Search Results for: label/animals/page/8/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

567 results

Your Open Floor Plan is a Death Trap

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Design
23 Comments
...re Service Fatalities in Structure Fires 1977-2009 Rita F. Fahy, Ph.D. June 2010). Let’s take a closer look at some of the unintended consequences of open floor plans and modern materials. Open Floor Plans U.L.’s research proves conclusively that open floor plan interiors create fires that spread faster and are harder for firefighters to control. Another trend in homes is to remove walls to open up the floor plan of the home. As these walls are re...

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Bird Flu and Industrial Agriculture

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Animals, Chickens
2 Comments
...r asserts that industrial agriculture’s penchant for cramming thousands of animals into sheds is the most likely vector for a host of scary diseases such as bird flu and mad cow disease. Keeping chickens in our backyard has brought home the debate on biosecurity and bird flu. There’s considerable dispute about how these viruses spread, with the industry trying to make the case that wild birds and backyard poultry keepers such as ourselves are a gr...

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Guyaba Guayabas (Psidium guajava)

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Food, Gardening
9 Comments
...look for him to be opening a booth at your local farmer’s market. The tree seems fairly drought tolerant, but more productive with water. Guava expert Leslie Landrum notes that the guava is a “weedy tree, a tree that likes disturbance. It likes to grow along roads and in pastures. Animals eat the fruit and spread the seeds around.” It’s also a fruit so tasty that creekfreak occasionally has to chase off guyaba rustlers poaching specimens off his t...

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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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