Search Results for: label/homegrown evolution amazon store/page/3/2011/04/making-it

738 results

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands

Mr. Homegrown
rainwater harvesting
RLeave a comment
“The bricoleur, says Levi-Strauss, is someone who uses “the means at hand,” that is, the instruments he finds at his disposition around him, those which are already there, which had not been especially conceived with an eye to the operation for which they are to be used and to which one tries by trial and error to adapt them, not hesitating to change them whenever it appears necessary, or to try several of them at once, even if the...

Continue reading…

In Chaos Order, In Order Chaos

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Thoughtstylings, Vegetable Gardening
4 Comments
Periodically Mrs. Homegrown and I teach vegetable gardening classes. For the students, I’ve been looking for a way to illustrate nature’s complex, non-linear dynamics that, paradoxically, seem ordered. I stumbled across this cool sculpture that neatly summarizes the idea of “in chaos order, in order chaos.” Imagine each of the hammers standing in for one of the systems in your garden, insect life, nutrients, microbes, f...

Continue reading…

It Quacks Like a Duck

Mr. Homegrown
Animals
RLeave a comment
The Happy Ducks of the Petaluma Urban Homestead It seems a new lifestyle is taking shape, in part born of the ashes of the World Trade Center, the aftermath of Katrina, and the endless resource wars our country feels the need to fight. There’s a great desire out there to “do something” and a refreshing DIY spirit of self-sufficiency is beginning to emerge. Two of the indicators of this new lifestyle seem to be the mixture o...

Continue reading…

And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma

Mr. Homegrown
Permaculture
RLeave a comment
The ducks of Petaluma Urban Homestead A big thanks to Suzanne and Paul of Petaluma Urban Homestead for giving us a tour of their bit of heaven on earth. Homegrown Revolution forgot to bring the camera so you’ll have to check out their blog to see what they are up to. They make a damn good hard cider by the way. We also had the privilege of meeting the inspiring Trathen Heckman of Daily Acts, publisher of the journal Ripples. If that w...

Continue reading…

No Caffeine, No Migraines

Mrs. Homegrown
Food, Thoughtstylings
30 Comments
apered off caffeine over the course of a month, then went totally clean for a couple of weeks, after which I assumed I was “clean.” (That’s when I wrote that last post–in retrospect I’m amused by its cheery outlook. I was about to get slammed with true withdrawal) You see, the headaches did not stop. They actually got worse. I wondered if my theory was wrong. And, of course, I really wanted caffeine whenever my head...

Continue reading…

Bantam Returns

Homegrown Neighbor
Animals, Chickens
8 Comments
to the coop at night in a very orderly fashion. But last week, little Debbie didn’t come home to the coop. I assumed a hawk ate her or that she jumped the fence and was eaten by one of the many dogs in the neighborhood. It was sad, but I was at least relieved that I didn’t have to deal with any bloody remains- one of my worst fears with the chickens. Every night this week when I put the chickens in I rather morosely counted six, inste...

Continue reading…

A New Source of Fuel

Mr. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
RLeave a comment
217;s largest oil conference, held at Stampede Park in Calgary, Alberta, today. The speech was billed beforehand by the GO-EXPO organizers as the major highlight of this year’s conference, which had 20,000 attendees. In it, the “NPC rep” was expected to deliver the long-awaited conclusions of a study commissioned by US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. The NPC is headed by former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, who is also the chair o...

Continue reading…

So I had this dream

Mrs. Homegrown
Composting, Mistakes, Thoughtstylings, Vermiculture
13 Comments
Here I am, with the soon-to-be-forgotten worms and a fantastic class of Waldorf kids Mrs. Homegrown here: So last night I had this dream that I was sitting at a kitchen table with someone (don’t know who it was) and I noticed something that looked like a dried out worm coiled on the edge of one of the dishes. I pointed it out to this other person, and she reached out and crushed it with her fingertip. It crumbled to pieces on the...

Continue reading…

Advances in Gardening Series: The Perennial Herb Bed, Patience and Plant Spacing and Breaking Your Own Rules

Mrs. Homegrown
Garden Design, Gardening, Herbs
6 Comments
No, this is not a pile of weeds. Someday it’s going to look good. Mrs. Homegrown here: One of the big lessons of gardening is patience. One way gardening patience is expressed is in planting perennials: buying leeetle teeny plants and planting them vast distances apart and then waiting with your hands politely folded until they grow to full size. A very common landscaping mistake is to go out and buy a bunch of gallon-sized land...

Continue reading…