2022 in Review: Cats, Mushrooms and Politics

December 31, 2022

...raw cartoon characters. The instructor had us draw Spiderman. He did it by leading us though the abstract shapes that make up Spiderman’s mask. What’s funny is that I don’t really know superheroes very well and didn’t know what I was drawing until the end of the class. When we finished the drawing he had us all hold up our sheets of paper. That’s when I found out that everyone else in the class seemed to be professional animators. Kelly and I spen...

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Hoshigaki Season!

Mr. Homegrown

November 7, 2023

Food, Food Preservation

1 Comment

...of red and yellow leaves that comes elsewhere. In our house we believe in making hoshigaki in the fall with persimmons from either the market or, better yet, a neighbor or friend rather than chugging those pumpkin spice lattes. We’ve got a row of seven store bought persimmons hanging in a south facing window and plans to start more. Here’s what they look like when completed. If you’ve never tried making hoshigaki, a kind of transcendent dried fru...

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Everything Must Go: Tidying Up at the Root Simple Compound

Mrs. Homegrown

January 9, 2015

Cleaning, Domesticus, Tidying up

36 Comments

...oint we remembered a book one of our readers mentioned, and which has been making the publicity rounds of late, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by the tidying consultant Marie Kondo (aka KonMari–her method is called the KonMari Method). She’s from Japan, where people have the same hearty consumerist impulses as we do here in the U.S., but considerably less space for storage. When I first read about the book, I understood the gist of it, but...

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Root Simple Reader Survey Results

Mr. Homegrown

May 10, 2016

Thoughtstylings

6 Comments

...a paradoxical problem with a DIY blog. If we’re gardening or in the garage making something we’re not writing and vice versa. It’s been difficult to find the right balance. Looks like you’re all good with where we are. When we first began this blog ten years ago the standard advice was along the lines of, “people are distracted so make your posts short.” Lately, the common wisdom is that blog posts should be long and footnoted. We decided to split...

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I made shoes!

Mrs. Homegrown

October 21, 2014

Domesticus

32 Comments

...? Randy estimates he could make a pair of turnshoes in about 10 hours, but leading a pack of wayward newbies through the process takes 32 hours. More, really, as we had homework. I’d say 40 hours went into each pair of shoes. After doing this, I will never again balk at the price of a pair of bespoke shoes. Lesson 3: It is, in fact, worthwhile to make your own shoes. Turnshoes are very much like gloves for the feet. We crafted custom patterns for...

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