The Great Water Conservation Grift

...onceived water conservation policies have gone poorly when it comes to our urban landscapes. Take, for instance, LA’s horrible lawn replacement rebate program that ended up in the hands of fly by night operators who exploited their workers and left us with acres of gravel and plastic lawns. Or, since most homeowners don’t have any understanding of climate or horticulture, we just get dead lawns or, at best, decomposed granite and a few sad cacti....

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Saturday Linkages: Let’s Make Chickens Legal in Pasadena!

...dkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/2013/01/bikesailing.html#.UQckcMq9Xa8.twitter … Build your own junk bagpipes out of PVC and duct tape: http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-your-own-Smallpipes-for-a-few-bucks-Membra/?ALLSTEPS … 2-In-1 iPotty with Activity Seat for iPad: http://boingboing.net/2013/02/01/2-in-1-ipotty-with-activity-se.html … Your Biggest Carbon Sin May Be Air Travel http://nyti.ms/VesXDI For these links and more, follow Root Simple on Tw...

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The Flow Hive: a Solution in Search of a Problem

...s a natural beekeeper I don’t use foundation at all, as bees are by nature builders, and I believe they build the best homes for themselves. I would not presume to define the scope and size of their home. Another concern for me is honey robbing. Pictures on the Flow™ Hive site also show honey dripping from the hive into open jars. In our region, this would set off a robbing frenzy as other hives in the area discover free, open air honey. When robb...

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Dome Building

...e some basic problems with domes. The primary one is that, like it or not, building materials tend to come in 4 by 8 foot dimensions or some even numbered and square shaped variation. This makes Buckminster Fuller’s complex geodesic shapes very impractical to build, at least if you care about cost and wasted materials. The other problem is that people, especially Westerners are square. We sit, stand and lay down–for the most part all 90º activitie...

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Joshua Tree Earthen Oven Class

...ree Earthen Oven Class November 2–4, 2012 Earthen ovens are inexpensive to build, fun to use, and provide baking environment impossible to recreate in the kitchen. This Fall, Kurt Gardella returns to California for three days to teach you how to make your own earthen oven. Kurt has built dozens of these ovens in New Mexico, and has great expertise in both adobe construction and earthen plasters and finishes. Attendees will leave the class with the...

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