SolSource Review Part I: Assembly

June 17, 2016

Appropriate Technology, Solar, Solar Oven Summer, Water and Power

When we wrote our second book, Making It, I wanted to include a parabolic solar cooker project. I found a castoff satellite TV dish and covered it with aluminum foil. The problem was how to position a cooking surface in front of it while simultaneously tracking the sun. If you knew how to weld this might be possible– if still a challenging project. I just couldn’t figure out a way to do it without custom welding and gave up on my dream of solar g...

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Whacked the President with a Single Stick

Mr. Homegrown

February 19, 2018

Fitness

3 Comments

...e ex-Colonel nor the ex-Lieutenant Colonel of the Rough Riders has aimed a making this point, but both havve confined themselves to developing their skill with the weapon and getting as much exercise and fun out of the game as possible. Notwithstanding this, it is impossible to play with single-sticks without occasionally getting hurt, and both the President and his ex-superior officer have daily given and received some pretty severe raps. Lumps h...

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Dovetails by Hand

Mr. Homegrown

March 5, 2024

Design

8 Comments

...d, outdated hand skills just for the sake of those skills. You can make perfectly serviceable drawers entirely by machine but if you have the time and are making things for yourself not for work, I think doing it by hand is the way to go....

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Saturday Tweets: Beet Raisins, Seed Libraries and a Pepperoni Disaster

Mr. Homegrown

April 7, 2018

Saturday Linkages

...elSurls) April 6, 2018 Eric Garcetti can’t be a ‘climate mayor’ while he’s making more room for cars https://t.co/sg9Uf83izf — BikeLA (@Bike_LA) April 6, 2018 "Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf." — Lewis Mumford pic.twitter.com/7yd0JGil4B — Wrath Of Gnon (@wrathofgnon) May 4, 2016 Waze has turned the nearly undriveable, fifth-steepest hill in America into a disaster-strewn major thoroughfare https://t.co/OogoX0a5cb — Root Simple (@roo...

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A Low-Tech Experiment in Growing Oyster Mushrooms

Mr. Homegrown

February 3, 2022

Gardening, Mushrooms

14 Comments

My furniture making hobby produces a mountain of sawdust and wood chips. Some of it I give to neighbors who have cabins with composting toilets. A lot of it I have to throw out. A few months ago a light bulb went off. I mostly produce oak sawdust which just happens to be one of the ideal substrates for growing mushrooms. While I love looking at mushrooms and attending lectures about mushrooms via the Los Angeles Mycological Society, I don’t know...

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