Do Something Day

November 28, 2008

...this animist notion of consumer objects to the next level, simultaneously making fun of our obsession with consumerism and, in a kind of post-modern mental judo, using that perceived obsession to sell cars (a healthy dose of sex doesn’t hurt). It’s this type of hyper-consumerism that provokes a backlash from organizations such as Adbusters, the folks behind Buy Nothing Day. Yet, I wish that Buy Nothing Day was, instead, Do Something Day or, perha...

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Straw Bale Gardens

Mr. Homegrown

March 25, 2013

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

27 Comments

Tasha Via’s straw bale garden. Michael Tortorello (who profiled us when Making It came out) is one of my favorite writers covering the home ec/gardening subjects we discuss on this blog. He had an article last week in the New York Times, “Grasping at Straw” on straw bale gardening. We’ve very tempted to give the practice a try in our backyard. Why? We have lead and zinc contaminated soil so growing veggies in the ground is questionable. We live o...

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Computer Troubles II

Mr. Homegrown

April 16, 2019

Thoughtstylings

6 Comments

...A big thanks to our web czar and book designer Roman of Yay Brigade for fixing last week’s WordPress problems. He did it just in time for me to jam my right index finger on a drawer thus making typing incredibly painful. Thus today’s short excusey blog post. Ouch. I’ll see you all in a few days....

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Grow the Soil

Mr. Homegrown

June 20, 2008

Gardening

3 Comments

...he right is the victim of depleted soil. There’s some irony here. With our book release and press folks coming around to see things we’ve been doing too much planting and not paying enough attention to soil quality. Here’s two options we should have taken to help out that sickly eggplant in the raised bed (other than the expensive route of new potting soil): 1. Sheet Mulch A concept from the permacultural toolbox, sheet mulching involves making a...

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Federico Tobon’s Kinetic Sculptures

Mr. Homegrown

November 22, 2017

Design

...ments never before published and several which have only recently come into use by Henry T. Brown. Follow the link for a website with all the movements (and even some that have been animated!). A tip of the mechanical hat to Federico for both the amazing sculptures and for making Facebook, Instagram and Twitter worth looking at again. As Federico says: My personal rules for social media, inspired by @michaelpollan and @rootsimple: “Post positive t...

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