We have a new market in town! Every Friday night, there is now Market Nights- and it was fantastic this Friday- my little sewing business had record sales!

We had beautiful Texas October weather, perfect for outdoor market meandering. There was great music, great food and great crafts.

I’m excited to go back next Friday, and have quite a bit of work to tackle to replenish my inventory. BUT, the fun part of fabric shopping has been tackled and the scissors have been busy cutting around the templates. Smocks, bibs and aprons are cut and begging for seams and trimmings.

MM Birds of Norway

I can’t wait to put them together, they are going to be great for this fall and the Holidays. I know it’s all girlie stuff, but us girls like all the accoutrements at any age. ( I do have some great stuff for boy in case you are interested.)

PP Madison

If you would like to see more of what I’m doing, please visit my Etsy shop! It is sparse right now, but as I finish things, I’ll update everything. www.rainydaysmocks1.etsy.com

If you are local (and even if you’re not!) I hope to see you at Market Nights this Friday! Seriously, if you want more information, let me know and I can send you a map, directions and times.

PP Wild

Happy Fall!

The notorious mutant squash

Mutant squash has given me a rash on my arms and legs. It has also given me what I think is about ten pounds of squash, so does that equate to a fair trade?

The one thing that I’ve requested for my birthday is enough timber and bed mix to finish our shared garden. Does anyone besides me ask for dirt for her 30th birthday? Don’t give me gold jewelry, give me garden gold! The more useful it is, the more I love it.

Green Anthropology will eventually have its own address! I’m going to still maintain my blog here on WordPress, but great things are underway for GA. More on that later!

On more long term notes- I have a notion that has been in my mind for a very long time, and something I’ve never discussed here on GA Homestead. I have this wild-ass dream of owning my own B&B in the Texas Hill Country. Not just any B&B, but a self-sufficient one. Complete with cow, chickens and ample fruit and veggies. This is one of those dreams that comes with the life lesson in delayed gratification. I imagine it will be fifteen years in the making from this point. All I can do is practice self sufficiency, save money and learn, learn, learn.

Gorgeous sunset at GA Homestead

Does it get any better than this?

I feel very lucky to be able to see this kind of sunset most evenings at the GAH.

Things are moving right along here at the GA Homestead. Fall and winter plantings are just about ready to happen, as soon as the new lattice is up and the bed frames are built- should be in the next two weeks or so.

The Kombucha mother is ready to go- I think there is going to be some brewing going on this weekend!

The zucchini/summer squash is prolific, and it is a mutant of its own making. It has a lovely variegated green skin, and yellow inside! I suppose this is what happens when the seeds get all jumbled up in the compost and cross pollinate. It tastes just fine, and I have several bags sliced and blanched, in the freezer, as well as handing out armloads!

More to come soon!

Mystery Veggie Bed

I finally figured out( I think)  what has been mysteriously running wild in the new corner garden- it’s zucchini, or at least some sort of green summer squash. Makes sense- there were plenty of zucchini tidbits ( and a few whole) thrown into the compost bin over the last two years. I am very excited about it- there is going to be a ton of zucchini/summer squash- for salad, spaghetti sauces, bread and maybe a casserole. And enough for the neighbors. And probably enough for offering to the owner of the farmer’s market. Seriously, this is a lot of zucchini, people.

Multiply this by about 40

The Farmer’s Market was a success again this weekend. So much so that I have now decided to work every weekend, as opposed to every other weekend. So busy busy sewing and knitting! It is good to be participating in the local economy. What I make at the market is enough to provide my family with produce purchased at the market for a week, and enough left over to provide a bit of extra entertainment – such as this weekend.

A feathered resident of BSP

For Labor Day (really just for any weekend) we drove out to Bastrop State Park. So beautiful there! The weather was cool enough to make it pleasant, and there were no mosquitoes- amazing. We spent the afternoon meandering through trails, listening to the sounds of nature,  and catching glimpses of feathered residents. We packed a backpack with necessities, water and food on me, and husband carried the Munchkin in the Deuter pack. She loves riding in the pack. There must be something about riding way up high, in the branches of trees sometimes, and being able to look down and all around from a new perspective.

It was a good weekend. And in the land of kombucha scoby, things are progressing nicely. The scoby is covering the entire surface now, and just shy of 1/8 ” thick. It needs another week or two before brew time. Good things are worth waiting for!

