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Austin Texas Christmas Traditions

Betty Saenz — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 19:35:23 +0000

Swedish Christmas candle holder set

Christmas traditions and customs vary from family to family and land to land. I enjoy reading about many different traditions in Texas by reading the book “Christmas in Texas” by Elizabeth Silverthorne. My Austin, Texas forefathers came to east Travis County from the Småland, Sweden area about 1870 or 71. Småland is the land of IKEA, which we now have in the Austin area at 1431 and IH 35 in Round Rock, Texas. Growing up, I became familiar with dishes like Ostakaka, a Swedish cheesecake type dish served with Lingonberries. Lutefiskis another Swedish dish that I made for my grandmother and we ate at Christmas gatherings. I remember buying the fish for the dish somewhere around my grandmother’s house at 608 Texas Avenue in Austin, Texas at a neighborhood grocer that is no longer there. Now the only local place I know to buy Lutefisk is Quality Seafood Market on Airport Blvd. We also had my grandmother’s homemade rolls and bread. I miss those days with my parents, grandmother and other Swedish Austin area relatives. Pictured are my mother’s handpainted Swedish candleholder set that I set out at Christmas. The book “The Swedish Texans” by Larry E. Scott is a great book about the immigration to Texas from Sweden that began in 1848.

Travis County Swedish Settlers

New Sweden Church at 12809 New Sweden Church Road, was organized in 1876 and is is steeped in Swedish tradition. The church’s copper spire is 104 feet high and has been an Central Texas Austin area landmark close to Manor, Pflugerville, Elgin and Taylor, Texas since the 1800′s. December 24th at 7:00pm they are holding the Christmas Eve Candlelight service and Christmas Dawn at 7:00am they hold the Julotta candlelight program. I love history and geneology as well as old historic buildings and homes. I hope to attend one or both of these services to touch my ancestry as well as enjoy a local historic landmark. Turns out that my great, great grandfather Gustaf Ax aka Corporal Ax and his wife Johanna Swenson Ax were the first to be listed in the New Sweden church book. I find it interesting to research local history about relatives from so long ago that I never knew. New Sweden, Texas back in those years was a thriving community full of local businesses. Now it is more desolate farmland and the site of the Pflugerville Solar Farm.

New Sweden Church

The United States is a wonderfully diverse land full of many wonderful cultural traditions and foods. Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanza, or none of the above, I’d love to hear what special traditions, dishes and buildings are part of your family’s celebrations. I’d also love to hear about other cultural events in the Austin area that you enjoy. Please comment using the form below.

Fair Housing for All

Electric Vehicles NOW In Austin Texas

Betty Saenz — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:55:53 +0000

Did you know that if you want to, you can drive an all electric vehicle now? Why wait for automakers to manufacture new cars that are all electric? Why wait to do your part for cleaner air and to help stop Global Warming? I first met some brilliant people doing this at the 2009 Renewable Energy Fair in Fredericksburg, Texas – Revolt Custom Electric Vehicles. Revolt Custom Electric Vehicles can take an ordinary car and turn it into a clean, all electric vehicle capable of running at highway speeds and needing no dirty oil changes. I drive a Prius Hybrid, and, although it is close, I’d rather drive an all electric. Most electric utility companies have a clean energy option where the electricity you purchase was generated through clean, renewable sources like wind or solar. PEC or Perdernales Electric Co-op does as well as Austin Energy.

On this year’s 2010 Texas Solar Energy Society and Austin Energy Green Building produced Cool House Tour in Austin, Texas my favorite 2 homes were a Habitat For Humanity house in Devonshire Village because it was affordable and another at 11402-B Ptarmigan Cove in North Austin. The Ptarmigan home not only had a full rooftop solar array for electricity, solar thermal for hot water that makes their home a net zero home but they also generate enough solar energy to run their electric car, a 2002 Saturn SL that has been converted from gasoline to electric by Austin’s Revolt Custom Electric Vehicles. Net zero means the home generates as much or more energy than it uses- the epitome of energy efficiency! There are also many plug in sites besides the plug in you would create at your own home for your electric vehicle or EV. The new La Quinta Inn at 1010 E. Whitestone Blvd. in Cedar Park has many plug in parking spaces among other green features.

