Designing the World’s Most Pretentious Garden Shed

...Nicolas Ledoux’s oddball sketches But fabricating a waterproof sphere from used headboards and pallets is beyond my carpentry abilities. Nevertheless, I came up with a few scribbles: Thankfully, most of my thoughtstylings stay in the sketchbook like the idea of a 20-foot tall observation chair on top of the shed. Kelly pointed out that the neighbors might not like that idea. After dashing off a few sketches I created a Pinterest board to gather mo...

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092 A Mattress Made of Sand

...ate Earth Bed. Our conversation also ranges over the history of how people used to sleep, from ancient Rome to the patent on the first mattress in 1850, the ecological consequences of conventional mattresses and the connection between the Earth Bed and barefoot running. For those of you who can’t listen, we also posted about them yesterday. If you’d like to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to...

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A Cheap and Easy DIY Sewing Cutting Table

...n I built my workshop I discovered a formula for creating work surfaces. I used a similar process to make the cutting table. Step one: go to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore or ReUse People of America and find two or more matching kitchen or bathroom cabinets. Step two: get a sheet of melamine at the big orange store. Step three: cut the sheet of melamine to size. To do that I bought a plywood blade for my circular saw (I don’t own a table saw). I...

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Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer and Avocados

...n insecticide (Hero) has already registered under Section 18 that could be used by growers in CA. He provided a link to a short publication his lab put out on orchard sanitation best practices as well as a link to information for avocado growers on the use of Hero. Hero is a pyrethroid-based pesticide. For my own backyard tree I’m going to: Make sure pruning tools are disinfected before use. This is one of the main reasons we use a qualified arbor...

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