Non-Toxic Cleaning for the Home

...n their travel paths with vinegar or rubbing alcohol to erase their scent, making it hard for them to find their way back in. Block their points of entrance with strong smelling and powdery substances. Start with non-toxic stuff and work your way up to boric acid if you have to. Many people find lines of cinnamon very effective. Other have used lines of baby powder or even lavender buds. If your fruit bowl went bad and now you are plagued by fruit...

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A Homegrown Revolution manifesto by way of a short (true) story.

...ith an Xtracycle carrying two car tires. 5. First aid training and general preparedness As we rounded a bend, in front of our local medical marijuana dispensary (oh, the irony) we saw one of the hipsters on the ground tangled up in his bike moaning in pain in the middle of the Sunset Blvd. bike lane and surrounded by shimmering fragments of a car tail light. He had run into the back end of a parked car. Homegrown Revolution stopped and prepared to...

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Make a Pepsi Can Stove

Preparedness means having a backup system for all of the things we depend on. If the gas goes out in an earthquake how are you going to cook? Thankfully the world of backpacking offers a number of solutions. Our favorite is the Pepsi can stove which you can build using these incredibly detailed instructions. [Editor’s note 7/27/08: looks like the author of that Pepsi can stove site failed to renew the url and, sadly, the link no longer works. We’...

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Make Your Own Chalkboard Paint II

...e Root Simple compound was making our own chalkboard paint and using it to label all of the cabinets in our garage workshop. In the past month, inspired by a visit from über-maker Federico Tobon, I’ve taken up the task of pimping out the workshop with a proper workbench and table saw. I’ll blog about Workshop 2.0 when I’m finished with the renovation, but the chalkboard paint hack is worth a repeat mention. Thanks to the chalkboard paint, when I w...

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