Eco Friendly Real Estate Blog

Yesterday, two Sprouts stores opened in the Austin area - one in Sunset Valley and one (the one we visited) in Round Rock.

Being the foodies we are, my husband and I made a date to go check it out the very first day they were open. 

We arrived separately (I was coming from showing properties in several parts of the area) and found parking spaces relatively easily, surprising since the parking lot was full, full, FULL!  This should have been a hint.

We didn't take a basket, as this was planned to be an exploratory expedition.  Good thing, too - the store was not only packed, but the checkout lines reached halfway to the back of the store.  We maneuvered our way through the various departments, checking out the produce and the items available and doing some comparison shopping.  A good selection of items that I've had to drive further into town, to Whole Foods or Central Market or Sun Harvest, to find (though I'm still going to have to drive all the way in to get my favored brand of peanut butter, Arrowhead Mills crunchy), and some new items I wasn't familiar with by old, trusted vendors.  The produce looked good, though I didn't see any local produce (we are, after all, in the middle of a drought, and that might have something to do with it), and local produce is one of the reasons I was glad to see them open.  We'll be checking out the bakery items in our never-ending quest for great bread. 

All in all, this looks quite promising.  I'll be making a serious shopping trip sometime in the next couple of weeks, after the "new story frenzy!" slows down a bit. 

I heard on the news last night, and against this morning in the Austin American Statesman, that Preservation Texas has issued a list of 2009's Most Endangered Historic Places. 

We don't often think of the impact that history has on who and what and where we are today, but its impact is enormous.  We can't figure out where we're going if we don't know where we are and how we got there.  Trashing the old in service to the new is an attitude that leads to such things as giant mountains of trash in our waste disposals, a landscape buried in houses (we just HAVE to have a brand! new! house! with all the latest bells and whistles, or if the refrigerator isn't the latest color, out it goes!). 

To counteract this trend, we should be treasuring our history and the places that serve as reminders of it.  Whether it be Hamilton Pool, once crystal clear 20 feet to the bottom, now all but destroyed by silt from a nearby development, or a bank building in a mid-century architecture that's all but lost, or a bridge, or a church, or a Governor's Mansion, these are the things that remind us of our roots, that ARE our roots, and they are precious. 

"Don't Mess With Texas!"  We're all familiar with this saying, but I've discovered hanging out in online relocation forums that a lot of people who aren't from here really don't understand what it's about. 

They think it's too aggressive.  They think that we're being pugilistic.  They think that we're saying that we're better than anyone else. Granted, there've been some riffs on the phrase that could lead to that conclusion - I, myself, have a cherished old red t-shirt that says, in big red letters, "Don't Mess With Texas Women".  Now, that's pretty accurate - we are known to rip off the velvet glove rather quickly, and a lot of us ARE armed!

This confusion has become widespread enough that I've actually seen a billboard by the Texas Department of Transportation that says, "'Don't Mess With Texas' Means Don't Litter".  Now, that's sad, that it has to be spelled out so bluntly.  

In actuality, "Don't Mess With Texas" is an award-winning advertising program sponsored by TxDOT intended to, with some humor, remind people that "messing" with Texas in the form of littering is not the manly thing to do.  Commercials with such Texas icons as Willie, Lyle, Stevie (yeah, a lot of our icons are known by one name), Joe Ely, Marcia Ball, George Foreman, and others encourage our citizens to treat Texas with respect, not throwing trash on her highways and byways.  We're proud of our state, with good reason, and don't hold kindly with people treating her with disrespect. 

So, when you're traveling in Texas, whether you're just visitin', or you've lived here all your life and all your granddaddy's life, or if you're relocating here, and you see a sign that says, "Don't Mess With Texas," just smile and put that trash away to throw in the trash can at the next stop, or put that cigarette (yes, they do count) out in the ash tray instead of throwing it out the window.  Texas will thank you, the environment will thank you, and we won't have to get aggressive or pugilistic with you! 

There's a lot of attention being given these days to building "green" homes, and to renovating existing homes to be more green.  This is a Very Good Thing, in my opinion, for many reasons, not the least of which is, these homes cost less to run.

But how many think about something very basic, the thing that makes any home "greener than thou", when it comes right down to it? 

What is it?  Do you think you know?  Ponder it for a moment, then read on.

The answer is TIME.

Not the time it takes to build the house.  Not the time it takes to pay for the house.

No, the time the house is built to last.  If a house is built to last for 10 years, then must be replaced, it has a certain environmental cost made up not only of the materials used to build it, but the materials used to build the replacement home, as well.  If the house is built to last for 50 years, the environmental cost is much less, over time.  If the house is built to last for generations (as some houses in Europe have), the environmental cost is dramatically less, even taking into consideration repairs and renovations that are made over those generations.Houses that are designed with additions in mind, if they should become necessary in future, houses that are designed to be living things, to "grow" with the families that inhabit them over time, houses that are built to work well in the environment in which they find themselves, are the greenest of the green.

