Digital Götterdämmerung

...spring shut. He’s also realistic that we might all need to carve out some time for low-quality web surfing but that this time needs to be contained rather than sprinkled throughout the day. During the one month fast Newport suggests developing a long term plan with what to do with our spare hours. In addition to my quixotic furniture building mission I’ve vowed to improve my drawing skills and finish reading a few long books on my literary bucket...

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Take Back Your Time

...Today, October 24th, is Take Back Your Time Day which, according to the website www.timeday.org, is “a major U.S./Canadian initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine that now threatens our health, our families and relationships, our communities and our environment.” So take it easy out there....

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Do Hens Make Noise?

...n wanted wake-up call, but so far nobody has complained. Being naive first time chicken owners, the first time we heard this sound caught us by surprise. We suspected that it’s the result of discomfort from squeezing out an egg, or some wonder of selective breeding, a way to announce to the poultry farmer, “Hey, time to collect an egg!” In fact, research presented by University of Sheffield animal scientists Tommaso Pizzari and Tim R. Birkhead, in...

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Loquat season is here!

...t the fruit is best on trees which are not completely ignored. This is the time of year when the fruit comes ripe, and it’s always kind of an exciting time because the loquats bridge the “fruit gap” between winter citrus and stone fruit. The thing about loquats is that they are really suited only for fresh eating. And I mean fresh off the tree–they don’t keep long after they’ve been picked, which is why they never appear in stores. We’ve tried to...

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Our new front yard, part 3: design

...and soil and water requirements. But the most difficult, is the factor of time. No other designer has to deal with that, except filmmakers, and they only have to do it once. Gardens are time based installations which are always changing. You have to account for both plant growth and seasonal change. Some plants are longer lived than others. Some are summer or winter dormant. Plants flower and they stop flowering. They lose their leaves. Weather d...

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