Misadventures in Laser Cutting

August 5, 2019

Design

...ere at Root Simple we have a tendency to only post our successes. This can lead to the impression that we live in a state of transcendent Martha Stewart perfection, obscuring the reality that DIY projects are as arduous as climbing a mountain. There’s an initial enthusiasm followed closely by alternating periods of triumph, self doubt and pain. Hopefully you learn from your mistakes while acknowledging that you’ll never un-see the flaws nobody els...

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Seat Weaving for Fun and Profit

Mr. Homegrown

July 26, 2019

Design

6 Comments

...lightly different kind of woven seat. Learning to weave Scando chairs will lead you to the “profit” promise in this blog headline as you help supply all the Silver Lake Shamans with refurbished mid-century thrones from which to enjoy a $15 juice while Instagraming their house plants. Most chairs narrow at the back and you have to account for that when weaving the seat. Hammond shows this first step at the beginning of the video. My chair is square...

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On Moon Bases, Free Parking and One Hell of a Grim Swedish Science Fiction Movie

Mr. Homegrown

June 14, 2019

Transportation

1 Comment

...itely not for kids or for a cozy date night. While I’m not a fan of the film’s nihilism and dismissal of the numinous it does an excellent job of parodying the political impasse we’re currently living in (the spaceship in the film is nothing more than a bland shopping mall lead by leaders who everyone knows are lying). To my point, Aniara portrays space for what it is: an endless, empty realm of eternal darkness. The lesson of the film is don’t sc...

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Our new front yard, part 5: Constructing a meadow community

Mrs. Homegrown

December 2, 2015

Back to the Garden, front yard series, Garden Design, Gardening

15 Comments

...ke changes or fill gaps. Editing comes with the territory. If I’d had more lead time, I wold have grown more stuff from seeds and cuttings–so I’d have had more options and saved a lot of money. Isn’t that always the case? You pay for speed and convenience. I know this. But I really wanted the plants to have a chance to root down a little before our torrential El Niño rains hit in January. At least our money is going to a worthy non-profit. So, tha...

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Why I’m Growing Vegetables in a Straw Bale

Mr. Homegrown

May 29, 2019

Gardening, Straw Bale Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

10 Comments

.... Growing in straw bales is also a great solution for folks, like us, with lead contaminated soil. The drawbacks of straw bale gardening are mainly environmental. You have to buy bales and nitrogen and import them in a CO2 spewing vehicle, unless you have a generously sized cargo bicycle. And in my last straw bale garden some of the tomato plants showed signs (a lot of leaves and not a lot of fruit) of too much nitrogen. On the other side of that...

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