The Splendid Hanging Gardens of Spring Creek Forest  by Celia Hayes As the backyard of my Spring Creek Forest home is small, I must make the absolute most of it when it comes to plants both ornamental and vegetable. Space is at a premium, and those places which offer a favorable exposure to maximum sunlight are at even more of a premium. The back yard of our Spring Creek Forest home looks to the west south, but half of it is shaded by a very large mulberry tree planted by the original owner … and a couple of Carolina laurel-cherry trees that planted themselves. There are only about three places in the back yard which get hours of afternoon sun – and I can only hang so many topsy-turvy planters and hanging pots from the edge of the back porch, which gets the best of it. The other place is from the outer edge of the mulberry tree – and most of the limbs of it are too far from the ground to suspend much from. We wrote off using that space until we saw something in the back yard of one of our neighbors – a long 2x4 beam hung by chains from a pair of stout limbs, with a row of hooks set into the bottom surface, and a number of topsy-turvies. A light went on – why didn’t we do that? And better yet – make it a double-decker, with a second beam suspended below the first! As soon as we could afford it, we hurried off to Lowe’s for the necessary materials: one 14’ 2x4, which they very kindly cut into equal 7’ lengths, the hardware, two lengths of vinyl tubing, and four lengths of chain – also cut to length for us. I guesstimated that 2 lengths of 4’ chain and 2 of 5’ would be sufficient to hang our vertical garden from the boughs of the mulberry tree and leave enough room for plants in the turvy to grow. We could have done with less, but having the longer lengths makes it possible to adjust and even move the hanging frame higher in the tree. Six threaded eyebolts with nuts, a packet of stout s-hooks, another of screw-hooks and two quick links completed the list of necessary materials. The only tools needed were a drill and a length of kitchen string. It went together in about twenty minutes. I drilled a hole about six inches from the end of each beam, and two more in what would be the top beam about eighteen inches in. The eye-bolts for the inner set of holes in the top beam went in with the eye up, and those in the outer went in, eye-down. Then I drilled a series of smaller, starter-holes on the lower side of each beam for the screw-hooks, and my daughter brought around the ladder. The string? That was to attach to the end of the longer length of chain, and draw it through the length of tubing, to pad the chain where it went over the tree limb. If I was old-school thrifty like my father and grandfather, I could have used a length of old garden hose for this. So we looped the chains over two adjacent limbs, secured the end of the chain to itself with the quick-links. Then we attached the top beam eye-bolts to the chain with s-hooks, and then used the shorter chains to attach the lower beam. All the extra lengths of chain made it possible to adjust it all to hang level. The empty topsy-turvy’s fit perfectly, although I think we will have to do some adjustment, once we plant them with tomatoes for the new season. It will make a hanging divider of plants, once spring comes. The only downside, as far as we can see is that in a high wind, we’ll need hard-hats to venture out there.    More Info...  

