DIY Christmas Trees

December 11, 2012

Design

...sent me into an internet rabbit hole, wherein I procrastinated for a long time by reading about homemade Christmas-tree-like-structures. Two favorites: 1) The Mountain Dew Christmas tree. On one hand, I’m appalled to think that somebody actually drank that much soda. On the other hand, the structure is really nice and it looks pretty all lit up: 2) And the hardback book tree, made out of a cut-up book. The cool thing about this one is that the co...

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The End of California Citrus?

Mr. Homegrown

September 11, 2009

Food, Gardening, Pests

18 Comments

...mizing upside potential while minimizing exposure to the downside. My unsentimental conclusion: don’t try to grow citrus. If I had a mature tree I’d leave it in place and rip it out at the first sign of HLB. Despite the state’s offer to replace any HLB infected tree with a free citrus tree I wouldn’t take them up on the offer. In our case we have three small, immature citrus trees that are already chewed up by citrus leafminers. I’m pondering pull...

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Ladies of Manure 2013 Calendar

Mrs. Homegrown

December 10, 2012

Composting, Humanure, Thoughtstylings

17 Comments

...ver, now that I think about it. Sorry.) As teachers, we spend a lot of our time trying to convince people to mulch and compost. Return it all to the earth, people! We’re particularly fond of throwing down the humanure* gauntlet, partially because it really is a very important subject, and partially for the shock factor and the giggles. Some audiences are primed for this challenge. For others, it’s the first time they’ve ever heard of the concept,...

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Land Girls

Mrs. Homegrown

December 2, 2009

Thoughtstylings

7 Comments

...wn Women’s Land Armies, too. It seems in some cases the women took on full-time waged agricultural work, and in other cases they formed temporary voluntary emergency relief teams, helping short-handed farmers at harvest time and the like. The images, both photos and graphics from the period are fantastic: U.K. women in working the plow, and workin’ some fine style, too. Women volunteering in an Oregon hops field. They look so happy (and stripey)!...

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Happy Mayan Apocalypse!

Mr. Homegrown

December 21, 2012

Thoughtstylings

9 Comments

OK, so why are the folks in front having a good time? If you’re reading this post the Mayan apocalypse did not happen. Either that or I’m blogging via a HAM link from the Root Simple bug out location. So what is the official party line here at Root Simple on the whole 2012 deal? I’m hoping the uneventful passing of this day will mark a peak in interest in apocalyptic scenarios. While I could opinionate about the Apocalypse meme, as John Michael G...

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