Kombucha Mother

I had my first venture in urban foraging today. It was successful, but it still felt a bit weird. I knew there was about a mile and a half section of a mildly busy street that had great hibiscus plants down both sides. A drug store provided close parking, and a side walk made it accessible. But I never see any one walking there! I wanted some hibiscus flowers, which are edible, for making tea and herbal infusions, so I figured this spot is primo pickin’s.

I guess I felt so self conscious about it because 1: I never see anyone walk there even though there are sidewalks and 2: you aren’t ’supposed’ to pick the flowers. Oh, and it is a busy street and I was there during rush hour. But what will happen to those flowers if no one picks them? Nothing- they wither and fall off. Better to put a few of them to use!

Now that I have finished justifying my foraging, the giant blossoms are cleaned and out to dry for tea. And I am satisfied- I will do it again!

On top of today being a great day- temperature was less than 100 degrees, spent QT with some family, made butter, yogurt and went to the grocery- I started my first kombucha scoby!

I am so excited to start my own home brew of this wonderful, mellow- tangy beverage. I’ve read quite a bit about it’s supposed health benefits, but I just LIKE the stuff. To be able to continue to brew my own drink from here on out for only $3.50 start up is great.I finally have the courage to do this on my own.

The scoby should be ready to use in brewing in a couple of weeks. I’ll be sure to photodocument the growth of my scoby. Very exciting stuff- like watching grass grow. Or snails crawling. Hold your breath, folks… 1…2…3…

Tomorrow will be just as productive- blueberry jam, harvesting more basil and rosemary. I have everything I need for my farmer’s market Saturday, so Friday will be slated for bread baking and getting all my gear ready to go. And tomorrow is Library Day for the Munchkin and me. She loves having several new books every week. Take your kids to the library, folks- you will never regret it!

I think I have watermelons and squash growing in the new veggie bed- prolifically and accidentally. My question now is: Do I leave them? Will watermelons and squash have enough time to produce anything in Texas this time of year? Common sense says ‘no’, but it always seems like we can bend the rules in this climate. I mean, c’mon- I remember Christmases that we wore shorts. And it snowed for one day last December, so that means our odds of getting a few flakes again won’t increase for oh, I don’t know- another ten years.

I think I finally found a niche for my sewing and crafting. Etsy is great, but I really enjoyed working our local farmers market- getting to know the other vendors, meeting the people who frequent the market and anyone else who stopped by out of curiosity.

Most of what I have made to this point has been baby items- bibs, burp clothes and play smocks. But I have expanded to a few decorative items as well. Now I think I’m going to simplify the baby stuff, and make my stand all about simple, home made things. Sewn goods: a few bibs and aprons; Crafted goods: pin cushions, baskets and serviceable things; Baked goods: bread. I want to provide nice, homey things. Stuff that gives people the ‘warm fuzzies’.

It went really well the last weekend I was there, in spite of it being tax-free weekend. It’s a good gig- free booth space, electricity and a box fan. And plenty of shade. I’m excited about it- going to be there again this coming weekend, so the sewin’ machine is workin’ overtime, the glue gun is out (finger tips are bunt) and the trusty cash box (older than me!) is ready and waitin’.

I think what I liked most was feeling like I was actively doing something within the community- to provide an option for local goods, rather than going to large shopping malls. It was good getting to meet new faces, and hoping to see them again.

I’ve been reading Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating by Jane Goodall. I’ve learned more about genetically modified (GM) foods and seeds, as well as the effects of rBGH (synthetic bovine growth hormone) on dairy cows and humans than I thought possible.

I’ve learned about Monsanto, and that it is a pimple on the butt of humanity. I’ve always know that buying organic meant farmers used natural fertilizers and no chemical pesticides. But I had no idea about the frankenfoods that Monsanto creates…I mean, can you imagine eating corn with Bt in every single cell of the kernels you chew? Not just that, but every single cell of the plant?

I knew about the terrible conditions that cows and chickens live in, but really, has our sense of compassion and humanity degraded so far as to treat these animals like machines?

I’m only a third of the way through the book. Ugh.

So yesterday afternoon consisted of a trip to the grocery store interrupted by the need to run to the minor care center around the corner.