 MAARs Pizza Restaurant Review-2 Thumbs Up! by Celia Hayes Well actually, MAARs doesn't want pizza – they actually want you to want their pizza. The Red Hat Ladies group that we belong to tries to rotate around to various local restaurants in the north-east quadrant of San Antonio. We have a monthly dinner event once a month; nothing fancy or expensive, just good eating for a reasonable price. We swap gifts now and again, and dress up for Halloween, all good fun. My daughter insists that I need a social life with real people off the internet now and again, and since it was her birthday month, and since the birthday celebrant gets to pick the restaurant for that month, my daughter opted for pizza at MAAR's Pizza. It's right around the corner from where we live, in a building at the end of humongous strip mall at the corner of O'Conner and Nacogdoches which has been a restaurant of some sort for as long as we have been living here. When we first moved it, it was Salsalito, but they soon moved across the street and up a block or two into splendid new digs of their own, then it was something else, and then Pizza Bella, and – hopefully finally - it has become a family pizza place. Family in both senses of the word; family run, and catering to families ... of which on a recent Saturday afternoon there were a good many. There was even a birthday party going on in the corner ... and on Tuesdays they have a karaoke night. When we go past in the evening, the joint seems to be jumping, every night. Which is all to the good; too many restaurants simply can't make it past the three-year mark, and it is not a good sign for a location when eateries open and close with the regularity of clams at high and low tide. There was a time when we began to think the building on Nacodoches which now houses the Checkers Diner was cursed, as nothing until they took it over seemed to last for long there. The menu at MAAR's Pizza is simple and uncomplicated; pizza and various combinations of bread-dough, red Italian tomato sauce and all of the ingredients customary to pizza. Oh, and fried dill pickle slices, which came sizzling-hot and crispy on the outside, tart and sour on the inside. The pizzas at MAAR's come in every size from 8-inch, all the way up to something that looks like a wagon-wheel and sends the waiter staggering out from the kitchen under the sheer weight of it all. The proportions of everything else are generous, also. It's a rare customer who doesn't leave with a go-box containing the leftovers. Which are even pretty good when warmed over – the ultimate test of good food. And the wait-staff is attentive in a way that would do credit to a white tablecloth, fine china and silverware sort of place. You simply can't miss the building, driving up Nacogdoches between O'Connor and Judson. The outside – and the inside as well – is adorned with lots of murals in a cheerfully colorful UFO and space-alien motif, although I did wonder why a multi-tentacled space critter would have a belly-button. Eh – maybe it's where he put the marinara sauce when he wanted to eat Italian cheese breadsticks in bed. Compare Mortgage Rates More Info...  

Overall 2011 San Antonio Home Sales Show Stability by Randy Watson The San Antonio Board of Realtors summarizes the 2011 San Antonio real estate market, stating that 2011 ended on a slow and steady note, but like the old adage says, “slow and steady wins the race”, and it looks like San Antonio is doing just fine. The year to date median sales price of San Antonio home sales increased over 2010, up very slightly 1% to $152,000. The total number of sales for 2011 was 17,914, no change from 2010. The 2011 average sales price for a San Antonio home, sold at $185,516. No change from the 2010 average home price. Mayor Castro expects San Antonio to create more jobs than any other Texas city. Angela Shields, President and CEO of SABOR said, “With no tax incentives, 2011 was San Antonio’s year to prove just how stable it is. Consistency in the real estate market is key to a city’s strength and San Antonio is a city that shows that time and time again.” Reference: SABOR Press Release More Info...  

OIL INDUSTRY BOOSTS TEXAS JOB GROWTH  COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Texas’ mining and logging industry ranked first in job creation in the past year, followed by the professional and business services industry, and the leisure and hospitality industry, according to the latest Monthly Review of the Texas Economy. Overall, the state’s economy gained 205,100 nonagricultural jobs from December 2010 to December 2011, an annual growth rate of 2 percent compared with 1.3 percent for the United States. The state’s nongovernment sector added 261,200 jobs, an annual growth rate of 3 percent compared with 1.8 percent for the nation’s private sector. Texas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 8.3 percent to 7.8 percent while the nation’s rate decreased from 9.4 percent to 8.5 percent. All Texas industries except the information industry, construction industry, and the state’s government sector had more jobs in December 2011 than in December 2010. All Texas metro areas except Abilene, Wichita Falls, College Station-Bryan, Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, Brownsville-Harlingen and Beaumont-Port Arthur had more jobs in December 2011 than in December 2010. Laredo ranked first in job creation followed by Corpus Christi, Victoria, Lubbock, Midland and Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown. The state’s actual unemployment rate in December 2011 was 7.2 percent. Midland had the lowest unemployment rate followed by Amarillo, Odessa, Lubbock, College Station and San Angelo. More Info...  

