I Built a Set of Gerritt Rietveld Crate Chairs and So Can You

...uild with a modest amount of tools and dimensional lumber from the big box store. I made a set of Rietveld’s crate chairs and a crate table for our backyard. The crate chair is a nod to the Morris chair. It’s low slung, kind of like a beach chair (there’s also a taller version). While simple, the chair’s design shows an architect’s appreciation of how planes intersect and how to make those connections visually interesting. I’ve built reproductions...

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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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Our Covid House Rules and Strategies

...hat we came up with as of ten minutes ago. Minimizing trips to the grocery store Many restaurant distribution companies have pivoted into home delivery. Johnnie at Granola Shotgun blogged about a Bay Area service he tried. We tried it this week via The Chef’s Warehouse. It worked great. The food was delivered in two days. Quality was decent. Some things are available only in huge quantities but you could easily split stuff with friends and neighbo...

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The Hugelkultur Question

...onents contend that the logs break down and become open fungal pathways to store water and nutrients. Kelly suggested we take an unused raised bed in our front yard and try an at-grade hugelkultur experiment (mounding in our dry climate seems like a bad idea, especially given our current drought). I balked at the amount of digging that would be involved. Kelly suggested that we should try it since we had little to lose and we’re supposed to be exp...

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031 New Year’s Resolutions

...mas. If you want to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to rootsimple@gmail.com. You can subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store and on Stitcher. The theme music is by Dr. Frankenstein. Additional music by Rho. A downloadable version of this podcast is here....

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