Search Results for: label/animals/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

494 results

Stirred, Not Shaken

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Biodynamics, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
27 Comments
...intention that ties us to the land, to the elemental spirits of plants and animals that were tangible to our ancestors. We could all use ritual that ties us to nature and I look forward to stirring preparations and perhaps making them with a few close friends. In fact, I’m much more excited about making preparations than it buying a package through the mail. Steiner’s set of herbs all grow well here and many of them I have already. But a cow is ki...

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Toilet paper in the woods: a rant and some advice

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Domesticus, How-to, Thoughtstylings
40 Comments
...Eventually, with enough water and time and maybe some helpful trampling by animals, it will darken and break down enough to be unnoticeable from a distance. But it is still there. I might notice this problem more than some people, because I’m often off-trail. And everywhere I go, there’s the toilet paper. I squat down to look at a deer track, and realize there’s some under my heel. I settle down in a nice place to admire the view, and then end up...

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Composting the Deceased/ My DIY Funeral Fantasies

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Composting
47 Comments
...nd knowledge of the subject: A Hypothetical Method of Composting Humans or Animals: This is entirely above ground. First you build a platform of sticks/small logs to provide drainage and aeration, about 1.5 feet high. The deceased is placed on the stick pile. The body is covered with a 1 foot layer of mixed greens and browns–the makings of compost. Then over that goes a massive pile of carbonaceous material (“browns”: dry leaves, wood shavings, et...

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Radical Apiculturalist Michael Thiele

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Animals, Bees
12 Comments
...s of bees in recent years be because we treat them, like so may other farm animals, as cogs in a big industrial ag machine? This is just one of the questions posed by apiculturalist (he rejects the term “beekeeper” – more on that below) Michael Thiele at a workshop Kelly and I attended which was sponsored by Honey Love. The language of bees Thiele began his lecture with a critique of the language we use for bees–first off the term “beekeeper.” “Ke...

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