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Two years ago I embarked on this experiment of going full on vegetarian. Initially I thought I’d just try it for a few months but then I chose a weird time to do it, jumping in when Chris and I went and did field work for three months. Not exactly an ideal time I came to find out once I started eating at restaurants. My delusional idea was that it would be easier to try this without cooking….boy was I wrong! Restaurants are the most difficult place to be vegetarian.

Well, here it is two years later and I’m pretty much a committed vegetarian. I’ve dabbled in the not-so-healthy vegetarianism too, loading up on cheesy, greasy items, probably eating too much rice and pasta, but I’m working on cleaning that up. Pairing the clean diet I’m trying to get back into a regular workout routine. Going from being extremely active to sitting for 8+ hours a day has not been good.

During these two years I’ve read and listened to a lot of food and foodie related items. I’ve learned a lot about our food system and have committed to being better about buying locally at two farmers markets that are near my house when I can’t grow something or for eggs (now I’ve been getting coffee too!), and attempting to buy organic or in season as much as I can at the grocery store. Now, not everything is organic or in season but I do my best. Chris and I had a discussion in the middle of the store back in early December about some butter. I wanted the organic store brand butter and he wanted the brand that said “Go Texan” which is a symbol for supposedly locally made products. I definitely agree that sometimes local might be better than organic being shipped across the country but once I got online I found out that the final product butter *was* made in Texas but the brand itself was owned by a conglomerate and likely received shipments of milk from all over the southeast. Chris attempted to get more information from the manufacturer but I don’t believe he ever heard anything back.

Now that’s a little bit off the vegetarian thing but what being vegetarian has done has really just made me think about food and where it comes from even more. I watched Forks Over Knives and it hit home for me because heart disease is prominent in my family and I hope that being vegetarian will help me in preventing any problems that could be lingering down the road for me.

Of course there’s the environmental issue, but even bringing together knowledgeable folks to weigh in their opinions, there’s plenty of discourse in that. I think what resonates most is eat whole foods and eat as locally as possible….organic if you can. Or you know what Michael Pollan said, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Which brings me to ‘fake’ meats and the like. I don’t really buy them all that often. Sometimes we buy ‘beef’ crumbles to put into spaghetti or faux sausage for our Zuppa Toscana recipe, but in general I don’t buy it. Though I do have a weakness for Quorn Chik’n Nuggets and I think in the vein of fake meats Quorn products are far superior to any of the soy based fake meats. But I do treat them as junk food and don’t use them often, maybe once every few months. I don’t eat or like soy dogs or the soy lunch meats, they are pretty much disgusting and I don’t know any vegetarian who likes them (speak up if you do!). I’d rather just eat a veggie filled sandwich instead of fake meat, though I do like black bean burgers. Amy’s trumps Morningstar in this department. I have tried making my own, which means they don’t have soy protein isolates, but I’ve only done it once and I really need to spend more time and make more to freeze. Actually looking at Amy’s ingredients it appears they don’t use soy isolates/concentrates and instead use mostly whole ingredients. Anyway, that’s for the folks who get all woozy about soy…and I’m not even going to touch that subject because while soy is everywhere (oil, proteins, other weird things),and I tend to try to avoid it when it is added in things I don’t think should have it, I’m not against eating it in more whole forms.

As for taking it to the next level and going vegan, I don’t forsee going that route any time soon. I like cheese and I like eggs and I don’t have as much of a qualm about them as I do eating meat. I will probably try to reduce my cheese intake and would like to try to finding more organic and local cheeses, but since I can generally source yard eggs around here I don’t feel bad about eating eggs at all. Sometimes I’ll buy the organic eggs at the store if I can’t get to the farmers market, but that isn’t as common now that I found out I can generally get to a farmers market weekly.

I have eaten meat during these two years. Sometimes I order something and it comes with meat (damn you Mexican restaurants and your sneaky enchilada sauces or beans!) and so I eat it or give it to someone else, and of course I will look the other way for broths in soups if needed at restaurants. I also definitely look forward to my birthday because that’s my sushi day….mmmmm! And if Chris catches fish I will eat and appreciate eating the fish. I don’t miss meat on most days and I could definitely do without chicken for just about ever, but what tempts me most is ribs, pulled pork, and brisket. And sushi. Or turkey at Thanksgiving. Sometimes I have a bit or slice of something and then my taste is sated and I’m good for another year.