It’s an adventure. The little one and I enjoyed a peach we purchased from the produce  department while we shopped for other things. It only took about ten or fifteen minutes for me to realize I was itching uncontrollably. I began to feel self conscious, so I discreetly pulled a tiny mirror out of my purse to discover giant red splotches all over my neck. Five minutes more, and my lips were tingling and my throat was tightening up. The splotches were spreading up my face, down my arms and onto my trunk.

I didn’t ditch the groceries: no way when shopping with toddler. I just stopped, checked out, and hauled ass to the minor care center.

After some benadryl and prednisone, I was on my way back to normal. It was minor in the end, I guess. But I wasn’t going to mess around with a tight throat. No way.

So the point of this,  as much of a coincidence as it is, I’m not allergic to peaches. It was something ON the peach. Pesticides? Possibly. It could have been any number of things the fruit was exposed to during shipping.

No, they weren’t local. I was going for cheap, since this month’s budget is tight.

Lesson learned: Make room in the budget for local/ organic. Or get hives.

I hate horn-worms.

Their name is a misnomer. They aren’t even worms, they are caterpillars. Big, nasty, and eat everything they come into contact with.

As a kid, I knew them as ‘tomato worms’ because almost every summer my Dad would plant tomatoes and defend his precious plants from them. They never really bothered me then, mostly because my father took care of it.

As an adult, I have realized I have an almost irrational fear and disgust of them. This summer has been tough battling drought, but when the worms moved in on my meager tomatoes like a free salad bar, I was mad. Now, I have discovered sweet potato horn-worms on my morning glories. I had never bothered to do any investigating on the creatures, but did learn that they ’sometimes emit an unpleasant odor’. Today I found out that is a serious understatement! While surveying the damage caused overnight, I smelled something like manure. Oh great, something wrong with the compost. No. The little green demons grew into giant, black horrors. They remind me of fat snakes. And ‘odor’ isn’t the word for it. I thought the neighbors had spread copious amounts of manure in their yard!

My solution was to arm my husband with garden gloves and a bucket of soapy water. I chide the man for getting creeped out by chickens, but I think I’ll relent on that because of my disgust for these caterpillars.

My husband has put on the grown-up panties around here and gone out twice to rescue my morning glories. I have dubbed him ‘The Worminator’.

Oh, and I think the smell might be the compost. Damn.

As promised, the hurricane preparedness post!

August and September seem to be the magic months for my region- Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike all hit within the same time period. I was fortunate to not have experienced the wrath of Katrina; only in volunteering to help those victims that came to the Houston area. Rita was a different story: I was displaced for over a month (I didn’t live in Houston at the time), sweating bullets over school – I was in my graduating semester- and over my house. The house was fine except for the refrigerator, and all seniors were given the nod for having enough contact hours. Whew!

Ike was another monster. This time I feared for my daughter’s sake. We had very little damage, and power was resored in a reasonable period of time- only because we are in one of the suburbs and I guess the work was easier to get done. We had up to five ‘evacuees’ with us at one point! The worst part: I had the worst stomach and intesinal virus you could imagine. Think about hot, humid weather, no cool air- no electricity- and not being able to leave the bathroom for two days. Oh, and my mom had it, too.

So enough of the personal story: below is what Ready America recommends:

http://www.ready.gov/america/beinformed/hurricanes.html

Hurricanes

Hurricanes are severe tropical storms that form in the southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Scientists can now predict hurricanes, but people who live in coastal communities should plan what they will do if they are told to evacuate.

Step 1: Get A Kit / “To-Go Bag”

• Get an Emergency Supply Kit,which includes items like non-perishable food, water, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, extra flashlights and batteries. You may want to prepare a portable kit and keep it in your car. This kit should include:
  • Copies of prescription medications and medical supplies;
  • Bedding and clothing, including sleeping bags and pillows;
  • Bottled water, a battery-operated radio and extra batteries, a first aid kit, a flashlight;
  • Copies of important documents: driver’s license, Social Security card, proof of residence, insurance policies, wills, deeds, birth and marriage certificates, tax records, etc.