Revolt serves the EV or Electric Vehicle community or anyone wanting to explore electric vehicles. Revolt Custom Electric Vehicles is located here in Austin, Texas. Call them at (512) 366-8196 or visit their website at RevoltCustomElectric.com

The old first-generation Honda Insight Hybrids were very aerodynamic, lightweight and had an EPA fuel efficiency rating of 70 mpg and was rated ultra low emissions or super low emissions. All electric is 0 mpg and no emissions because it does not even use gasoline but is all electric. The First Generation Honda Insight below that I photographed in Cedar Park, Texas bears a Peak Oil sticker. The Peak Oil movement helps Americans think about the peak and then decline of oil that may be on the horizon. Wouldn’t it be nice to be emission free and never have to buy gasoline or oil?

1st Generation Insight with Peak Oil stickerFirst Generation Honda Insight

Renewable Energy Roundup Coming Soon

Betty Saenz — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:32:02 +0000

Our beloved annual Renewable Energy Roundup and Green Living Fair is coming up soon. Put on by the Texas Solar Energy Society, the Fair is now in it’s 11th year and coming to historic and fun Fredericksburg, Texas September 24th through September 26th, 2010. I go every year and am never there enough time. There is always so much to see, do and learn for people of all ages. Children 12 and under are FREE. Tickets are $10.00 to $12.00 and available at the gate. There are so many booths set up to learn about so much. There are food vendors, talks about any green living topic you can imagine and all at a very reasonable entry fee.

This years talks include information on small wind systems, saving water, rainwater collection, city gardening, aquaponics, wild plants, compressed earth block building, Net Zero homes, Geothermal Systems, organic farming and ranching, solar cars, solar cooking, photovoltaic systems, greenwashing and more!! There are natural cooking demos and I guarantee you will learn a lot about many topics. I hope to see you there!! I’ll probably wear my TOFGA, Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners t shirt I got at the fair last year when I joined that great organization. There is usually a ride share set up to share rides to the fair from the Austin Texas Metro Area. I am looking at all the talks now and having a hard time deciding which day to go, I think I will go to all three!!!

Austin Texas Hybrid Cars

Betty Saenz — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:56:56 +0000

1st generation Honda Insight

You see a lot of hybrid cars around the Austin, Texas and Leander, Texas area. I myself drive a recycled Toyota Prius. Occasionally you see an old Honda Insight which rendered significantly better gas mileage than the new Insights. The Union of Concerned Scientists or UCS has a Hybrid Scorecard in which the Toyota Prius is a top performer at a 9.8 Environmental Score. This score is based on the measure of improvement in smog forming emissions as well as improvement in global warming pollution. I am proud that my Prius is a Near Zero Emissions vehicle.

: Toyota Prius

My current vehicle, this Prius, pictured to right, is my third Toyota automobile. I have loved and had confidence in them all. The first was a recycled Toyota Camry with the TRD package. The second, my 2003 Camry SE, saved my life when it was totaled August 19, 2009 in an accident by an Austin, TX morning rush hour crazed driver. I hated to see my car go. My Toyota Camry had taken me so many miles with no trouble at all. Among those places were to Denver, Colorado for the Green Real Estate Convention, camping in the beautiful Colorado and New Mexico countryside on the way back. It was so emotional to say good-bye in the wrecker yard when I got my belongings out and surrendered it : (. I was able to replace my Toyota Camry with a recycled Prius. My Prius has great safety ratings, side curtain air bags as well as front air bags. The seat feels good on my now injured back- it gives great support, so much so that I feel I could drive it all day. I get about 47-48 miles per gallon and did not give up a lot of space from going to a Prius from my Camry. If we need a bigger car for my 6′ son and 6′ husband to go on a long road trip with lots of luggage we’ll just rent one with all the money I save everyday PLUS saving the Earth. When I look at the BP oil spill, all the poor animals covered in oil, not only does it hurt my heart and turn my stomach but I am so thankful I drive my Prius. When I look at 9/11 and our dependence on foreign oil and terrorism- I love my Prius. When I have money in my wallet- I am so glad I drive my Prius! I don’t want to support big oil’s deep and dirty pockets. We’re America- we need to be FREE from that! My Toyota Prius is a step and a statement beyond that.

U.S. Green Building Council Class Thursday in Austin

Betty Saenz — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:49:48 +0000

U.S. Green Building Council Class Thursday

The Central Texas Balcones Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council is having a Lunch N Learn Thursday April 8, 2010 from 12:00pm to 1:30pm at the Joe C. Thompson Conference Center at the University of Texas at Austin, 2405 Robert Dedman Drive, Austin, TX 78701 Admission is $5.00 for Central Texas Balcones Chapter members and $10.00 for non-members. 1.0 Professional Development Hour (PDH) can be earned at the event.