Will there come a time when I don’t do this at all? Maybe. I don’t know yet. This is a one day at a time thing for me. But what I do know is that I do appreciate the bountiful selection of vegetables that are out there and the different ways to make it into something delicious to eat for a meal.

Oh, one other thing, I don’t take supplements. I hate vitamins and they make my stomach upset, but I also believe in eating your vitamins through food instead. I know there’s the worries about B12 and while I haven’t had my blood tested, I don’t feel as if I am deficient in anything. I think I will try to get an updated blood test soon though as I haven’t had one done in many years. I guess this turned into a bit of a rambling post instead of the structured one that was going on in my head, but if you have questions or comments please feel free to ask away!

1 part steady downpour for several hours + 1 part super saturated ground = Sweetgum tree falling into pond with aid of pine tree.

So this flood event wasn’t nearly as bad as great flood of July 2012 and I honestly wasn’t expecting it to get like this. Thunderstorms moved through the area yesterday afternoon, we had some pea sized hail and steady downpours and then went to dinner with my parents and uncle who were in town for the weekend. When we came back we noticed the creek near our house was just below the bridge. Then we noted that the second pond in our little ‘town’ was up enough to be almost covering the platform in the middle of the pond. I knew we had to have some water in our yard but I really wasn’t expecting it to have what it did because it hadn’t rained as much as that day in last July. That day we got 14″ of rain!

But we got home and found the front yard was a giant swimming pool and then pulled into the carport when my dad pointed out at the sweetgum had fell into the pond. Well, I guess it was a good thing we didn’t pay to have the pine tree taken down (priced too much) but at the same time I wonder if the sweetgum would have been saved or it would have been stressed enough to come down anyway.

So, two trees down. Chris cut them up a little bit today but we need to burn our burn pile down a bit (too wet today to do it) and he needs to get his chains sharpened. So that’ll have to wait a few weekends at least.

If you see the duck box (which the ducklings hatched by the way!) and the small tree to the right, that tree is just barely in the water normally.

At least it wasn’t like July. I was worried it would be as we were supposed to have more storms last night but luckily all of the storms slid south of I-10 and stayed in Houston. Houston had its own battle of flooding too, so it wasn’t just us this time around.

Now though we’re in ‘get the water oak down’ mode. We have a large water oak that is already leaning over the powerline running to the house and I can tell it could go at any time. So instead of facing the wrath of that we’re just going get it taken care of now instead of later. Not only that, hurricane season is coming.

Cool….the joys of homeownership! Where’s my tent?

I’ve got the goofiest, laziest, and silliest feral cats!

Right now it is raining, a light drizzle, enough for the water to pour off the roof and for me to hear the *ting* of drops on our metal roof. The sky brightened for a minute, perhaps a thinning of clouds for the late evening sun to glow through just a bit, but now the sky is darkening once again. The light there for a moment was a yellow-green, the colors of the newly opened leaves of the trees and overgrown grass reflecting back up into the atmosphere.

Last night it rained heavily after dark, lightning dancing across the sky and the cymbals of thunder booming after. The forecasters had stated it would rain all day and yet the rain didn’t find its way to our area until well late in the day. I waited for the power to go off, wondering if it would be some funny prank of Mother Nature to turn my power off after my meter pole had been leaning for over a week, threatening to fall any-day-now, but had been fixed and put upright just that morning. The pole began to lean after a tree on the other side of the fence broke its limb and fell on the line running to the house. As the power company didn’t claim the meter pole it was up to us to have the meter pole fixed. All of that just furthered our need to do some trimming and removing of a few precarious limbs and trees that are over the line running to our house.

It’s amazing how fast things are growing now that it is spring. I think the grass woke up one morning and grew three inches, then four, then before long it was time to mow.

We’re getting our bees here in two weekends. I’m nervous. Mostly because I’ll be primary beekeeper once they arrive as Chris will be back in the field once again. I guess I’m going to have to get used to being stung and get it over with. My first incident with a sting like that was with a wasp two years ago in Big Thicket National Preserve. It was several seconds before I realized what had even happened.

