Indigo 101

...going to dye with indigo (or really, any other dye) you’re going to need to invest in a big stainless steel dye pot. If you work with cold processes you can use plastic buckets. You’ll also need wooden and plastic tools. • Graham invested in a fancy device that gives him both temperature and pH of the vat. It costs about $100 dollars but it’s worth it to him. Temperature can fluctuate quite a bit without harm, some people even d...

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Reminder: Earthen Oven Workshop This Friday-Sunday at the Root Simple Compound

...nd materials Sizing Sand Form and Oven Domes Natural oven plasters and finishes Firing and baking in your oven. Instruction Type: This is a hands-on class. Attendees will have the opportunity to get dirty and use tools and equipment typical of adobe construction and earthen finishing. Due to the course format, enrollment will be limited to 10 individuals.  In the unlikely event of inclement weather, instruction will occur indoo...

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Saturday Linkages: Improvised Motocycles, Permaculture, Bear Attacks Man In Outhouse, Unicorn Poop Cookies–Yes, It’s a Strange World We Live In

Stuck in an African desert, a man improvises a motorcycle out of his Citroen with no tools. You can’t get more bad-ass than that! Homemade motorcycle improvised out of a Citroen 2CV in the middle of the desert: http://boingboing.net/2012/05/23/homemade-motorcycled-improvise.html Geoff Lawton on the Future of Permaculture | The Survival Podcast http://bit.ly/JRtgEb Outhouse bear attack survivor was grabbed from ‘throne’...

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Greywater Workshops in Los Angeles

...simple ways to reuse greywater, common types of systems, what products to use, and take a tour of several existing systems. We will also be creating a mock-up of a laundry-to-landscape greywater system with all the parts and tools needed to install it. Greywater System Maintenance: Advanced Workshop When: Friday October 14, 2011 – 1:00pm – 5:00pmWhere: LA Eco Village 117 Bimini Pl Los Angeles CA 90004Cost: Sliding scale $25-50Registe...

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Making It

Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World, by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen (Rodale Books, 2011) ISBN-13: 978-1605294629 Buy it at:  Amazon • Abe Books • Barnes & Nobel • Powell’s Making It provides you with all of the tools you need to become a producer instead of a consumer and transform your home from the ground up. Projects range from the simple to the ambitious, and include activities done in the home, in the garden an...

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Trapping bees out of a kitchen vent

...lside in the Hollywood Hills presented a few challenges. I had to work from above, leaning over the edge of the roof to attach the escape cone to the vent. One thing I’ve learned is to have everything fabricated and all tools ready before beginning any structural bee removal. You need to act carefully and decisively when you’ve got thousands of pissed off bees flying around. I made the cone out of 1/8 inch hardware cloth attached to a...

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Saturday Linkages: Meditation Pods and Zombie Lawn Gnomes

Doesn’t everyone need a vintage 1970s meditation pod? DIY How To Build Your Own Trippy Meditation Pod http://www. popsci.com/diy/article/20 12-09/how-make-your-own-trippy-meditation-pod-1970  …   Robin Wood Makes Wooden Bowls With Hand Tools in UK http:// lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/2012/09/robin- wood-makes-wooden-bowls-with-hand.html#.UGX1GKP6FNw.twitter  … Skate Villa: Skateboard-Friendly Hunting Lodge Conversion | Designs &...

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The Practical Beekeeper by Michael Bush

...minor points aside, this is a must-have book for beginning and advanced beekeepers. There’s much good, practical information and I learned a lot reading this book on a long train trip. Bush has many interesting tips and tools that you can build yourself. And it’s the few books I’ve seen that tells you how to do swarm captures and cut-outs. Bush’s website, The Practical Beekeeper also has an encyclopedia’s worth of ha...

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How to Make Soba Noodles

...ese flour we used in class is priced like cocaine and is not sold in the US. The buckwheat flour sold in Japanese markets in the states is grown in the US and will work just fine. In Japan soba is made with a couple of exotic tools. There’s a long and thin rolling pin with no handles. They have a martial arts vibe: Image from Worldwide-soba–they sell a soba making kit. I was able to improvise one of these at home with a dowel...

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SurviveLA Visits Simparch’s Utah Compound

...specially adapted cargo bikes. Solar power pumps the water up to the tower where it is heated by the sun in a black drum. A solar panel array and batteries provide more than enough power, all day and all night, to run power tools and pump some tunes out on the powerful stereo system. The composting toilet features, what must be the most stunning view to be seen from any toilet seat perch in the world – the decomissioned Wendover Airfield&...

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