Saturday Linkages: The Usual Suspects–Goats, Bikes and Tiny Houses

...er … Goats, Just Goats Goats in the house: modernfarmer.com/2013/05/farmer-mistakes-goats-in-the-house/ … Moving Susan Orlean: The Power of Walking While Working http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/05/20/130520fa_fact_orlean?mbid=social_retweet … Streetfacts #4: Children Have Lost the Freedom to Roam http://www.streetfilms.org/streetfacts-4-children-have-lost-the-freedom-to-roam/#.UY_N3AF95YU.twitter … Mexitech 3D tortilla printer “miMasa3000”...

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Growing Watermelons

...system, I only got two melons from one vine. But, learning from these twin mistakes, I suspect that next year’s watermelon harvest will be larger, and two other watermelon vines I have going (in a better location) already have a few fruits developing on them. Some things I’ve learned about watermelons: 1. Fighting powdery mildew. Our inland coastal climate, with its hot summer days and cool evenings, is not the best place for melons as we tend to...

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Rain- The Best Gift of All

...But these are home made rain barrels and I have lived and learned from my mistakes. But I do get to harvest a decent amount of water and it feels very satisfying to see that barrel full after only a light rain. So due to the mosquito issue, I use my harvested rain water as soon as possible. Once the soil has dried out, usually just a couple of days later, I attach a hose to the barrel and let it drain. I will set it in the garden and move it arou...

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Homesteading Disasters: The Skunk Menace

Franky, I think our mistakes are more interesting and educational than the high-horse blog posts we typically churn out. I’m hoping, in fact, to collect our misadventures into a little booklet of homesteading disasters. To that end, I’ll periodically write about the latest problem around the Root Simple Compound starting today with how fun it is to garden with skunks. Angry red arrows mark skunk dig sites in our new keyhole bed. I know that I’ve...

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Using a Whirley-Pop to Roast Coffee

...reader suggested. I could also have just ended up with a bad popper. Apologies to anyone who rushed out to get an air popper. Maybe it will work better than mine did. At least with our high tech blog I can correct mistakes. It would be harder if Root Simple was a mimeographed newsletter–the Whirley-Pop of information delivery methods. But we’ll see what format the blog is in after this week’s Mayan apocalypse . . ....

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