If you are friends with me on Facebook or Twitter you might have seen I’m not there. I deactivated both accounts. I’ll likely be back soon. You know how they can become cumbersome, annoying and overwhelming? Or, maybe that’s just me? Anyway, it was easier for me to just deactivate than ignore and the times I do this are always rewarding. But you can always send me an email or write here!

I watched this osprey crash into the pond the other day and snatch a fish for dinner. He only let me get one photo before taking off.

+I bleached our luffa sponges a few weeks ago. They turned out really lovely and I’m going to have to get Chris to cut them for me. Maybe one day when we have beeswax I’ll make soap and the luffa will pair nicely with the soap as gifts!

+I’ve been listening to a lot of food/sustainability podcasts lately and one of them discussed organic bananas and the banana industry. It was a bit of a revelation because I don’t usually pay that much attention to buying organic bananas. Bananas are generally very cheap to begin with and the podcast was discussing that even organic bananas are relatively cheap in comparison to other organic produce. So, the other day when I was at the grocery store I looked at the price difference and conventional bananas were 49 cents a pound whereas organic were only 69 cents a pound. Not much of a difference. The reasoning was the while the pesticide residue might not penetrate through the skin and into the fruit itself, the workers themselves are subjected to the pesticides. So, it is a little bit beyond thinking about yourself and thinking about others. This could actually be applied to a lot of other instances too, but when considering the price of food items I don’t feel like a 20 cent difference is much of a big deal when other fruits and vegetables can be several dollars different in terms of conventional or organic. And if you are just beginning to go organic, why not start with bananas?

+Totally started this on Sunday but had no urge to finish writing so here I am on Wednesday writing….

+Have you been to Sprout Dispatch lately? My brother and I did a video blog when I was home a couple of weeks ago. Today he wrote about his trip to a local farm. Chel recently wrote about interesting garden gadgets and showed some beautiful photos of her container garden. Come over and say hi or hit the subscribe button and have it show up in your feed or email!

+My brother also wrote today about some changes going on with his family in regards to health and diet. I’m happy to see these things going on! Little changes turn to big ones….

+Renee is having a sale on her art in anticipation of her second little one arriving soon.

+Lean Way In via Almost Fearless

+These beautiful succulent gardens via Far Out Flora.

That’s all I’ve got. I’ve not felt the blogging writing or reading vibe lately but I’m trying to get back here.

Tell me what’s going on in your world….

I know, I know, I just did a post about cats but here are some more cat photos I took this weekend! Ruby and Isis chilling after eating their afternoon meal. Apparently Isis thinks the baobab pot is a fine place to slumber and Ruby can sleep standing up!

Fred is the resident cat who does not wander very far from the house. Every now and then I find him far down the driveway but usually he’s cuddled up in a spot on the south side of the man cave. Or on my truck.

Isis has been enjoying some freedom by jumping fences lately.

Ruby inches above Mr. Stripey in the competition for noisiest cat. She’s easy to figure out when you can’t see her but only hear her.

The sunshine is a great place to take a bath.

Or scratch your head.

Momma comes and joins the party.

And parties a little more hearty by hanging out on Chris’ truck.

The ferals are a silly bunch of cats but very entertaining and I love ‘em anyway.

These days I’m…

Reading:
Flower Confidential. I’ve known about this book for several years but finally picked it up at a used book store several weeks ago. I’m really loving it so far and it has me rethinking buying cut flowers, but not only that it delves into this crazy world of hybridization and growing plants. I’m about halfway through and will likely do a full review at Sprout Dispatch when I am done.

Barnheart: The Incurable Longing for a Farm of One’s Own. This I picked up on a whim one day when I went to the library to pay a fine. At first glance I thought I would really like it but the more I read the more I’m disappointed with it. I’d briefly read the author’s blog in the past, so I was vaguely familiar with her and knew she was somewhat popular in the homesteading world so I expected much more from the book. I really hate giving negative reviews, and while I’m not going to put the book down (about halfway through), the author could have written something much more deep and defining than she did. Sometimes she jumps from the time frame she’s writing in to another time period within a sentence or two all without giving any backstory, expecting the reader to know who she is or about her blog. Scratch most of that…. I couldn’t finish it. I really wanted to but the book had no plot, no substance and so I returned it to the library. It is rare I don’t finish a book, usually I’ll just take forever to read it, but this one I just couldn’t finish.

