Hen Pecked in Missoula

November 15, 2007

...Apologies, for the poultry fixation this past month, but we had to link to this story. It seems Missoula Montana is currently in the midst of a urban chicken controversy. New West Network’s Anne Medley and Jonathan Stumpf profile the dust-up in this video....

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Paper Wasps: Your New BFFs

Mrs. Homegrown

October 31, 2016

Gardening, Insects, Nature Awareness

10 Comments

...ative European variant is more the wasp you will likely be dealing with in urban/suburban North America, because unlike their native counterparts, Euro wasps aren’t shy. They are the ones who will build a nest by your back door, or on the side of your mailbox. Paper wasps build those distinctive, easy to recognize papery nests made of many cells. There are other types of native wasps which build with different materials, such as mud. Honeybee colo...

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Hey New York Times Let’s Dump the Wheels Column

Mr. Homegrown

August 23, 2019

Bikes, Transportation

4 Comments

...f communities, thanks to the insatiable hunger for space cars claim in our urban spaces. Failing to point out these objective facts makes your auto columns little more propaganda. Where is your bike column? Where is your transit advice column? Where is your walk-ability coverage? Sure, you touch on these issues elsewhere but these subjects have no dedicated column like “Wheels.” Perhaps it’s time to start treating cars the way you might treat ciga...

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Will We Keep Keeping Chickens?

Mr. Homegrown

February 22, 2017

Animals, Chickens

19 Comments

...operations. There’s a lot of negatives for keeping chickens in our small, urban backyard. We have lead and zinc in the soil, so many predators that the hens have to live in what I call “chicken Guantanamo,” and a small irregular piece of property that makes using a chicken tractor impossible. While I built a generous run for our four hens, I really wish that they could wander more freely, but that’s just not possible where we live. Another big ch...

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Saturday Tweets: Foxes, Library Hand and Pyracantha

Mr. Homegrown

February 18, 2017

Saturday Linkages

1 Comment

Gallery of London's urban foxes https://t.co/Et0md5ATv7 — Root Simple (@rootsimple) February 17, 2017 An Artist Mends Cracks in the Sidewalk with Gold https://t.co/5hGw5RgHln — Root Simple (@rootsimple) February 17, 2017 Library Hand, the Fastidiously Neat Penmanship Style Made for Card Catalogs: @atlasobscura https://t.co/N9MsFVmAb3 — Root Simple (@rootsimple) February 17, 2017 ICYMI on the blog: in praise of pyracantha, by @gardeningshoe1 h...

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