Paper Wasps: Your New BFFs

...ative European variant is more the wasp you will likely be dealing with in urban/suburban North America, because unlike their native counterparts, Euro wasps aren’t shy. They are the ones who will build a nest by your back door, or on the side of your mailbox. Paper wasps build those distinctive, easy to recognize papery nests made of many cells. There are other types of native wasps which build with different materials, such as mud. Honeybee colo...

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094 The American Woman’s Home

On the podcast this week Kelly and I discuss a 19th century urban homesteading book written by Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, The American Woman’s Home. The book was written mostly by Catherine, with some contributions from Harriet (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin). It’s likely that Catherine realized that attaching her famous sister’s name would sell more copies. Published in 1869, The American Woman’s Home covers a great deal of terri...

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The Root Simple 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

...thought I’d offer some suggested gifts, mostly obtainable online, for the urban homesteady types in your life. Most of the links are to Amazon, and we get a small cut of the proceeds, which helps keep our webmaster in kibble. But First . . . Charity Of course, rather than buying unneeded crap that will only clutter our already messy houses, we could agree to give to a charity instead. This season, due to our national “orange swan” event, Kelly is...

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Toggler Snaptoggle® Heavy-Duty Toggle Bolts

...a flat screen TV so large that you have to strap it to the top of the car. Urban homesteady types would never do this as we prefer to spend our evenings spinning wool while reading Cicero to each other, of course. But let’s just say (again, hypothetically), that you want to mount that flat screen TV to the wall so that the cats can’t knock it over. This is where the Toggler Snaptoggle® bolts come in. To use them you drill a 1/2″ hole and insert th...

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Saturday Tweets: Oatmeal, Bikes and a Pickle Maker

...5Xs7x — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 28, 2015 The Skip Garden a moveable urban veggie patch built with 90% reclaimed materials http://t.co/LnpEmIPMIB — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 1, 2015 ‘Sandorkraut: A Pickle Maker’ http://t.co/l04xhAZ3AF — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 30, 2015 Watch bicyclist lift and move car blocking bike path via @BoingBoing http://t.co/0ut26E2kui — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 28, 2015 On a ‘Tour De Tacos’ with L...

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