Stuff You Learn When the Power Goes Out

August 31, 2015

What our weekend looked like. On this past sweltering Saturday, Kelly and I holed up in our bedroom, the only room of the house graced with any kind of air-conditioning. Around 4 pm the power sputtered and went out. Sprawled across the bed with the cats, we opened the window hoping to cool the room down. Instead, the unrelenting bright sunshine, palm trees, the police helicopter hovering over an adjacent street and our lack of electricity lent a...

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An Open Letter to Our Mammalian Friends

Mr. Homegrown

August 10, 2015

Animals, Gardening, Pests

13 Comments

...ytime activity such as the bold raid on our chicken run that took place on Saturday? I’m not going to apologize for spraying you with a hose. Thankfully you had the good sense to run away. If you had grabbed a chicken I’d be organizing small game hunting trips for dentists. It’s bad enough, because of you and your robust fingers, that I had to build a coop that I’ve dubbed “chicken Guantanamo.” I thought I could have a less robust daytime chicken...

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Picture Sundays: Adobe Brick Making Workshop

Mr. Homegrown

May 10, 2015

Picture Sundays

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...A few pics from yesterday’s adobe brick making workshop taught by Ben Loescher of Adobe is Not Software. If you’d like to join in on the fun we’ll be making more bricks next Saturday. Head over to the Environmental Changemaker’s website to sign up for either the brick making or the cob oven workshop in June....

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Summer Solstice Celebration at Holy Nativity

Mr. Homegrown

June 18, 2015

Events

...the Community Garden at Holy Nativity, and the Holy Nativity campus? This Saturday, June 20, there will be a Summer Solstice Open House across the entire campus. I will be speaking about saving water and greywater (three 15-minute talks, at 10, 11, 12) The open house will feature garden tours, oven explanation (the oven mud is now drying), highlights from other campus organizations like Teri Roseman’s LiveYoga Wellness, Patricia Rose’s Fresh-food...

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Erik to Speak at South Pasadena Beautiful on June 3rd

Mr. Homegrown

May 26, 2017

Events

2 Comments

I’ll be delivering a talk/rant at the on Saturday June 3rd in the South Pasadena Library Community room at 4:00 pm (refreshments at 3:30). In addition to the usual subjects of chickens, bees, vegetables and the home arts I’ll touch on some hot button issues I find equally important: Tree care in a drought Creating walkable/bikeable communities Gardening with native plants Throwing neighborhood parties Why hay hooks are the new hipster fashion acc...

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