Essential System #10 – Shelter

...ures into our policy of having a back-up system for every necessity at our urban homestead. We like things lightweight for our grab and go bags, so we purchased a three pound backpacking tent, the two person MSR “Missing Link”. This tent is spacious for its low weight and uses either hiking polls or trees to stake it out. On the down side, we’re not sure how this thing would hold up in high winds and it requires a lot of room to stake out. The “Mi...

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2017 the Year in Review

...out to the Electronic Frontier Foundation for successfully cancelling the urban homestead trademark this year and freeing that phrase for all to use. I’d also like to thank Eric Rochow of Garden Fork for his ongoing support for our blog and podcast. There were many times this year when I did not feel like writing or putting together the podcast. Eric served both as an emergency guest and as an encouraging voice. And, of course, thank you all for...

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Adam Parfrey, RIP

Our first book, The Urban Homestead, was published by Process Media which was, at the time, a collaboration between Jodi Willie and Adam Parfrey (who founded Feral House). I was deeply saddened to hear of Adam’s passing yesterday at the age of 61. Jodi and Adam took a big chance on us as new authors when they commissioned our book back in 2006. Most publishers are unoriginal and afraid to take chances. Not Adam and Jodi. It was a great pleasure t...

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Saturday Linkages: Passive Cooling, Cats and Three Mules

...film, BIKES vs CARS – WE ARE MANY on @Kickstarter http://kck.st/1f7i1Xj @homedepot @lowes: 2/3 of our food crops need bees! Stop selling bee-killing pesticides! #BeeAction @foe_us http://www.beeaction.org Your Future in Farming & Homesteading: FREE 3-Day Webcast Event! (Oct. 1-3, 2013) http://permaculturenews.org/2013/09/25/your-future-in-farming-homesteading-free-3-day-webcast-event/ … For these links and more, follow Root Simple on Twitter: Fol...

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Bikin’ in LA

...turning point here in L.A. The testifying and lobbying that we in the bike community have been working on has begun to pay off and, I hope, make life for everyone here better. When folks talk to me about national politics I say, sure you should vote but it’s the local that really matters. It’s by speaking at city council meetings or just writing letters to local officials that we can make the changes to our world that need to be made. In the case...

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