De-Cluttering for DIYers, Homesteaders, Artists, Preppers, etc.

...own tool set. Canning equipment. Baking supplies. Brewing equipment. Soap making bowls and molds. Woodshop tools. Gardening supplies. Sewing and knitting stuff. All this stuff is wonderful, but it takes up space. There’s no getting around that basic fact, but we can be more disciplined about keeping those supplies trim and tidy. Speaking from experience, I know I don’t need a hundred canning jars on hand at all time, much less their dented and ru...

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Root Simple’s New CritterCam

...a for the application I intend. Thanks Max!] My plan is to use it for some urban, backyard citizen science. Specifically I want to figure out a few things: What mammals are visiting the backyard? What paths do they take through the yard? What kinds of birds are visiting the bird bath? Have my skunk proofing efforts worked? What’s the most active time in the night for mammalian activity? How many cats are visiting and what time do they come through...

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Mistakes we have made . . .

...oo prodigious, and that’s the kind of problem you can hope for as an urban homesteader. 3. Newspaper seed pots Those newspaper seed starting pots we linked to earlier this year . . . well, there seems to be a problem with them. I think the newspaper is wicking the water away from the soil. While in Houston recently, I took a class from a master gardener in plant propagation and we used regular plastic pots, a thin layer of vermiculite over the pot...

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City Farm Chicago

...e non-profit Resource Center, City Farm sells produce to chefs, operates a vegetable stand and provides opportunities for economically under-developed neighborhoods. City Farm is a mobile endeavor. The basic idea is to take advantage of some vacant land and, when the inevitable development comes, pull up everything and move on. Assuming that urban land is contaminated, the City Farm folks simply piled up about three feet of compost, soil and mulch...

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Backwoods Home Magazine

...is rural off-grid living, every issue has something to offer for the urban homesteader. The current January/February issue features a detailed article on how city dwellers can maximize their vegetable production in small spaces. Even the article on running a cattle ranch has the side benefit of letting us all know where our food comes from, and the challenges of running a family farm, “Jessica Troxel has donned a plastic sleeve, greased it with mi...

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