Toilet paper in the woods: a rant and some advice

...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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As Above, So Below

...st as important, I think, as staying in touch with the plants, insects and animals that make this earth a paradise. The design of this telescope is called a Dobsonian, after its inventor John Dobson, who passed away earlier this year. Dobson’s life took an unusual trajectory. He went from being a self described “belligerent atheist” to a monk in the Vendanta society to co-founding the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers. Most of his life was spent...

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How to Get Skunks Out of Your Basement and Yard

...got a cheap one at Harbor Freight. But you’re not going to use it to trap animals. Trapping is a hassle, and I’d hate to have to deal with a pissed off skunk stuck in a trap. Thankfully these traps open up on both sides. Open both ends and you’ve essentially got a wire tube that will shut closed after an animal exits. Critters can leave but they can’t get back in. You’ll need to set the trap and monitor it for a few days. The flaw in this plan is...

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Composting the Deceased/ My DIY Funeral Fantasies

...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

...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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