Grow Alabama

Grow Alabama is an organization that allows the public to have fresh produce in season delivered to various pick up sites where the customer picks them up.

The levels include gold, silver and bronze. Each of these levels has a different price and amount of produce the consumer receives.

I chose the silver level. In it I will receive 6 different vegs/fruits. It is enough for 3-4 servings. The consumer is allowed to order 2 of something if one of the items is not to his liking. For instance if cucumbers are in the veg box and you don't like cucumbers, you can get two of squash, if squash is one of the vegs offered that week.

I bought one of the certificates for $49 that would allow me to have $99 worth of food over a four week period.

Below are the items I received during week three.


As you can see there are only 5 different items. That is because I chose to have two orders of string beans in place of cucumbers.

I made sure that I showed you the bruises on the apples. They still turned out to be very good.

I won't continue in this program because:

1.The person I talked to on the phone about where to pick up had the personality of vinegar and lemon.
The place I wanted to receive my produce was to get its deliveries at 2:30. I had to be at work by 4:00. At 3:00 the vegbox had not arrived. I called the office and the woman was not rude but she showed little concern. I told her I was new to the program and was not familiar with how it worked. I had to extract (as in dentistry) any information I needed to make a decision.
Though I've never met her, she reminded me of the Carol Burnett character, Mrs. Wiggins.


Woman: I'll call the driver and call you back.
Me: waiting, waiting, 3:10. She hasn't called me back. I call back and ask, "Is he coming?".
Woman: He didn't answer his phone.
Long pause ....waiting for her to give me further instructions.
Me: What should I do? I've got to be at work at four.
Woman: I can give you a credit.
Long pause... waiting for her to tell me what a credit is and how it works
Me: What is that? How does it work?

Getting information out of this woman was excruciating.

2. I never knew from week to week what I would be getting unless I called, though my e-mail address was on file. I had to ask for that also.
3. The list would say there'd be eggplant and then when I get my vegbox I didn't have eggplant instead I'd have two squash. I guess they ran out of eggplant and gave two of whatever was plentiful.
4. One week I received an e-mail that there wouldn't be a delivery. That was fine but the Woman put everyone's e-mail address in Cc instead of Bcc. Now everybody knows everyone else's e-mail address.
5. The following week there was no delivery because of the death of one of their employees. That's understandable. I respect that.
6. My last vegbox was last week. I don't plan to reorder.

I'd like to support the local farmers but I have not been pleased with the service especially customer service. Although when I called in last week a new person answered and she had much better customer service skills. I told her so. Still, this is more trouble than it is worth.
Grow Alabama needs to polish its skills.
THAT'S IT***

craft suitcase, planter

I saw a gorgeous flower planter of burlap made by DevilishlyDomestic at etsy.com. What a great environmentally friendly planter.

I decided I wanted to make one. Here it is.
I bought the fabric folded and cut it in a square.

As you can see here I've done a lot of stitching to keep the soil in because it'll be outside and it will need to withstand the elements.


Here I've added the handle so it can hang on the fence.
I cut the slits and place the soil inside. Then the plants.

Here it is on the fence. Mine was not anywhere near as beautiful as DevilishlyDomestic.Glad I did try it though.

UPDATE 8-26-2012 I left it outside on the ground once I was finished with it and it was eaten by insects. Another eco friendly fabric. It returned to the earth.

Trying to pick out your luggage on the carousel at the airport can be a little difficult when it all looks alike. I decided to make mine stand out a bit more.
I made my own stencil by taping off areas with painters tape. I used oil paint crayons. It's a lot neater. Using a stipling brush spreads the paint the way you want. Sort of like dry brushing.
Here is the finished result after coloring in the background. I liked it best without the background filled in but it's too late. There's nothing I can do about that.

THAT'S IT**

Underground Seattle

This was the tour I was looking forward to. I’d read about it when I was doing my vacation prep on the NET. It’s described as the tour of “Dirt, Corruption, Sewers and Scandal!” That was pretty much the truth. I was not disappointed in the least. The guide was knowledgeable and humorous.

In 1889 Seattle’s buildings were made of wood. Around that time a fire erupted after a cabinet maker mistakenly toppled a pot of grease-based glue. The glue caught fire and rapidly spread to surrounding buildings. Not knowing what we know today the fire brigade tried to douse the fire with water which only made matters worse. In the end 25 city blocks were ruined.

After this devastation city leaders decided that all buildings must be made of brick or stone to guard against future tragedies. They also decided to build above the tideflats. Whenever there was a deluge of rain, it caused massive flooding which could float away people and animals caught unaware. Massive retaining walls were built using dirt and debris left from the fire. To get from one side of the street to the other, ladders were used.
Ground floor of bank before devastation

After rebuilding, the new buildings were one to two stories higher than the original. Thus, you are entering the second floor of many buildings in modern Seattle. The first floor was left underground.

Modern day view of bank, now used as an art studio.

The second floor is now the ground floor.

Cage to vault

Work for single women was scarce. Many of the women who were unmarried often worked as “seamstresses”. There were usually 3-4 sewists Enlarge the picture and look closely at the seamstress in black. Something for everybody.

in one house and there were many sewing parlors within a couple of blocks. Each parlor employed more than one seamstress in case business was brisk and additional help was needed.

However none of these seamstresses owned a sewing machine. Prostitution was illegal but these businesses were so profitable, the city leaders overlooked them for what they really were and decided to charge a monthly seamstress tax. 87% of Seattle’s funds depended upon this tax.

1923 Palace Hip Theatre. Most women wore long skirts at this time and it was quite daring to show this much leg

Our guide told us about there being box theatres. I'd never heard of them before and asked what it was. He told me he'd tell me later. I knew it had to be something sordid, and it was . A box theatre apparently is akin to a modern day private lap dance.

The people were really excited when the water closet was invented. That excitement died pretty quickly. Before elevating Seattle, toilets would back up when high tide came in. Yuk! Who wants to get back what they were trying to get rid of? The newspapers began printing tide times so that residents would not become parties to poop. Elevation helped with this problem.

The Underground has been used in movies and cartoons. One of the Scooby Doo episodes is set in Underground Seattle. The actor, Darrin McGavin was featured in scenes from Underground Seattle in The Night Strangler. I remember The Night Stalker series but not the former.

One of the old hotels

Said to be one of the seats from the old hotel.
Viewing the skylight from underground

The skylights are made of glass. They lit the way when residents went underground. They have since turned purple because of the reaction of the manganese in the glass with the sun.





Skylight from above ground.

Large timbers were cored and used a pipes for water flow in the city's water system.

THAT'S IT***