Musings on a Rainy Day

Finally got some rain. Not a lot yet, but it is fall in LA & that means the start of what I hope to be a good rainy season, and snow in the mountains. We are officially in a drought and on restricted watering for yards. Since I really don't have any grass, that has not been a problem. I ripped out my front yard slowly, but the change over the 8 years I have lived here are dramatic. I am posting a picture of the house when I first moved in & today. It has been the most interesting thing to witness the changes in wildlife to my yard. I have bees, butterflies, moths, birds, and all sorts of bugs. Some of them are beneficial & some not so much, but being eco-friendly/organic means not using chemicals on my yard. So I hope for ladybugs & use my spray bottle of dish soap & water on the plants. An easy eco-tip is use the dish water from the sink to water any plants with pests on them. You are using greywater that would go down the drain & the soap helps get rid of the pests.
I have lots of testing to do about tea & have to write about what I have found out, but just wanted to put this note in, on this rainy day in LA.

Eco-Salon

So it's been awhile & I finally put together something I had been planning for a while. An eco-Salon at my house. We had the first one on the 2nd of August. There were about ten people here, our guest of honor was Erik Knutzen. He lives in my neighborhood and has a blog. http://www.homegrownevolution.com/ also has a book, called "The Urban Homestead." It was fun and topics ranged from greywater, to chickens, to gardening. It was a fun mix of people and made me realize I needed to have a sign in sheet or some way to keep track of the people who came & the interest & expertise. Lots of knowledgeable people. The next one is set for the 2nd Sunday in September. Hope to be better about blogging closer to the event and want to start a link database for the sites/resources that were talked about.