Backyard in Progress

...’ll remove the bar code from that pipe! We plan on planting this area with native plants in the fall. Laramee and his crew also hauled up some rock to better define the paths in our yard that lead to the bees and the chicken coop. Laramee also proposed something else we never would have thought of: 12-volt lighting. He placed the lights sparingly along the paths in our backyard. For the sake of wildlife, I don’t believe in having outdoor lighting...

Read…

Moldy Grapes!

...ur two table grape vines are a little hesitant to really bust out, but our native grape (Vitus californica) has taken over the entire south facing wall of our garden, and is threatening the neighbor’s house. The chickens like grape leaves, fortunately, so I have something to do with the prunings, but I wanted to do more. I’m a big fan of dolmas, so thought I’d try to pickle some grape leaves. Skimming the internet for recipes, I saw, as usual, man...

Read…

The Horror

...sociate with crazy people and goats, had hacked off half the length of the native grape vine that we had counted on covering an ugly chain link fence. An innocent mistake, but evidence that some folks apparently don’t know what grape vines look like and that they loose their leaves in the winter. So what does this have to do with man bras? Nothing, but both make us cranky. Our crankiness leaves us at a loss for words, so instead of a lengthy post...

Read…

Monday Linkages: The Blob, Urine Soaked Acorns

...ongoing.blogspot.com/2013/09/real-adventures-alastair-humphreys.html … Sailboats Made of Corrugated Metal in Australia http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/2013/09/sailboats-made-of-corrugated-metal-in.html … Bikes New issue of Urban Velo: http://www.urbanvelo.org/issue39/urbanvelo39.pdf … What To Do After an Accident When the Police Fail to Respond? http://la.streetsblog.org/2013/09/04/what-to-do-after-an-accident-when-the-police-fail-to-respond...

Read…

Paleo Grift

...before the toil of agriculture is an idea that pops up often in the urban homesteading and permaculture scene. While I’m sympathetic to complaints about modern agriculture, I’ve long thought that this Golden Age narrative sounds too simple, too much like the “noble savage” archetype, the idea that if we can somehow just get back to “nature” all will be okay. This notion of a idyllic distant past was the subject of an excellent episode of the Tril...

Read…