086 The Connection Between Cats and Grain

...tory, famous cats and take a detour into the world of distillery cats and ship’s cats. Special thanks to Paul Koudounaris, whose lecture inspired this podcast, and the website Purr-n-Fur for information on ship’s and distillery cats. Many thanks to our Patreon subscribers for making this podcast and blog possible. If you’d like to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to rootsimple@gmail.com. You...

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Restoring the Original Black Box: Our Western Electric 534A Subset

...posted a video of the interior of our ringer box in action. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what it sounded like when the phone rang in 1920s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2VHhmKTFsQ And, yes, I will be making this available as a ringtone in about a week. Though, I’ll note, you probably won’t be able to fix your iPhone 96 years in the future. Does your old house still have a ringer box?...

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088 Eric of Garden Fork TV on Raised Beds, Coleslaw and Deep Frying

...te Garden Fork. We talk about using pressure treated wood for raised beds, making coleslaw and Eric’s adventures in deep frying (bacon wrapped grilled cheese!) among other topics. During our conversation Eric mentions: The Garden Fork Youtube channel Pressure treated wood video Homemade pallet breaker How to build raised beds How to make coleslaw OXO salad spinner Bacon grilled cheese sandwich Deep fried Twinkies Donuts made from biscuit dough 360...

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Best veggies to cook in a solar oven

...d spud with any variety of unhealthy things piled on top of it. We’ve been making southwest style potatoes piled with black beans, salsa, cheese and sour cream. Corn on the Cob You don’t need to shuck the corn. You don’t need to soak the husks. You don’t even need a covered pan. You can just put some ears on the floor of your oven (or on a tray). You can tuck them around pans cooking other things. I’ve even heard you can also pile them up, fill th...

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Help! I’ve got Paper Wasps

...beneficial insect. They eat beetle larvae, caterpillars, flies and nectar (making them pollinators). They are your friends in the garden. Right now I have a large colony living in the eave of our front porch right over my favorite chair. I’ve sat in that chair, with my head a mere four feet from my paper wasp buddies, for many hours and have never once been bothered. Biology Like honeybees, paper wasp are social insects. A mated queen lays eggs. B...

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