Search Results for: label/self%20watering%20containers/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

589 results

Mown and Blown: The Problem With Leaf Blowers

Avatar photo
Gardening
28 Comments
...d, beauty or habitat. (They are also not enjoyed by people: half of the suburban participants in a UCLA study of home life in SoCal never went into their backyard. Another 25 percent went outside for a few minutes a week.) Yet this style of landscape is our dominant style of landscape because the homeowner doesn’t need to think about it, and the maintenance crews can move through the space with their machinery quickly. Volume allows these business...

Read…

The Sound of One Hand Snapping

Avatar photo
Tools
1 Comment
...ve had to do a fair amount of carpentry around the compound – part of that self-sufficiency thing – and countersinking nails with a nail set, those pen like things you use to get the nail head below the surface of the wood, is a pain in the ass. Which is why we think that this tool, the “Noxon Two Bit Snapper” by the mysterious Spring Tools Corporation may be the handiest tool in the SurviveLA compound tool box. The Snapper model we have is double...

Read…

Seeds the Game

Avatar photo
Thoughtstylings
1 Comment
...our area and garden needs. Seed points redeem for real prizes like seeds and coupons for garden equipment. Grow your own food and learn practices for permaculture and self-sustaining food systems at home! If you want to support the project they’ve got an Indiegogo campaign....

Read…

So Much Stuff

Avatar photo
Domesticus, Tidying up
2 Comments
...p all those things in the garbage? If I could write a letter to my younger self I’d say two things: don’t accumulate anything, especially sentimental items and failed artistic efforts. It may sound harsh but why should any of us be defined or burdened by the things we own. Glassware at Altadena estate sale. Last weekend I went to an estate sale, not to accumulate any more crap but just to see the inside of a majestic old house next to the Silver L...

Read…

On Sharpening Tools

Avatar photo
Domesticus
9 Comments
...g holes in my education. I won’t bore you with an account of my philosophy self study but I would like to share what I learned about sharpening this past weekend. While one can pick up a lot about philosophy from reading books, sharpening is a skill best learned hands-on. For this reason I’m not going to give detailed sharpening instructions in this post but I will note the basic principles. It’s simple: you move from course abrasives to finer one...

Read…