That Time I Got Deplatformed

...denly, without warning and with no recourse. I didn’t blog about it at the time, but back in September of 2017 a Meetup group I ran, The Los Angeles Bread Bakers got booted off its payment system, a Paypal competitor called WePay (as of October 2017, owned by JPMorgan Chase). Mike of WePay’s Orwelian “Customer Delight” department sent me this astonishingly rude email: Mike (WePay Support) Sep 1, 2017 1:56 PM PDT Hi there, We apologize for the inco...

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When it’s time to remove a tree

...ard. But when a plant, especially a tree, is removed in a thoughtless or untimely way, though, it feels like a wound. The empty space looks haunted. The wrongness is deep, and it takes a long time to fade. There are places in my landscape (both in my own yard or my stomping grounds) which are haunted by the ghosts of plants lost. I have to turn my face aside as I walk by. So how do you know the difference? Well, here’s the subtle part. I’ve finall...

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We are all gardeners

...them. Second, remember that we are all influencers. As I said above, every time we vote, every time we buy something, each time we take a trip or choose a place to live, we are influencing the landscape and we are influencing people who have more power over the land than we do. (An aside: At this point I suspect permaculture folks are going to say what I’m talking about when I say gardening is permaculture, and I won’t disagree. But I’ll also say...

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Root Simple’s New CritterCam

...hat mammal is chewing on our fruit? How often do coyotes visit and at what time? (We’ve seen them two times in the backyard). Are rats visiting our chicken feeder? When does a broody hen get up to eat? What critters are hanging around the chicken coop at night? Use the camera’s time lapse function to look at shade patterns in the yard. I’ll share the results on the blog over the next year. The first night I used the camera I pointed it at the grap...

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A Year after The Age of Limits: 5 Responses to the End Times

...the future will bring, but it seems fair to say that right now we are in a time of change, and a time of difficulty. It also seems fair to say that your personal experience of these changes and difficulties will vary, depending on where you live, the skills and connections you possess, and how much money you have, etc. The changes will happen in different ways in different places on different timelines. Nonetheless, I believe the US is in a slow d...

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