011 Cleaning, Long Crowing Roosters and Water Storage

August 6, 2014

Animals, Chickens, Domesticus, Podcasts, Preparedness

Kosova long crowing rooster chick. Image: Wikimedia.

In the eleventh episode of the Root Simple Podcast, Kelly and I discuss our new house cleaning routine, long crowing roosters and we answer a reader question about emergency water storage.

Cleaning
Apartment Therapy post on cleaning: How to Clean Your House on 20 minutes a Day for 30 Days.

Erik references the importance of processing your inbox, an idea learned from a book Getting Things Done by David Allen.

Long Crowing Roosters
The Wikipedia article on long crowing roosters.

A youtube playlist of long crowing roosters.

Musical break
“Banty Rooster Blues” by Charley Patton.

Listener Question: Water Storage for Emergencies
A correction to the podcast–the Food Safety Advisor is not free to download, but the information on water storage that I reference can be found here.

Amazon link to the water storage container we use.

If you want to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to [email protected]. You can subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store and on Stitcher. The theme music is by Dr. Frankenstein. Additional music by Rho. A downloadable version of this podcast is here.

Introducing the Root Simple Podcast Tab

Mr. Homegrown

August 1, 2014

Podcasts

5 Comments

Behold. If you are reading this post on rootsimple.com you will now find a convenient podcast tab where we have put all of our past episodes. There’s more to come including our next episode on long crowing roosters!

And we need some listener questions! Stump us! Befuddle us! The listener line is (213) 537-2591. Or you can email us at [email protected]–put “podcast question” in the subject line.

You can subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store and on Stitcher.

010 Erica Strauss of Northwest Edible Life

Mr. Homegrown

July 30, 2014

Animals, Chickens, Food, Food Preservation, Gardening, Podcasts

1 Comment

In episode 10 of the Root Simple Podcast, Kelly and I have a conversation with Erica Strauss, professional chef turned gardener and self described urban homesteading fanatic. Her voluminous and amazing blog Northwest Edible Life offers practical advice on a wide variety of topics: food preservation, gardening, keeping livestock in urban spaces, kitchen tips and home economic hacks. Some of the many topics we touch on in the interview include:

How she got started homesteading
Gardening in the Northwest United States
Four season gardening
Growing fruit in the Northwest
Dave Wilson’s Backyard Orcharding
Her viral blog post, The Terrible Tragedy of the Healthy Eater
Meal planning for families
Time management on the homestead
Getting up early to get things done
Irresponsible chicken keeping
Livestock vs. pets
Ducks vs. chickens
Slugs and snails
Lining a duck pond with clumping cat litter
Duck housing
Selecting and preserving avocados
Erica’s book project

You can also find Erica on Facebook.

009 Artificial Turf Wars and Fashion Disasters

Mr. Homegrown

July 23, 2014

Podcasts

5 Comments

On the ninth episode of the Root Simple podcast Kelly and Erik recap a post on artificial turf as well as our reaction to the frightening landscaping at one of our local utility’s distribution stations.

During the course of our artificial turf discussion we mention the amazing garden at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History which demonstrates how you can create a garden in a dry climate that welcomes wildlife and does not use grass. We also mention an organization in Petaluma, California called Daily Acts that has set a good example by creating turf-free gardens on municipal and private property. As examples of parks that are either turf-free or use turf strategically, we mention the High Line in New York City and Playa Vista Park in West Los Angeles.

Fashion on the Homestead

In the second part of the podcast we discuss the homesteading fashion conundrum inspired by a quote from dapper film director (and cat lover) Alexandro Jodorowsky.

Kelly talks about her strange uniform idea and I mention Johannes Itten’s uniform for the Bauhaus (that, during the podcast, I mistakenly attribute to Kazimir Malevich–oops!).

We also mention Soviet artist Alexander Rodchenko’s attempt at a uniform.

We close with a quote from David Lee Roth, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how good you look.”

008 Grind Your Own Flour With Erin Alderson

Mr. Homegrown

July 16, 2014

Bread, Fermentation, Food, Podcasts, Wheat

8 Comments

On the eighth episode of the Root Simple Podcast we speak with Erin Alderson about milling your own flours at home. Erin is the author of The Homemade Flour Cookbook and blogs at naturallyella.com.