Build a Ghetto Solar Cooker

Using crap we had laying around the homestead, SurviveLA fashioned a solar cooker based on plans from Backwoods Home Magazine, the Dwell of the Ted Kaczynski set. We just substituted an old cooler for the cardboard boxes, and we finished it off by using one of Los Angeles’ ubiquitous abandoned car tires as a cradle to keep the cooker oriented towards the sun. It ain’t pretty but it works. In our first test we reached 160º inside the oven, but we...

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Saturday Tweets: Coffee, Bees and Bog Butter

...@rootsimple) June 17, 2016 A 67-Mile Hiking Trail Just Opened Through LA’s Urban Mountains https://t.co/tZg1QA0kEU — Root Simple (@rootsimple) June 18, 2016 Building a #garden wash station https://t.co/7VDEZ3oIYD #gardening — Tenth Acre Farm (@tenthacrefarm) June 18, 2016 Giant 2,000-year-old hunk of bog butter just found – and it’s still edible https://t.co/YDyjqBxyVZ — Root Simple (@rootsimple) June 13, 2016 Solid reclaimed Wood Chair https://t....

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Saturday Tweets: DIY Kayaks, Maps and Dragon Anatomy

...ican #Architecture Profession for your foresight and contributions to the #urban form in the USA! pic.twitter.com/sGucLhJX4p — Erik Griswold (@erik_griswold) July 30, 2016 Dragon anatomy for beginners. Yes, you did read that correctly.https://t.co/F06Qanht14 pic.twitter.com/FJzwhiQzJK — Medieval Manuscripts (@BLMedieval) July 30, 2016 Good Night Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. Germ. 466 pic.twitter.com/ldauWNgffo — Damien Kempf (@DamienKempf) July 30, 2016...

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How to Build Walls with Pallets

...and jetsam. Mattresses, rotting couches and headboards accumulate, forming urban coral reefs under the blistering sun. It’s difficult to figure out a use for these objects other than as art. For utilitarian needs, such as building walls, we must turn to the many pallets that also litter our streets. Sketchup model by Ron S. But pallets can be tough to work with. The wood splinters easily making disassembly a tricky proposition (watch the Garden Fo...

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Satan’s Easter Basket is Filled with Plastic Easter Grass

...round this morning, especially because Echo Park surrounds a lovely little urban lake full of birds. Read on to find out why. 4 Excellent Reasons to Avoid Plastic Easter Grass and use all of your influence to make sure other people avoid it, too: Domestic cats and dogs eat Easter grass and it can cause intestinal obstruction. Cats are particularly attracted to its stringy texture, but dogs might also gobble it up when they raid a kid’s Easter stas...

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