As a culture, we have a tendency to disdain the old and insist on the new.  That's not the environmentally friendly way to think, however.  If a house is sound, if it was built to last forever, the last thing that needs to be done, if you want to be truly "green", is to tear it down and build a new house in its place. 

Without that very basic approach, we're hampered in building green homes, and in treading gently on the earth.  And yet I never hear this mentioned in all of the talk of "green building", of how the quality of the house and its ability to last over time is, with how it's oriented on the lot, the very foundation of building green. 

Wonder why that is? 

On another forum I was led to an article about Tiny Texas Houses, which led me to the website of Discovery Architectural Antiques in Gonzales, Texas.  This company sells salvaged architectural items for restoration. 

They've come up with a new project that I think is just awesome!  The Tiny Texas Houses Project takes those salvaged architectural items that they have in inventory and builds 95% recycled (wiring, plumbing, etc., being new) tiny, portable houses from them.  Each one will, of course, of necessity, be somewhat unique. 

I'd love to have one of these on our place as a guest cottage/office/man cave!  It would be great for a horse facility, too, as a tack room/lounge for boarders/students.

It's summer here in Central Texas, grass is growing (well, it's struggling due to the lack of rain for the past month or so, but there's still forage for the critters), animals are eating, we're not having to feed any hay. 

But that's now.  Living in the country, we need to look ahead to winter way before it's here.  A few days ago, taking advantage of the dry weather (every vice has its virtues, and vice versa), lots of people in the area, including us, were having their hay cut and baled. 

When we first moved out here, and for several years thereafter, we weed-killed and fertilized, and we had our hay put up in square bales.  I will never forget that first year, when the three of us (husband Phil, daughter Jess, and I) were putting the hay in the barn, 500 bales, 3 days, 108 degree weather.  

About 3 years ago, with it being just the two of us at home now, we decided to try round bales.  We had them baled smaller than usual, to make them easier to handle.  We got 20 bales that first year, and with the tractor, they were put up in an hour and a half instead of the 3 days we usually had to schedule. 

We gave the field a rest for a couple of years, due to first drought, then flood.  Last year we decided to try something different.  Instead of weedkiller and chemical fertilizers, we decided to try a more natural approach, using liquid compost extract applied by Sustainable Growth, Texas.  It's applied in the same way, the cost is very close to the same if not a little bit less, and we noticed almost immediately that the grass was growing in thicker. 

When we baled last week, we got 28 round bales off of the same field that had produced 20 in past.   That's enough of an improvement to make the argument for continuing with the liquid compost, which is better for the soil, the plants, and the animals (including us).  

Our planning for the coming winter, then, started last fall, when we chose the treatment for the field.  Now, we have more than enough hay to see our critters through the winter (and, for that matter, this August, which is another time when we like to give the grass as much of a rest as possible).  It's just another good feeling of life lived in the country.

Going green in the country is nothing new – country folk have been doing it for centuries.  However, they haven’t done it alone – those of us who live in the country have partners in living the green rural lifestyle, and I thought I’d introduce you to a few of them. 

Our organic pest control managers are pictured at right.  That’s right, chickens.  Free range chickens on our place most years cut the fly population down to, oh, four or five house flies a year.  And that’s considering that we have horses and cows! (More on them later.)  They run around and take care of the fly larvae before they have a chance to turn into flying menaces. 

 Our cats and dogs are also members of this team.  The dogs keep predator pests such as raccoons and possums away; the cats are on rodent and rabbit patrol and do an excellent job of keeping the place vermin-free.  (The only rats or mice I've seen in a decade are those that the cats bring to me to demonstrate what a good job they're doing to earn their keep.) 

Other members of our organic pest control squad are goldfish.  We keep the watering tanks stocked with goldfish, who not only keep them algae free, but also assure that no mosquito larvae escapes to drink our blood.  Native fish in the creek and pond serve a similar function. 

Our cows and horses and donkeys are our mowing and fertilization team.  Because of them, we don’t often have to shred the fields, using precious diesel, and they daily produce fertilizer for those same fields.  They are aided by the chickens, of course, when we clean out the coop and use the contents to improve the soil for the vegetable garden.  (Amazing stuff – plants grow twice as large, sometimes, when that fertilizer is used to enhance the soil.  The cows of others also contribute when we have our hay pasture fertilized using soil biology through Sustainable Growth Texas, and we’ve found that weedkilling with chemicals is no longer necessary using soil biology.

These are just a few of the partners we have in going green in the country. When moving to your place in the country, don't forget your partners!