Checkout the Online Services of the State of Texas Website by Randy Watson I drove by the DPS Licensing office yesterday and there was a line out the door and around the building. Luckily, I didn't have to get my driver's license renewed, but what if I did? Could I renew my license on line? Hopefully, so... I wouldn't want to wait in line at the Driver's License Bureau if I didn't have to. So, I did a quick check online to find out what all can be done.  This is just a sampling of what you can do online at the Official Website of the State of Texas ... but, here is some of the more popular tasks you can do on the Official State of Texas Website. Need to renew your Texas CHL or Concealed Handgun License, renew your Physicians license, renew your RN license, renew your insurance agent license, pay the CHIP enrollment fee, pay your Houston Traffic fines, pay your Mesquite water bill or order a birth certificate. More and more people are finding the State of Texas websites. Check out some of the many things that other Texans are doing at texas.gov.As of Saturday, January 28, 2012, here are some statistics: 4098 Texans renewed a concealed handgun license online last week   186 Texans renewed their physician license online last week   366 Texans renewed their registered nurse license online yesterday 1425 Texans renewed their insurance agent license online last week 2075 Texans paid the CHIP enrollment fee online last week 104 Texans paid their Houston traffic tickets online last week 1867 Texans paid their Mesquite water bill online last week 1920 Texans ordered a driver record online yesterday 445 Texans ordered a birth certificate online yesterday 4102 Texans renewed their driver license online yesterday P.S. I am sure that there are lots of other services that you can use the State of Texas website for as well... such as paying business/sales taxes. Data collected from the Official Website of the State of Texas. More Info...  

Never Too Early Garden Start  … in the spring to begin reviving the garden. But if I knew then what I know now about the topsoil in the yard around my San Antonio home, when I first moved in, I would have hired someone to come in with a small bull-dozer and scrape off the top few inches of topsoil. Then I would have had a third of it put back into place, and mixed with another generous third of sand and a final generous third of well-rotted compost. This is what I have finished up with in most of those places where I have plants growing, by the way – doing it at the very start would have saved a lot of time and trouble. The prevailing topsoil around my neighborhood is clay – splendid for making adobe bricks from. It’s dense, heavy and soggy when wet, and as dense as a conblock brick when dried out. With a pick and a shovel you can plant things in it – but getting them to thrive and grow is another thing entirely. In any event, one either has to amend the soil considerably – or just say the heck with it and plant things in pots. Growing things in pots has the advantage of being able to move them around, to arrange for best effect – rather like trying out various bits of furniture inside the house. Anyway, last summer’s project to revive the garden is continuing – it’s not at all too early to begin planting a vegetable garden. We went out to the San Antonio home of Antique Rose Emporium on Evans Road and invested $20 or so in leafy vegetable starts: lettuce and mizuna, red sorrel, bok choy and spinach, and so on. I had excellent results a few years ago, growing salad greens from seed (in pots, of course!). It was really nice to be able to go out with a pair of kitchen scissors and harvest a few leaves of mache or baby romaine for a fresh salad. This is just a start; we have three huge grow-boxes on hand, and will use them for more vegetables, later in the spring. I finally took a close look at them, for the first time that my daughter brought them home. Now we know why they were in the trash – someone had drilled drain holes along the bottom, which I suspect pretty much destroyed their usefulness. Ah well, this is what duct-tape and plastic cement were invented for. So much for using them to for the salad greens; I just hauled out an assortment of good-sized pots from the vast collection, filled with potting soil plus a peppering of fertilizer … and there we are, all lined up along the south-facing wall of our San Antonio home. This is prime gardening territory, as far as my yard goes: it gets sunlight most of the day – when the sun is shining, of course – and is sheltered from winds. So far this year, we haven’t lost anything to cold winter weather. I actually believe that my yard remains about ten degrees warmer than the forecast winter low temperatures. Eventually, this area will be wall to wall vegetables, just as the frame for the topsy-turvys will be. That’s how I’ll be spending the next couple of weekends – what about you?     More Info...  

