Saturday Linkages: And So On . . .

November 16, 2019

Chicken of the woods mushroom–more on this in a future post. Florence Caulfield and ‘The Illustrated Needlework Book’ This might be the most 2019 thing I’ve seen Sasquatch or Wendigo? Mysterious howls in Canadian wilderness spark confusion (Mini editorial: I think the native spirits are angry with us) Slavoj Žižek on recycling ecology and consumerism Bikelash’s Latest Tactics: Pedophile Smears and Conspiracy Theories Credit Card Skimmers Evolved:...

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Backyard in Progress

Mr. Homegrown

June 17, 2019

Garden Design, Gardening

3 Comments

...rock to better define the paths in our yard that lead to the bees and the chicken coop. Laramee also proposed something else we never would have thought of: 12-volt lighting. He placed the lights sparingly along the paths in our backyard. For the sake of wildlife, I don’t believe in having outdoor lighting on all the time, so I rigged up a remote control switch to turn the lighting on as needed, such as when heading to the shed in the evening. On...

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Erik on HuffPost Live Tonight

Mr. Homegrown

February 6, 2013

Events

4 Comments

...te that I’ll be on HuffPost Live tonight at 6:30 PST to discuss, “Backyard Chicken Coops, greenhouses, beehives and compost bins show that back-to-the-land activities and sustainable living are back. Say Hello to Victory Gardens 2.0!” You can watch here. Guests include: Barbara Finnin Executive Director of City Slicker Farms Erik Knutzen Author of “The Urban Homestead” and Founder of Root Simple Rob Ludlow Owner of BackYardChickens.com The show wi...

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Nesting Box Plans in SketchUp

Mr. Homegrown

January 30, 2013

Animals, Chickens

7 Comments

.... And users have created a library of 3D models you can download. Up until recently most of these models were not particularly useful to DIY urban homesteady types. Enter SketchUp model contributor Rick whose collection of models includes the chicken nesting box above, raised garden beds and a couple of other useful projects. I’m really looking forward to seeing more open source project models like this and hope to contribute some myself. If you k...

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A Warning About Straw

Mr. Homegrown

October 25, 2009

Animals, Chickens, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

12 Comments

Claude Monet used straw (or is that hay?) for art. We use straw to catch chicken droppings! Straw is a very inexpensive and useful material for composting, mulching and animal bedding (we use it for all of these purposes). If you use it for mulch you’ll probably get some seeds that will germinate, but I’ve never found it to be a big problem in a small vegetable garden. I get my straw from the feed store, but you can often get it for free from yup...

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