Essential System #5 – First Aid Kit

...urs for a distracted and overworked doctor. Which is why, once again, we’ve relied on the world of mountaineering to inform our choice of first aid supplies. The assumption with a first aid kit in the wilderness is that it will be quite a while before you can be reached by a paramedic. But first some disclaimers – we are not medical experts here, and this first aid kit is in a “first draft” status. We welcome any suggestio...

Continue reading…

The Urban Homestead

“The contemporary bible on the subject” ̵2; The New York Times The Urban Homestead (Expanded and Revised Edition): Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City (Process Self-reliance Series) by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen  (Process, 2010) ISBN: 978-1934170106 (The first edition, the one with the “American Gothic” cover, was released by Process on June 1, 2008) Buy it at:  Amazon • Abe Books • Barnes...

Continue reading…

My Sooper Seekrit Compost Pile

Welcome to the Lucy and Ricky show! As some of you know, Erik is a complete and utter compost wonk. A heavy book about the science of decomposition is pleasure reading for him. He has a really, really big thermometer and knows how to use it. We’ve kept a compost pile for years and years, but only in the last two years has it become an obsession for him. One of his more recent projects has been to make an gigantic bin in our back yard. Thi...

Continue reading…

Country Wisdom

untry Wisdom has straightforward advice with clear illustrations. While we don’t anticipate having to skin and eat bear anytime soon, “Bear meat is dark and well flavored. The layer of fat should be trimmed off or it will give the meat a strong gamey taste” we did appreciate things such as the three pages of quick bread recipes (we’ll test some and let you know how they work) and the tips on using herbs. And lots of folks...

Continue reading…

More Furniture in 24 Hours

With our stained and Doberman-thrashed thrift store furniture about to end up on the sidewalk, my thoughts have turned to what to replace it with on a limited budget. Naturally, I’m thrilled when the interweb answers my conundrum with yet another 1970s era plywood furniture building manual. This one comes courtesy of a design blog called Ouno, who put up a flickr set of a few pages and plans from a book called More Furniture in 24 Hours...

Continue reading…

Barefoot Running With Ken Bob Saxton

Kelly discovered a barefoot running website, barefootrunning.com. many years ago. When she showed it to me I thought the idea was crazy. Then I had a series of running related injuries: plantar fasciitis, and arthritis in the knee. In desperation (I’m addicted to running) I gave going barefoot a try. The plantar fasciitis went away. Knee pain was greatly, but not entirely, reduced. Old habits are hard to give up. When you spend your who...

Continue reading…

Barefoot Running: No Shoes, No Problem

...0;backwards beekeeping” after Charles Martin Simon’s eloquent essay, “Principles of Beekeeping Backwards.” Simon’s essay is essential reading, in my opinion, even if you have no interest in bees. It gets you thinking about what other things the so-called experts might be wrong about. How about shoes for instance? I was addicted to running throughout my 30s until a series of injuries in recent years, arthritis in the...

Continue reading…

Saturday Linkages: How to Wrap a Sari, Scotts Behaves Badly and America’s Finest Bathrooms

...his Lost Wife | Inhabitat – Sustain.. http:// bit.ly/NYOjks America’s best public bathrooms: http:// boingboing.net/2012/09/07/ame ricas-best-public-bathroo.html  … The history and science of meringue, from a new book by Linda K. Jackson and Jennifer Evans Gardner: http:// boingboing.net/2012/09/04/the For these links and more, follow Root Simple on Twitter:  Follow @rootsimple...

Continue reading…

Pickled!

Picklefest 2008 was, no other way to put it, pickletastic. Thanks to Mark Frauenfelder for coming up with the idea, DJ Pickle for spinning the tunes, and the folks at Machine Project for hosting! We’re looking forward to Picklefest 2009. To those who attended we wish you the best of luck with the pickle projects you took home. We forgot to tell you all not to be afraid of your pickles! We’re all a few generations away from the kind o...

Continue reading…