SATXBlog Crossword Puzzle #1  Crossword Puzzle #1 by Myles Mellor Print and Solve the Crossword Puzzle. We also have a daily interactive crosswords puzzle, too! Across 1. 60s rock group, with Corner5. Slight9. Partition14. Lion's beard?15. Type of insurance for owners16. Pointed arch17. Nose out18. Tapi endings19. Rich tapestry20. Place for pessimists23. Virgo mo.24. Cries at a circus25. Keen28. Swimmer's gear30. Banned pesticide, for short32. "Star-Spangled Banner" preposition33. Tongue35. Conundrum37. Invest in a risky fashion40. Witch41. Bean42. Greyhound, e.g.43. Magazine revenue source44. Come back again48. Go up and down51. Supporting52. Grassy area53. Investing term that came from poker  57. Salad oil holder59. Old audio system60. Horse course61. Where to get a fast buck?62. Fall locale63. Anatomical network64. Experiments65. Used to be66. Four's inferior   Down 1. Cells in the sea?2. Improvised3. Captivate4. At no point in time, contraction5. Native American people6. Scottish water areas7. Mosque V.I.P.8. City in Arizona9. Drenches10. Wading bird11. Great musicians12. "Desperate Housewives" actress, first name13. Court matter21. A chemical salt22. Deserter26. Romeo or Juliet27. Blunder29. Distinctive flair30. Beach sights31. Angry outburst34. Investor's alternative35. Inquisitive people36. Look at flirtatiously37. Constant38. Flower starts39. Belladonna poison40. ABC's rival43. Amazement45. Plant46. Fertility goddess47. American sharpshooter49. Driving hazard50. Common carriers51. Flute player54. Consider, with on55. Cover up56. Legal wrong57. PC component, for short58. Delicacy   Click for the Answer to Today's Crosswords Puzzle #1. | Press Here to PRINT More Info...  

TEXAS' EXISTING HOME SALES UP 4 PERCENT  COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Sales of existing single-family Texas homes in December were up 4 percent from a year ago, according to the most recent Multiple Listing Services (MLS) data compiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. More than 16,500 homes were sold, data showed. The median home price was $150,700, about the same as a year ago, and the state's overall inventory was at six months. December 2011 MLS data for many Texas cities are available on the Center's website. Here is a sampling (data current as of Jan. 30, 2012):   Sales Change from Last Year Median Price Change from Last Year Months' Inventory Austin  1,738 up 11% $188,200  down 2% 4.2 Beaumont 151 up 2% $114,000 down 14% 11.1 Brownsville 39 down 33% $86,800 down 22% 12.4 Dallas 3,315 up 3% $162,800 up 1% 4.7 El Paso 420 down 9% $97,900 down 27% 7 Fort Worth 645 up 5% $112,500 down 6% 5.2 Houston 5,048 up 7% $160,400 up 2% 5.9 Midland 134 up 17% $184,000 down 1% 3.3 San Antonio 1,393 up 3% $148,400 down 6% 6.6 Sherman- Denison 84 up 22% $96,700 up 3% 8.8 Temple- Belton 115 up 4% $120,700 down 13% 7.9 Tyler 198 down 5% $130,800 up 1% 11.4 Victoria 74 up 37% $131,100 down 2% 3.8 Waco 153 up 2% $116,200 down 1% 9 Wichita Falls 81 down 31% $102,300 down 9% 7.6 Texas 16,505 up 4% $150,700 no change 6 More Info...  

