Chris Burden’s Small Skyscraper

November 1, 2017

Design

...n closed the loophole. Burden was probably best known for having himself shot and crucified in the name of performance art, but I remember him for making it impossible to build the backyard tower I’ve always wanted....

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How to Remove Bees From a Tree

Mr. Homegrown

November 13, 2017

Animals, Bees

3 Comments

...at the section with the bees can simply be relocated or if the hole is large enough to reach into, a cutout can be done. The bees that I took out of the tree back in June are doing well in my backyard: The 2×4 is my crude way of making the entrance smaller. When a hive is getting established a smaller entrance is easier to defend against other bee colonies in search of free honey. My new “tree bees” seem healthy and are already expanding into a se...

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Federico Tobon’s Kinetic Sculptures

Mr. Homegrown

November 22, 2017

Design

...ments never before published and several which have only recently come into use by Henry T. Brown. Follow the link for a website with all the movements (and even some that have been animated!). A tip of the mechanical hat to Federico for both the amazing sculptures and for making Facebook, Instagram and Twitter worth looking at again. As Federico says: My personal rules for social media, inspired by @michaelpollan and @rootsimple: “Post positive t...

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Restoring the Original Black Box: Our Western Electric 534A Subset

Mr. Homegrown

June 14, 2016

Appropriate Technology, Thoughtstylings

7 Comments

...posted a video of the interior of our ringer box in action. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what it sounded like when the phone rang in 1920s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2VHhmKTFsQ And, yes, I will be making this available as a ringtone in about a week. Though, I’ll note, you probably won’t be able to fix your iPhone 96 years in the future. Does your old house still have a ringer box?...

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We Grew a Cocktail Avocado!

Mr. Homegrown

December 15, 2017

Fruit Trees, Gardening

10 Comments

This morning Kelly alerted me to the latest avocado news making its way around the internet tubes. Apparently a chain of grocery stores in Great Britain, worried about the lack of knife skills in our young folks (ugh), is marketing a seedless “cocktail” avocado. What is a cocktail avocado? Some deep Googling revealed that they aren’t some new variety, just un- or under pollinated Fuerte avocado. Since we have a Fuerte tree in our backyard, I deci...

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