Sky Watch Friday

Those first two are beautiful, aren't they?  Love Texas sunsets!  That last one I just through was funny...the single pink fluffy cloud just perched between the towers.

Welcome everyone visiting from Sky Watch (and welcome to my other visitors too).  If you haven't heard, here in Texas we've suffered some terrible wildfires lately.  Over 1500 homes were lost, and 4 people were killed.  If you pray, I hope you'll join me in praying for those affected by this.   If you want to learn about more ways to help, click here.

How to Help Texas Fire Victims

By now you've most likely heard about the devastating wildfires here in Texas. The American Red Cross of Central Texas is accepting monetary donations, and has a listing of places in Texas you can donate in-kind gifts like canned food, clothing and toiletries.  Scroll down to the bottom of this post for links to other places collecting donations or holding fund-raisers.

If you're near the fires and are looking for info what's happening with them now, where to take livestock, shelters, evacuation routes etc, the TX Storm Chasers Facebook page is a great place to get informed, (Thanks Mom for sharing that!) as is the Texas Wildfires Updates Page.

ONLINE FUNDRAISERS

• Through Ebay Givingworks This list shows all the auctions benifiting the Red Cross of Central Texas.  Auctions may donate all or a portion of proceeds. 
• On Etsy  Some of those listed are donating all of the proceeds, and some only donating a portion, and some may not be donating any longer so check the individual listings for details. 
• Here on Texifornia I'm auctioning off some spots in my next "Souvenir Spotlight" here on Texifornia to help with relief efforts.  Also, I'd be happy to provide other advertising here in exchange for a donation, so please feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at ecarian at yahoo dot com if you are interested.

DONATION CENTERS/FUNDRAISERS BY REGION

• Austin Area (Fundraising Events)
• Waco Area

If you know of a listing of places in your area accepting in-kind gifts or raising funds, please leave a link in the comments below and I'll add a link to it.

Also, several Etsians have stepped up to help by donating a portion of their sales. Some of these are featured on Shop4Charity.

Advertise on Texifornia to Help Austin Fire Victims

PRODUCT PROMOTION
 Do you sell Texas themed products?  You can advertise them in my upcoming Souvenir Spotlight where I will be featuring Texas products.  Plus you get an additional promotional post all your own.  ALL the proceeds from these ads will be donated to the Red Cross of Central Texas!  You can bid on these ads through Ebay Giving Works.  Click here check them out and start bidding!


OTHER ADVERTISING
The project wonderful ads on the sidebar are NOT going to support this effort (simply because my earnings from that are automatically applied to my own advertising efforts and is hard to split up)...but if you're interested in a larger side-bar ad or other types of advertising you would like on this site, texifornia.com, or any of my other websites,  I'm open to providing advertising in exchange for a donation.  You can  at contact me at ecarian at yahoo dot com. 

FREE ADVERTISING FOR ITEMS BENIFITING FIRE VICTIMS
If you have a family friendly item being sold to benifit Texas wildfire victims, I am happy to promote it for free.  Contact me at ecarian at yahoo dot com or leave a link to the item in the comments.  Thanks!

Sky Watch Friday - Cloudy Beach Skies

It's odd coming from Texas, where it's been over 100 degrees all summer, to get to the beach in San Diego, California and find it cloudy and a tad chilly at 3:00 in the afternoon...in AUGUST.   What a switch!  (Ironically when we went in October three years ago it was warm and sunny!)

Cloudy or not it was fun.  It was my 3 year old's first time seeing the ocean, and he LOVED it (even after a wave dunked him...we didn't go very deep but at his height it doesn't take too much).   All three of my boys had a blast.

Pelicans kept flying by in a V, and though I grew up living on a boat out there, I never remember seeing anything like it.  They would fly by every 5 to 10 minutes.  It was beautiful.

This is Texas (Laws)

These laws in Texas took affect last Thursday.  Whatever you think of them, they tell a lot about Texas culture.

• Drivers can now go 70 at night, and soon will be able to go 75 on some roads, without being ticketed.
• Private property holders have been given extra protections against having their land seized by eminent domain.
• And those landholders can now hold commercial airborne hog hunts on their land.
• Plus "Noodlers" can now catch fish with their bare hands legally.
• Drunk drivers who severely injure someone in a traffic accident may receive harsher penalties (I absolutely support that one!).
• "It will be more difficult to present eyewitness testimony as key evidence in a trial." (OK...anyone who knows more about this want to explain that one?  The article didn't say what bill this was for, and I couldn't find other articles about it.). 
• Pets can now be covered under the same protective orders as victims of domestic abuse.
• Daycare workers now are required to get parents' permission before giving children medication.
• Doctors will be required to perform a sonogram before giving a woman an abortion; but may not necessarily have to show the sonogram to the patient...according to a federal judge's ruling. (My first thought was "What's the point then?", but then it hit me that sonograms are used to determine how far along the pregnancy is...and would probably be necessary both to determine if an abortion is legal and and the method used).   

Click here to see the full article this was paraphrased from. 

Question Thursday/Friday

Every now and then I participate in Aloha Friday, where I ask a simple question for you to answer (nothing that requires a lengthy response) and Two Question Thursday (same idea...only TWO questions).

Last week for Aloha Friday Pinay in the States asked readers if the weather was "normal...or something else?" in their area.  Not ONE person answered normal!   Abnormal has been the norm this past week:   while New England got pummelled by Irene, here in Texas we only got a few raindrops of relief  from the long, horrid, heat wave we've been in.

In the midst of this I published my monthly planting tips...something I write a long time in advance.  After reading a comment from my reader I realized how ridiculous the idea of planting ANYTHING sounds right now in this heat.   I went back and amended it...adding some heat appropriate suggestions.

Though I'm still going to attempt planting a few things this september,  I'll be using trick I've tried before and put some fake flowers around them to add shade...or maybe I'll take FlipFlopGardener suggestion and use umbrellas!  Making a mesh "tent' might work too.  That, and pray for rain!

• So, what gardening challenges are you facing right now, and what tricks are you trying to keep your garden alive?

Texas Planting Tips - September

Wow is it hot!  With the heat like it is I think planting indoors would be suggested on everything but root plants (carrots, onions, etc.). That's just a guess.  Also, it may help to give your plants some shade.  Dorris at FlipFlopGardener suggests plant umbrellas (and gives some nifty instructions on how to set them up.   I've used plastic flowers to shade my read seedlings until they were strong enough to grow without shade.   If you decide to venture into the garden now, here's whats usually is grown this month...

• This is the month to transplant iris and calla lily.  There's a great video on how to divide and transplant iris here.
• In Zones 8b and 9 plant bush snap beans early in September.  In Zones 7 and 8a they should be planted by September 1st.
• Plant carrots and mustard by the first week of September, and kale before October 1.
• Plant broccoli and cauliflower seeds now (in north Texas use transplants).  Since we're expecting more heat you might want to start these indoors.
• Plant bulbing onions, bunching onions,  leeks, and shallots this month (cut off date for these is October 1).   Shallots sets are planted, not seeds.  The rest  should always be direct seeded into the garden.  
• Find out what other vegetables and herbs you can plant this month HERE.  But I would hold off a little longer on any plant that can be planted next month or later, with this heat wave still continuing.

I'm no gardening expert...just an amature trying to figure things out.  I find most of my info about when to plant in the book Month to Month Gardening in Texas, which I highly recommend, especially if you are new to Texas!  I also suggest reading the fall newsletter at Signature Gardens.