• Make sure you have a “to-go bag” ready in case you need to evacuate, include:
  • Water and non-perishable food;
  • Battery operated radio and batteries so you can get important information from local officials;
  • First aid kit;
  • Flashlight;
  • Maps
  • Important documents such as proof residence, pictures of your family including pets, insurance policies, and tax records;
  • Comfortable clothing and blankets;
  • Unique family needs such as prescription medications, pet supplies, infant supplies or any other unique need your family may have;

Step 2: Make a Plan

Prepare your family

• Make a Family Emergency Plan. Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to know how you will contact one another, how you will get back together and what you will do in case of an emergency
• Plan places where your family will meet, both within and outside of your immediate neighborhood.
• It may be easier to make a long-distance phone call than to call across town, so an out-of-town contact may be in a better position to communicate among separated family members.
• You may also want to inquire about emergency plans at places where your family spends time: work, daycare and school. If no plans exist, consider volunteering to help create one.
• Plan to Evacuate
  • Identify ahead of time where your family will meet, both within and outside of your immediate neighborhood.
  • Identify several places you could go in an emergency, a friend’s home in another town, a motel or public shelter.
  • If you do not have a car, plan alternate means of evacuating.
  • If you have a car, keep a half tank of gas in it at all times in case you need to evacuate.
  • Take your Emergency Supply Kit.
  • Take your pets with you, but understand that only service animals may be permitted in public shelters. Plan how you will care for your pets in an emergency.
• Take a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) class from your local Citizen Corps chapter. Keep your training current.

Step 3: Be Informed

Familiarize yourself with the terms that are used to identify a hurricane.

• A hurricane watch means a hurricane is possible in your area. Be prepared to evacuate. Monitor local radio and television news outlets or listen to NOAA Weather Radio for the latest developments.
• A hurricane warning is when a hurricane is expected in your area. If local authorities advise you to evacuate, leave immediately.
• Hurricanes are classified into five categories based on their wind speed, central pressure, and damage potential. Category Three and higher hurricanes are considered major hurricanes, though Categories One and Two are still extremely dangerous and warrant your full attention.

• Hurricanes can produce widespread torrential rains. Floods are the deadly and destructive result. Slow moving storms and tropical storms moving into mountainous regions tend to produce especially heavy rain. Excessive rain can trigger landslides or mud slides, especially in mountainous regions. Flash flooding can occur due to intense rainfall. Flooding on rivers and streams may persist for several days or more after the storm. Learn more about preparing your home or business for a possible flood by reviewing the Floods page.

Prepare Your Home

• Cover all of your home’s windows with pre-cut ply wood or hurricane shutters to protect your windows from high winds.
• Plan to bring in all outdoor furniture, decorations, garbage cans and anything else that is not tied down.
• Keep all trees and shrubs well trimmed so they are more wind resistant.
• Secure your home by closing shutters, and securing outdoor objects or bringing them inside.
• Turn off utilities as instructed. Otherwise, turn the refrigerator thermostat to its coldest setting and keep its doors closed.
• Turn off propane tanks.
• Ensure a supply of water for sanitary purposes such as cleaning and flushing toilets. Fill the bathtub and other large containers with water.

Prepare Your Business

Plan to stay in business, talk to your employees, and protect your investment.

• Carefully assess how your company functions, both internally and externally, to determine which staff, materials, procedures and equipment are absolutely necessary to keep the business operating.
• Identify operations critical to survival and recovery.
• Plan what you will do if your building, plant or store is not accessible.
  • Consider if you can run the business from a different location or from your home.
  • Develop relationships with other companies to use their facilities in case a disaster makes your location unusable.
• Learn about programs, services, and resources at U.S. Small Business Administration.

Listen to Local Officials
Learn about the emergency plans that have been established in your area by your state and local government. In any emergency, always listen to the instructions given by local emergency management officials.

Federal and National Resources

Find additional information on how to plan and prepare for a hurricane by visiting the following resources:

• Federal Emergency Management Agency
• NOAA Watch
• American Red Cross
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control

I know it sounds like a lot, but when you think about it, you are preparing to lose everything you have. I would personally reccomend evacuating- it’s better to have your life and that of the ones you love intact and try to figure out the rest later. Evacuations are not as bad as they used to be since they implimented contraflow lanes on the highways- but you have to prepare for that, too.If there is a mandatory evacuation, GO! You don’t want to deal with a citation or arrest on top of a hurricane.

If you think you will be safe and decide to stay in your home be ready for that. Have plenty of water on hand- the usual recommendation is two gallons per person per day for drinking and flushing. Fill bathtubs and large containers to hold needed water- you don’t need to buy millions of plastic water bottles. Have plenty of canned goods, and remember that you will lose your fridge and freezer- be ready to grill stored meat as it unthaws!

Please remember to listen and stay informed, and don’t allow panic to set in.

Happy Hurricane Season!