Watering 101

...swer will vary, depending on your soil, the weather, the method you use to water, how often you water, and what you’re growing. In the end, you just have to use your hands and your common sense to figure it out. There is no formula. In the picture above, you see the surface of the soil in one of our raised beds. This is imported soil, the kind that comes in bags. It doesn’t hold water in pools like clay soil does, it doesn’t sink in fast as it wou...

Read…

Why You Should Have a Cat Fountain

...rts say they perceive it as fresher and more likely to be a safe source of water. Some cats, apparently, won’t drink anything but water flowing from a tap. While cats are desert creatures they still need water. For our cat’s wild ancestors rodent blood (yum!) provided supplemental hydration. The ideal diet for a cat would be a mouse a day, but we’d get in trouble with the PETA folks if we started a mouse farm at the Root Simple compound. So we’ve...

Read…

How to Make Clear Ice

...tap water that I filtered with a counter top water filter. A side note on water filters–our tap water tastes better when filtered–depending on where you live you may not need to filter it. 2. Around 24 hours later take the cooler out of the freezer, run some water over the ice (to help release the ice) and turn the cooler upside down. You should have around two inches of ice on the top of the cooler and a lot of unfrozen water on the bottom which...

Read…

Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS)

...st a PET plastic bottle. The diagram, developed by Unicef, pretty much speaks for itself. Too much gunk in the water? Let it settle and filter through some cloth. At least six hours of sunlight will be enough UV to kill bad buggies. Using solar water disinfection, or “SODIS”, replaces the need to boil water, thus reducing deforestation to supply fire wood. Obviously, this is not a long term solution. Drinking water out of heated plastic bottles ca...

Read…

DIY Sage Deodorant

...scent, but if you decide to use vodka, remember it’s already diluted with water, so adjust your water accordingly. The Ammonium Glycyrrhizate is from licorice root–it’s used here, I believe, to soothe the skin from the alcohol’s sting. This I don’t have, so my homebrew might be a little harsher on the skin, but it hasn’t bothered me yet. The 3rd ingredient, Fragrance, is a mystery ingredient. They say it is made up of essential oils, but they’re...

Read…