The Topic will be: Sustainable solutions for sites including soil stewardship, habitat protection and stormwater management.

The Central Texas Balcones Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council is dedicated to sustainable building and land development practices in Central Texas and is a 501©(3) not for profit organization.

Austin Texas Gets New Mode of Transportation

Betty Saenz — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:29:08 +0000

Tomorrow morning, March 22, 2010, is a historic occasion for the Austin, Texas Metro Area. At 5:25am, the new Capital Metrorail redline train leaves Leander, Texas’s TOD on its way to Austin, Texas. I will be at the Leander Station at 4:30am to help. I am excited about the event and the prospects for all of us who live in the area. We need solutions to Austin’s traffic problems and commuter rail will play a part be it big or small. I know CapMetro is relieved and I am too! I will be there assisting as a MetroRail Ambassador. Watch this video for tips on how to ride.

Now, you can consider buying a home or condo near a rail station and perhaps live carless! Search Austin Homes
And if you work in Downtown or Central Austin you can buy a less expensive home in the suburbs, such as Leander and ride the train in to work everyday! Search Leander Homes

Greenbuilding Tour at Southwestern University Georgetown, Texas

Betty Saenz — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:41:33 +0000

Friday, March 12th, 2010 from 4:30 to 6:30pm there will be a tour of GREEN buildings at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. The Double LEED® Building Tour Higher Education Institution Facilities is being held by the Central Texas Balcones Chapter of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC-CTB). The Admissions Center building is LEED-NC Gold Certified and the Center for Lifelong Learning is LEED-NC Silver Registered. Parking is available on campus.

Greening Austin Homes 1house at a time

Betty Saenz — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:26:18 +0000

How do you help those in need and help the environment at the same time? 1house at a time is a great organization that helps Austin, Texas homeowners in need avoid foreclosure on their homes by lowering their utility and food bills. High utility bills often represent a family’s second highest expense. Homes chosen for projects receive energy efficiency upgrades and other projects to save money and help our Earth. This month’s project happens March 13TH from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Projects include removing the old refrigerator, washer and dryer and replacing then with energy efficient units. A rain gutter system with gutter guards will be installed as well as a rainwater collection cistern. A garden will be installed to help provide healthy food at low cost.

Texas Metal Cisterns and Green Zone Home are helping in this month’s event.

Texas Metal Cisterns in business since 2000 can be reached at (512) 565-0875

Green Zone Home, 8868 Research Boulevard
Austin, TX 78758 (512) 467-0005 Green Zone Home provides home energy consultations.

1 house at a time is a project of A Nurtured World

Won’t you consider helping a family in need by volunteering 4 hours of your time? If you are not able to personally help at the site could you help with a donation?

Learn more about retrofitting your home, rainwater collection and GREEN Austin Homes

Urban Beekeeping in Austin Texas

Betty Saenz — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:31:07 +0000

I have a love of bees because of what they do for us. Besides providing pollenization that our food supply needs, they also provide honey for sweetening which I also ingest for the purpose of warding off local allergens. My late husband was an accomplished beekeeper. I enjoyed learning beekeeping by working the bees with him. This was in the early 1980′s. He had the traditional white wooden bee boxes with frames inside to hold the honeycombs. We used a hive smoker to help us “work” the bees. We would smoke them by blowing smoke from this smoker onto the bees. This served to make them “drunk” and then we were able to “work” them. We took the frames out, cut the caps off the wax which held the honey in and put the frames full of beeswax filled with honey in a large, steel tank on a support system inside the tank made for the frames called an extractor. We put the tank lid on and then turned the hand crank. This movement of the frames around the inside of the tank slung the honey out by centrifigal force. Yes, I might get stung once or twice while doing this, so don’t try working bees if you are allergic to bee stings. I did not have “real” beeking clothes myself so I would wear a long sleeve shirt and long pants and put rubber bands around my sleeve cuffs and pants legs at the bottom. This was done to try and prevent the smoke drunk bees from crawling onto my skin under my clothes. Sometime they would get past the barrier I tried to create and eventually sting me. They crawl all over you but don’t sting when you are working them because of their drunkenness. It’s interesting what the smoke does to them.

Now, honey bees are in trouble. They need your help more than ever. Without honeybees pollinating US agricultural crops our food supply will be in trouble. “Colony collapse disorder” has decimated entire populations of honeybees. Thankfully some people are concerned enough to educate the public and help the bees. There is a new movie called Nicotine Bees about how huge agribusiness is coating their seeds with chemicals called neonicotinoids that end up in pollen and on leaves that may be a factor in “colony collapse disorder”.

