal for the top guy was to either pass or submit. The goal for the bottom guy was to sweep or submit. I like these kinds of drills.

I probably did just as well from top as I did from bottom. A few times though, I had to resort to my old ways and play really low as I passed, which I find very effective. I can do my pressure passes from there and those passes are difficult to stop. The times where I did stay on my feet to attempt to pass didn’t go as well. I was practicing my x-pass and when I would get my grips, I found that the bottom player got their grips as well. They would immediately break my grips in their attempt to sweep. That’s when I decided to go back to my old ways. I’m going to have to talk to Kevin about that – what to do about the bottom player when setting up the x-pass.

After a while, we changed up the drill we were working on to one where we still had four guys out there on bottom, but this time, those four put the top guy on half guard. We had to start from that position and either sweep or submit. Again, the top guys had to either pass or submit.

I had tremendous luck with this drill. When on top, I can quite effectively pass a number of ways, my favorite being a knee punch through. There’s also one pass that Jeff taught me that I believe no one here knows. I’m going to have to demonstrate it to Kevin to see if he’s ever taught it because it’s really good. Good enough and tricky enough to include in his classes. I’ve tried it a few times to totally take those who I’m sparring with off-guard. If they can use it, all the better.

I’m very comfortable in half guard. While I was on bottom last night, I felt right at home. I used the technique we went over in class to much success – but only the first time around. I’ll tell you, you can’t try the same trick twice on these guys because they learned what I was up to rather quickly. I had to turn to my triangle after a while, which was fine. I wanted to play with that too.

As I was rolling last night, I asked Christy to snap a few pictures for me. She started shooting away with her cell phone and will email to me later on what she took. I do want to bring my camera and small tripod in so she can get some different types of wide angle shots. I think it would really spice things up on this blog as well as add to their school’s promotion.


Dan Faggella’s Inverted Guard

I found a video on the inverted guard the other day that I really wanted to share with you. It was put out by Dan Faggella and is quite unique when compared to about 99% of other Jiu-Jitsu videos out there. Take a look at it below and then I’ll explain why I said it was unique afterwards.

Inverted Guard Fundamentals “It’s Like Breakdancing”

First, Dan gives a good “view” of where he is – meaning the pros and cons of his current placement as well as his strengths and weaknesses. I’ll give you a few good examples (paraphrased):

:15 – Goal – in order to close the distance against sweeps and leg locks right away.

:24 – Situation – standing opponent’s benefit is his mobility – benefit of guy on ground is his back protection.

:28 – Body Position – both player’s limbs are facing one another.

:40 – Advantage – again, standing player is more mobile than player on the ground, hence bottom player’s need to go inverted.

:47 – Benefit – the benefit of the inverted guard setup being shown is its ability to quickly close distance against opponent.

You can watch the video to see the setup and how it works. What I wanted to show you here was how Dan thoroughly explained his situation, his body position, his goal and the benefit of the technique he chose to achieve that goal. I like that. I like it because it opens up many more areas than just the one he decided to demonstrate.

Say someone takes a class with Dan and sees that this particular technique is being shown, but has another, just as good, one that he thinks he can pull off from the same position. By learning the technique Dan is teaching, the student finds the legitimacy of his own technique, due to its similar nature (coming from the same position and achieving a similar result). By teaching this way, Dan is showing his students principles and concepts, things we should all be focusing on in our own training.

Watch the video and let me know your thoughts. Have you experienced this type of instruction before?


Low Level X-Pass by Jason Scully

Before heading off to class tonight, I’ve been reviewing some videos on the x-pass. I’ve seen a few pretty good ones over the weekend, so I have a couple of ideas I want to play with. Mainly leg position while blocking the potential de la riva guard and some simple hand position on the opposing leg. Nothing huge or anything – just kind of getting comfortable with some new ideas.

I did see a video on Saturday that was put out by Jason Scully about the x-guard, but at a low level, or coming from the knees (combat base). I liked his version because that’s most likely the position I find myself in more often than not. Since I’m mainly a guard player, I rarely stand. But, there are those talented few out there who I roll with (Gerry) who can make me stand against my will. Strange, I know – but there have been so many times where I’ve found myself being swept from a standing position and not knowing or remembering how I came to stand in the first place.

Jason’t version of the x-pass (or more appropriately should be called the “L” pass because of its ending position) is good. It puts a lot of pressure on the player towards the end and also has nice control. I’m thinking the guy on the bottom would have no idea what to do with it.

Check it out.

Jason Scully – Low Level X-Pass


Bobcat In Back Yard – Palm Coast, Florida

Laura has been talking about this “cat” type animal she saw a while ago. I mentioned it and showed off some pictures of the prints it left here. While I’ve forgotten the ordeal, she’s apparently become somewhat obsessed.

She hasn’t been able to pinpoint exactly what the animal was. I think she’s been secretly hopeful that it was a Florida Panther. That would be too good to be true. Not that I know anything about the Florida Panther, but from what I’ve heard through the years, it’s very elusive. For us to have a panther running through the back yard would really be something.

About an hour ago, I saw her whizzing past me, through the living room, with her camera. She didn’t say anything then, but a few moments later, she said, “Bob, it’s back.” For those of you who aren’t aware, Bob is my nickname. No idea how that happened.

I got up and ran towards her in the little sun room we have. I stood besides her while we both looked out the window. She took some pictures, but was disappointed that she didn’t get anything. As we were standing there, we both realized the animal was gone. I didn’t see a thing. She told me that it ran behind the neighbor’s pool and into the woods.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret here. This is just between you and me – so don’t say anything. I’ve been a bit skeptical of this whole cat thing from the beginning. Someone’s dog? Maybe. A big house cat? Sure. But a lion or a tiger? Now way.

That was until today. As it turns out, she did manage to get a picture of something. It’s not the greatest picture out there, but it does lean towards the fact that we’ve got a bobcat running through our back yard. And to reinforce my idea, I’ll present to you the photos and then a video someone else took of what I think is a similar animal. You be the judge and then let me know your thoughts in the comment area below.

Bobcat Running Behind Neighbor's Pool

Bobcat in Palm Coast, Florida

Here is a link to the video. It’s the best one I can find. Notice the tail and the spots. Laura kept telling me that the cat she saw in the back yard had spots.

Cranes squawk at Florida bobcat on Vimeo