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

494 results

The Unintended Consequences of Water Conservation

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Gardening
11 Comments
...access TV show. Who cares if you pull the water? Never mind that insects, animals and people call those landscapes home. Two ways out of this: a focus on long term solutions in our civic discourse and instilling a love of plants (we could call it horticultural literacy) in the next generation. Both are tall orders. In the meantime, I recommend reading Hodel and Pittenger’s paper. They are, perhaps, more enamored of the lawn than I but their call...

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Our Radioactive Cat

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Animals, Cats
8 Comments
...t doesn’t cause the cat any pain, but they can’t be around people or other animals for a few days. When he gets back we have to minimize contact with him for awhile and scoop out his litter into a bucket that has to sit for a few weeks before we can dispose of it. I’ve never been to a vet as organized and efficient as the folks doing this treatment, Advanced Veterinary Medical Imaging in Tustin. They send a daily spreadsheet update, call frequentl...

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A Painful Beekeeping Lesson

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Animals, Bees
20 Comments
...tentially dangerous situation not only for myself but for other people and animals. Thankfully it was raining and dark and I was the only victim. It was one of those situations when I knew what I was doing was stupid but I did it anyways, propelled by a needless hysteria. What did I learn? When it comes to beekeeping, never panic, always think ahead and stay calm and deliberate. Use smoke if you think there is any chance that bees might get angry....

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Mulch, mulch, mulch!

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Back to the Garden, Garden Design, Gardening, Permaculture, Soil
11 Comments
...Sometimes they are confused for one another, but they are quite different animals. Compost, which we talked about last week, is more nutrient rich than mulch. It’s full of life, and inoculates soil with that life. Mulch, on the other hand, is a blanket for the soil. (A blankie, as I think of it in my more regressive moments.) It is not a living material, as good compost is. Rather, it is made up of dead, dry plant matter (dead leaves, shredded wo...

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