In the Austin area there is a new Austin – Urban – Beekeeping MeetUp Group to help the bees. Our first meeting is soon. I’d love for you to join us! Go to MeetUp.com and join up!

Birding Around Austin Texas: the Williamson County TX Audubon Group

Betty Saenz — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:20:40 +0000

Betty Saenz, member of Williamson Audubon Group

If you live in the northern part of Austin, Texas or even elsewhere, the Williamson County Texas Audubon Group (WAG) is a great organization to further your interests in nature and or birds. I just retuned from a Williamson Audubon Group meeting at the New Church on County Road 245 in Georgetown, Texas. A large crowd, including myself, were entertained by guest speaker and local, award winning wildlife photographer Greg Lasley. Mr. Lasley said he has had his photos published in over 100 books and magazines which include American Birds, Texas Highways Magazine, Wildlife Conservation and many more. His book, Texas Wildlife Portraits was available for purchase and signing. Mr. Lasley’s book is available for purchase on Amazon.com Mr. Lasley showed many photographs of various birds and other Texas wildlife on 2 huge screens so all attendees could see them well. Listeners could hear the Lesser Prairie Chicken recording on his i Phone while looking at its photograph. Lasley said the Lesser Prairie Chicken with their orange sacks on the side of their faces can still be seen roaming in the wild in the northeast Texas Panhandle. Many Native American tribal dances mimic the Prairie Chicken. Other photos included the Screetch Owl, Inca doves, a golden cheeked warbler with its bright yellow head and namesake cheeks, black capped vireo, wild turkey, yellow throated warbler, Least Bittern, and the beautiful Painted Bunting. Painted Buntings have a bright blue head, red throat, bright green below the head and an orange belly and back. Mr. Lasley also had photos of females and immature males which both looked a drab green. He said it takes 2 years for the male painted buntings to mature into their bright colored plumage. I have not yet seen one in the wild but long to! Mr. Lasley has had some interesting experiences on his wildlife adventures. He spoke of a ranch owner who fed wild Harris’s Hawks store bought kidney off of a mesquite tree on his ranch. There were pictures of a Wood Duck with can be seen on Town Lake (Ladybird Lake) and a white tail hawk as seen in McAllen, Texas in the valley. There was 1 soaring adult white tailed hawk as well as a nest of fluffy, downy babies.

Among the non-bird photos was a jackrabbit, coyote, Mexican ground squirrel, armadillo, Pallid bats roosting, an alligator at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, a painted damsel fly, a black saddlebags dragonfly, a blue faced ring tailed dragonfly, an Ebony jewel wing (black) dragonfly, a wolf spider carrying its babies, a flame skimmer dragonfly, a Toothpick grasshopper, a long jawed spider with a dusty dancer damselfly caught in his web, a beautiful red Mayan dragonfly, a praying mantis photo taken through a Macro lens, a South Texas Queens butterfly, a migratory American Snout butterfly, a Banded Peasant dragonfly, a Rock Rattlesnake, a Luna Moth in Luling, TX, a Texas horned lizard, a Texas Spiny Lizard, a red-eared slider turtle, a Texas tortoise and a 6 foot Texas Indigo snake which are known for eating rattlesnakes. This goes to show that most birdwatchers, like myself, are nature lovers. Many of his photographs were very unique and artistic showing just an animals head, part of a tortoise’s shell or only a section of a Wild Turkey’s plumage.

My 25 minute drive from Leander, Texas to Georgetown, Texas and back was nice down the new section of Ronald W. Reagan Boulevard (Parmer Lane). It felt like you were miles and miles from nowhere since there was no traffic. You can join the Williamson Audubon Group (WAG) by signing up on Meetup.com

April 12. 2010 at 7:00pm at the NewChurch Georgetown, TX the Guest Speaker for the Williamson Audubon Group will be Richard Kostecke, PhD of The Nature Conservancy. I am amazed at how much the people in this group know about birds. I am hoping to be able to identify all the birds in my Texas backyard! In looking at my personal, signed copy of Greg Lasley’s Texas Wildlife Portraits, I think I can almost narrate through most of the book after the presentation tonight. Hopefully I can hold my grandkids attention that long! LOL

Contact me at (512) 785-5050 or by e-mail to learn more about the Williamson Audubon Group or about buying or selling a home, lot or ranch in the Williamson County or Austin area.