Listening:
Edible Education 103: “Farming as Dance, The Choreography of Polyculture”, by Joel Salatin. This one is more of a watching thing and I watched over the course of a few nights. Joel Salatin is really dynamic and fun to listen to. A few things I disagreed with him on, mostly from a natural/environmental aspect that I’ll have to read up on further.

Paul Wheaton’s Permaculture Podcasts. I’ve only recently been introduced to Wheaton and his style is definitely educational with a heavy dousing of opinions. Some of the ones I’ve enjoyed were: Farmageddon, Joel Salatin Part 1 and there’s a Part 2 as well.

Sustainable World Radio. In particular All Good Things Organic Seeds which lead me buy three packets of seeds from them. I’m looking forward to making some roselle tea sometime in the future!

Growing a Greener World. I’ve liked The Truth About Organic Gardening which brought up some items that some organic methods of fertilizing and pesticides are not necessarily sustainable themselves (re: fish oil, green sand, phosphates) because they are mined or in the case of fish oil—fished. I also liked the interview with Maria Rodale.

A Way To Garden. I’d heard about this blog before but it really isn’t big on my radar, however Gayla at You Grow Girl recently did a podcast with her regarding tomatillos which I listened to, and then I listened to a few more of her podcasts. It was nice but definitely region specific (New England) so some items you have to take for what it is worth and make it adapted for you.

Garden Confidential. This one is from Fine Gardening and I really liked it but it was definitely not long enough, or often enough. Once a month!

Gestalt Gardener. This one is broadcast in Mississippi Public Radio by Felder Rushing who is the author of Slow Gardening. I like his attitude and he is definitely interesting and offers a southern approach to gardening.

Cultivate Simple. I love this podcast and it is probably my favorite, mostly because I really love Susy’s blog.

There was another podcast I listened to that also took place in New England but I can’t find it at the moment, however they had really good interviews. There are a couple others that I found that were in Texas but they are on weekends with a more call-in format as they are on the radio. I’ve also found a couple other podcasts but they are in the survivalist/doomsday prepper vein and are frankly a little over the edge with me.

Anything you want to share that you are reading or listening to?

A couple of months ago the mailbox that our house came with was halfway knocked off its post. One of our neighbor’s was knocked off as well. At first I thought a: Drunk Driver or b: Teenagers With Too Much Time On Their Hands. But then Chris saw the deep scrape marks in the asphalt and decided it might have been the city lawnmower guy when he was mowing the ROW area.

No matter, we wanted a new mailbox anyway and it took us forever to decide on one. I don’t like generic mailboxes. I don’t mind the ones bricked in but our house isn’t brick so it would look strange. Florida has a lot of manatee mailboxes and other assorted tropical mailboxes but I think they would be out of places in a pine woodland setting.

Chris searched online and we went to a couple of different places to look for one we both thought would be distinctive enough before he found this one. It is simple but elegant and something that I thought would suit our house.

We got the cedar post at the big-box-toolstore and Chris also put the bronze top on it.

And to keep up with being distinctive, Chris found Haitian Metal Steel Drum Art for house numbers, so once that arrives it’ll be complete. That shop has some really interesting pieces of art that we may have to look into later on.

I like it! Let’s just hope no one runs into this one!

Yellow bird magnolia buds….these are going to be gorgeous!

Winter thyme and a bunch of other seeds

We had a sulphur and a moth hanging around during the cold days, not moving for a long time.

Definitely alive, just chilling until it was warm enough to fly.

One of the last weekends that Chris worked in Beaumont, we went to a plant nursery outside of Beaumont on Tx 105. I’ll have to dig up the name of the place, but we walked around the whole nursery wanting a lot of things but not putting anything on our list of things to buy until we walked in the main store area and found a box of bulbs. We were told we could have a couple and after I walked around holding them I studied them trying to figure out what they were and I decided they were Lycoris. We talked the guys into letting us buy the box of 40 or 50 bulbs for $15….a really good deal. They had showed up at the shop after a local woman brought them in after her husband died.

Garlic is finally coming up!

Following us around the yard.

Our citrus are getting their flower buds! Mmmm, delicious!

The days are grey, typical of our winter. It took awhile for it to happen but finally in mid-December the rainy, cloudy days started happening. At least we’ve been getting a bit of rain, something we really need.