Lady Urine, Water Conservation and Halfway Humanure

...ne to her compost pile. She uses an inexpensive funnel from an auto-supply store. (Auto parts for lady parts?) This funnel has a handle, which is convenient. But I’m not sure how to interpret the look of the thing. It’s sort of disturbingly medical-techno. The advantage of this type of funnel over, say, a kitchen funnel, is that it has a very long nose or nozzle. This, she explained, allows her to neatly direct the urine into a watering can. Very...

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DIY Christmas Trees

...about this one is that the cover stays intact, so you can close it up and store it on your book shelf until next season: Now, I know some people get cranky about book desecration, but even as a book lover and author, I don’t feel this has to be a bad thing. If you’ve ever perused the book section of a Goodwill, you know that there are books out there which could do with re-purposing. My picks for the chopping block are celebrity bios and inexplic...

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Straw Bale Gardens

...llo’s article and the author of a book and a downloadable pamphlet on straw bale gardening. Some tips from an experienced straw bale gardener at The Gardener’s Pantry We’re going to bioassay (that is, test ) the straw from our local feed store. The Compost Gardener has good instructions for this. In our case, we’re doing the method where you plant beans in soil, and water them with tea made from the straw. Washington State University–instructions...

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Someone Please Buy Me a KoMo Grain Mill

...iking, triangular design. For now, I’ll stick with my crapular $30 surplus store flaker. They also make a number of kitchen granaries that had me reaching for the credit card. The only downside I can see to KoMo products is price. But these mills seem so well designed that I’m fairly certain they will long outlive cheaper mills. If you have one please leave a comment. Thankfully there’s an entire youtube channel devoted to spinning KoMo grain mill...

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Beans 101 (Return of Bean Friday!)

...et the idea. Oh, and you might ask why you can’t use canned beans from the store for all of the above. The reason is that they’re terrible. To make them taste decent, you have to flavor them and cook them, so you may as well start from scratch. Now on to the how-to. How to Make Yourself a Big Pot of Beans Beans after an overnight soak It’s easy to make a pot of beans, and while it takes time to make beans, it doesn’t take effort, or even brains. P...

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