2013 in Review Part I

...it should rain. It didn’t. The year was the driest on record: 3.6 inches, making it a desert not the Mediterranean climate it should be. It seems to be a dry winter again this year and I’m worried. March A texting music video producer totaled our car and thus began a six month experiment in living without a car in Los Angeles. That experiment ended in September when we bought a car. Living in LA without a car was easier than I thought it would be...

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085 Rishi Kumar: Abundance in Suburbia

...ching Growing fruit trees close togther Raccoons! Quail and chickens Water harvesting vs. rain barrels How the Growing Home became the Growing Club, Sarvodaya Farms and the Growing Commons. May 28th greywater workshop. Many thanks to our Patreon subscribers for making this podcast and blog possible. If you’d like 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 t...

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Branch Weaving & Climbing Structure Workshop

...fruits. Come and learn about weaving tuteurs, composting, mulching, water harvesting, and large structure wood weaving, and how to make a climbing structure for kids all from found wood. All workshops are led by artist/activist Jeeyun Ha. This is a four part Workshop, where you can attend one workshop at a time or all four. This is Workshop # 2 of 4 Branch Weaving & Branch Play Structure Workshop taught by Jeeyun Ha. Come join us in building a na...

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005 Amy and Vince of Tenth Acre Farm

...pressure canner is a good investment. We talked to Vince about his post on making a non-electric mason jar vacuum sealer with an automotive brake bleeder. This is a cool and low cost alternative to the electric Food Saver vacuum sealer. And Amy discussed her provocative post on why they don’t keep chickens. According to Amy, homesteading is “more of a marathon than a sprint.” They are in it for the long hall. We conclude by having Vince and Amy an...

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How to Keep Skunks Out of the Yard

...Skunk Habitat In the wild skunks dig dens or live in hollowed out logs. In urban areas they like to take up residence in crawl spaces and under decks. (Design tip: avoid creating skunk habitat in the first place by making sure these types of spaces are not accessible.) I suspect that there may be a skunk or two living under our back shed. This shed is as old as the house (almost 100 years) and can’t be skunk proofed on all sides due to its setting...

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