Brunch at the End of the End of History

November 14, 2024

...of high rent in a very unaffordable city. I’m also holding in my mind this picture of the no-nonsense Dorothy Day looking like a character in a film noir. I can imagine her taking a drag on that smoke and saying, as she once did, “Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.” Then I can imagine her, as she also did, getting to work in a struggle harsh on systems but big on love of neighbor. As she said, “We have all known t...

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The Mystery of the Zero-Irrigation Squash

Mrs. Homegrown

August 22, 2014

Food, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

20 Comments

...to be clear, that means they’ve had no water for months. The chairs in the picture above are holding over 100 lbs (45+ kilos) of food grown with zero water inputs! To top that, this was one of the healthiest squash plants we’ve ever “grown” or rather allowed to grow. How did that work? And more importantly, how can we make it happen again? I have three thoughts: 1) Perfect timing. Volunteers know exactly when to come up. They’re rarely wrong. We h...

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Wake Up and Fight

Mr. Homegrown

January 4, 2022

Thoughtstylings

34 Comments

...nnocuous New Years post. In the dream he went on about how putting up that picture of a pupusa just wasn’t “serious.” This is, of course, a silly anxiety dream. There’s no way this person would ever have complained about any of my posts let alone that one. But this dream crystalized two writing fears of mine: offending people and going off-topic. These fears lead to writer’s block and timid writing. They can also cause you to lose contact with the...

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What Kind of Wall Anchor Should I Use?

Mr. Homegrown

July 30, 2021

Design

3 Comments

...thing just plain fall of the wall. By all means, if you can, get thee some picture rail. But, if that’s not an option, take a look at Rodriguez’s article for all your wall anchor needs, whatever kind of wall you’re dealing with. I’d like to highlight two of the suggested anchors in that Fine Woodworking article for those of us in the lath and plaster tribe. One I’ve already blogged about, is the pull toggle pictured above. It’s not perfect as some...

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Using the Google Search App for Plant Identification

Mr. Homegrown

June 19, 2019

Gardening

8 Comments

...e’s camera. It seems to work both with long distance shots, for instance a picture of an entire mature tree, or closeups of leaves. There are other plant identification apps out there that I have tested over the years but none have worked as well as Google’s search app. Google is sitting on way more data than any small-time app maker. Which leads to my disclaimer . . . While this search ability is amazing, I find Google creepy. Why? Let me list ju...

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