What the Internet Will Look Like After the Zombie Apocalypse

February 27, 2014

...of off the shelf wireless routers overlaps with amateur radio frequencies making it legal for Hams to boost the range of these devices. That and the fact that several models of ubiquitous Linksys routers are cheap and easy to hack. Photo: Texas Ham Radio All you do is take your Linksys router, screw in a better antenna (note the one above made with a tin can), load some open source software on to it, scatter them around town and you’ve got a wire...

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Straw Bale Gardens

Mr. Homegrown

March 25, 2013

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

27 Comments

Tasha Via’s straw bale garden. Michael Tortorello (who profiled us when Making It came out) is one of my favorite writers covering the home ec/gardening subjects we discuss on this blog. He had an article last week in the New York Times, “Grasping at Straw” on straw bale gardening. We’ve very tempted to give the practice a try in our backyard. Why? We have lead and zinc contaminated soil so growing veggies in the ground is questionable. We live o...

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Fabulous Postcards from HenCam

Mrs. Homegrown

October 2, 2013

Animals, Reviews

...without saying! So we thought we’d give a shout out to Terry for her great books. They are heavy, 5″ x 7″ cards bound into books, but bound so that the postcards can be lifted out cleanly and used, in any order. They have a photo on the front and the back has the classic postcard layout. If you’re looking for easy presents for the holidays, or a set of nice postcards, so you can treat your friends to an actual handwritten note, go check them out a...

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Our new front yard, part 2: theory

Mrs. Homegrown

November 13, 2015

Back to the Garden, front yard series, Garden Design, Gardening

12 Comments

...e idea of making it into an orchard had so much appeal. When garden design books bother to address hillside gardens, they always feature much bigger hills than ours, and these hills feature expensive hardscaping, like artfully arranged imported boulders, fancy staircases which sweep along the contour of the hill, or dazzling water features. Nobody designs in 15 foot wide spaces stuffed between a staircase and a garage. There’s just not a lot of ro...

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A Simple and Life Changing Bagel Recipe

Mr. Homegrown

January 27, 2021

Fermentation, Food

14 Comments

Based on Jeffrey Hamelman’s recipe in Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes 453 grams (16 ounces) bread flour 263 grams (9 ounces) water 9 grams (.3 ounces) salt 2 grams (.07 ounces or approximately 3/4 teaspoon) active dry yeast Malt syrup or molasses for boiling Optional: sesame, poppy, flake salt or other seeds for topping. Yield: 6 bagels 1. Throw all the ingredients except the malt syrup or molasses into a stand mixer and mix on th...

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