Mistakes we have made . . .

...gallery, has stopped designing water features unless they are supplied by rainwater. Sounds like a good idea to us! And with the chickens we did not want to provide habitat for raccoons. 2. Mixing Chicken Breeds Speaking of chickens, a friend of ours who grew up on a farm confirmed that “chickens are racists”. Like talk radio hosts, hens will pick on anyone who is different. In our case, our green egg laying and weird looking Araucana gets the cr...

Read…

Saturday Linkages: Pallets, Ladybugs and Portlandia

...egs – Outstanding – IKEA Hackers http://po.st/a3Hn0G Jailed for collecting rainwater: http://theflyingtortoise.blogspot.com/2014/08/gary-harrington-aged-64-and-resident-of.html?spref=tw … [Update: A reader notes that there is more to this story than the headline indicates–looks like the person jailed may have been damming streams and taking water from his neighbors.] Little chicks wearing muffin wrappers as tutus! http://www.recyclart.org/2014/08/...

Read…

Nature Fest this Weekend!

...ts, done in collaboration with the Ecology Center, on container gardening, rainwater harvesting, bicycle basics, backyard chickens and food preservation. They’ll be priced to fly out of those boxes in my garage! I’ll also be doing a coffee demo at 1pm on both Saturday and Sunday and dispensing free advice in the booth for the entirety of the festival. Please drop by and hang out. And dig the book racks I built out of scrap plywood! See you this we...

Read…

Water your Trees with Greywater

...e Brad Landcaster’s thoughts on soaps and detergents. Let me also note the utility of Landcaster’s books and website when it comes to all things water conservation related, especially how to grade and configure tree plantings to optimize rainwater irrigation. One last and rarely mentioned issue, is if “greywater” should be one word or two or, in the neologistic spirit of “apisoir,” perhaps we need to invent a sexier word for reusing our water. Gre...

Read…