Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

...The combination of responsibilities this week and passing a kidney stone last night means that we’re calling a close to the first season of the Root Simple Podcast and planning new episodes for season two. That’s a pretentious way of saying there’s no podcast today. We’ll be back next week. Who would you like to see as guests? How do you like the podcast so far?...

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Got a Critter Question?

...Our guest on the next episode of the Root Simple Podcast will be Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild. We’re interviewing her tomorrow (Thursday) so if you have a question about coyotes, moles, raccoons, opossums, squirrels, rats or any of the other creatures that visit our urban backyards, leave a comment....

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Our Phoebe is gone

...kidney stones this Friday. It’s been quite the week! If you listen to our podcast, you can expect it to go up on Thursday or Friday, instead of Wednesday. Thank you all again, all of you, for your support. I’m going to going to eulogize Phoebe a bit after the break, more for my own sake than anything else, since I don’t keep a diary. Expect it will be long and maudlin. Bring tissues. Phoebe was born with the Grim Reaper stalking her, but because...

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The Great Water Conservation Grift

...onceived water conservation policies have gone poorly when it comes to our urban landscapes. Take, for instance, LA’s horrible lawn replacement rebate program that ended up in the hands of fly by night operators who exploited their workers and left us with acres of gravel and plastic lawns. Or, since most homeowners don’t have any understanding of climate or horticulture, we just get dead lawns or, at best, decomposed granite and a few sad cacti....

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So Much Poultry, So Little Time

.... -Someone needs to put together an urban version of the 4-H club to bring urban agriculture programs to the inner city. Maybe it’s already been done, but from what I’ve been told urban 4-H clubs are all about nutrition, science fairs, and maybe training guide dogs. Kids desperately need contact with nature and animals. Let’s grow some food! But we may need to hippify the uniforms a bit . . . -When the economy hits the skids people start thinking...

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