Articles in and around South Texas including San Antonio real estate trends. Focus on San Antonio and South Texas area events, festivals, places, food, cooking, happenings, even some Texas history and folklore. Collaborative thoughts and observation Cold-Weather Supper – Chili and Cornbread San Antonio online Home Search by Celia Hayes On those few days in South Texas when the weather is cold, dank and rainy, our thoughts for what to have for supper turn to something solid and warming: chili, which goes with cornbread like chocolate and peanut butter, like popcorn with the movies, and like salsa and corn chips. Over the years, we've experimented with various chili recipes – there was one from the Sunset Favorite Recipe books which called for angostura bitters and beer, another rather good but strictly vegetarian one which featured kidney beans, fresh corn and zucchini squash – but the absolute best chili recipe we have discovered was taken from Ree Drummond's Pioneer Woman, which was showcased on the Food Network a few weeks ago, and which we experimented with by adding some of the alternate ingredients. It makes a good, meaty and flavorful chili, without much fuss. Basic Winter Evening Chili Brown in a large skillet or Dutch oven: 1-2 lbs ground lean beef and 2 cloves chopped garlic. When the meat is done, drain off any excess fat, and add: 1 tsp dried or ground oregano, 1 Tbsp ground cumin, ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, and 1-2 Tbsp chili powder, and an 8 or 14 oz can tomato sauce. Stir together, cover the pot and simmer for an hour or so. If the mixture gets too dry, add ½ cup water – but we used beer instead. While the meat mixture summers, mix in a separate bowl ¼ cup masa (corn flour) with ½ cup water. At the end of the hour, add the masa/water mixture to the chili, along with two cans drained red kidney beans, and a medium-sized can of Rotel diced tomatoes and chilies. Simmer together for ten or fifteen minutes, and serve with grated cheddar cheese and chopped green onions and cornmeal muffins on the side. Cornmeal Muffins This recipe comes from my ever-faithful Joy of Cooking 1975 edition, and we used real butter and Lamb's Stone Ground Yellow Cornmeal, (which is manufactured locally, just up the road in Converse) and baked it in a cast-iron muffin pan. Pre-heat oven to 425, and lightly brush muffin pan surfaces with oil or melted butter. Put pan into the oven to heat also. Combine together: 1 cup all-purpose flour, ½ tsp baking soda, 1 ½ baking powder, 1 tsp salt, and 1 Tbsp sugar. Yes, I know that hard-core Southerners consider sugar in cornbread to be an apostasy In another small bowl or glass measuring cup: 1 ½ cups buttermilk or ¾ each cup water and yoghurt, 1 egg, and 3-4 Tbsp melted butter. Combine, and pour into pre-heated, sizzling-hot pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Made with Lamb's Cornmeal, the muffins came out with a crispy crust and a very tender center, and hardly needed anything else spread on them. The only cornmeal that made better was some stuff that I bought at Wimberley Market Days from a vendor who had a little portable grist-mill and ground corn and wheat flour on the spot – but hasn't been seen there for a year or so. HEB stores have Lamb's Corn Meal now; it costs a bit more than the usual, but it's worth it. Bon Appetite! More Info...  

Spurs Lead Division; Ginobili Out with Broken Hand by Randy Watson The good news for Spurs’ fans is that, due in part to an underperforming division as a whole, the Spurs are in first place in the Southwest division. The bad news is that Manu Ginobili broke his hand in the recent loss to Minnesota, and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks. In this year’s condensed season, that comes as very bad news to a team made up of aging veterans and many untested younger players. There is no way to sugarcoat the loss of the Spurs most dynamic playmaker and emotional leader. Ginobili is the best defender on the team, and the player that makes the Spurs’ pick and roll work efficiently. Without him, untested or role wing players like James Anderson, Daniel Green, and Gary Neal will have to step up their games and fill in. Ginobili’s absence will give these players the opportunity to mature—hopefully quickly—and gain some needed experience for the playoffs. Playing without him, however, places a heavier burden on the rest of the team than Coach Popovich surely wants. Although early in the season, none of the other teams in the division seem to be off to particularly good starts either. The defending champion Mavericks have struggled out of the gate, perhaps from a championship hangover, perhaps from some chemistry issues from new personnel. The other teams in the division do not seem capable of mounting a challenge to San Antonio and Dallas, so hopefully the Spurs can manage to win enough games in Ginobili’s absence to hang around for his return and then make a push into the playoffs. For what it’s worth, the Spurs are among the highest scoring teams in the league, ranking 9th with 99 points per game. They are 13th in points allowed, giving up 94.4. Coming up, the Spurs take on the mediocre Golden State Warriors, the defending champion Mavs, and the high-scoring Nuggets, so it will be interesting for Spurs’ fans to see what direction the team takes with #20 out of the line-up. More Info...