Haint Blue

...rotect themselves from evil spirits. I spent a little time ( a very little time, admittedly!) looking for some solid historical writing on this haint blue business, but found nothing but hearsay. The same basic info seems to be distributed all over the Internets, which means the resource pool is pretty small, or pretty shallow. Nonetheless, I think the idea of a blue porch ceiling very appealing, if for no other reason than it extends the open sky...

Read…

How to Remove Bees from a Wall

...ime to calm down. I use burlap in my smoker because it smolders for a long time. Demolition When I do these jobs I tell the homeowner that I’m going to open up their wall, make a mess and I’m not going to repair the damage. If you hire a bee removal service they should put the wall back. I don’t promise repairs. I also don’t do work from ladders. Once the bees had been smoked, John set about peeling off the paneling from the porch wall. You have t...

Read…

Worm Composting

...ust also sift and separate the worm casings from the worms themselves from time to time. One advantage to worm composting is that you can theoretically locate the worms under your sink, providing a close destination for disposing of your kitchen scraps. However, you can find yourself with unpleasant smells and fruit flies if you add too many scraps for the little buggers to digest. We had problems maintaining the correct moisture level in the bin...

Read…

Weekend Linkages: Smoking Chickens

...anks Daniel for the link!) How To Build Your Own Trippy Meditation Pod Insects are vanishing from our planet at an alarming rate. But there are ways to help them Improving tiny urban greenspaces causes huge boosts in insect life If Hollywood Workers Strike, the Entertainment Industry Will Grind to a Halt...

Read…

Weekend Linkages: Fall Fig Leaf

...Homemade Harissa Sauce Fascine Mattresses: Basketry Gone Wild A timeline of Food (via Recomendo newsletter) Saturday afternoon Ikea trip simulator Just in case you need a centaur costume Art, Hoax, and Provocation The quiet, monochromatic urban landscapes of Russian painter Vladimir Shinkarev In dystopia news . . . Against artsploitation That strange 1990s swing revival thing An interactive world music map (via Recomendo newsletter)...

Read…