054 Digital Design Tools on the Homestead

July 22, 2015

Our topic this week is using digital design tools such as Sketchup to conceptualize and build simple projects around your house or apartment. Our guest is designer John Zapf, proprietor of Zapf Architectural Renderings and the genius behind our chicken run. During the podcast we discuss: Why you should draw up plans before you build something Architectural Graphics Standards Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) technology John’s Cat Bed 7 (pictu...

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How to Design and Fabricate Homestead Projects

Mr. Homegrown

January 14, 2016

Design

6 Comments

I’m a horrible designer. My music degree (I have a master’s degree in un-listenable noise from UC San Diego), did not prepare me for the rigorous design and fabrication needs required for our two books and this blog. But, over the years, I’ve bugged our art, design and architecture friends for advice. Luckily, I’m also married to a talented artist (also with a UCSD degree–go Tritons!) who can provide 24 hour emergency art and art history advice....

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Fashion on the Homestead

Mr. Homegrown

July 18, 2014

Design

24 Comments

...to wear will be obvious. Does that mean a chicken coop casual Fridays? And for part two of this post I need to cajole Kelly into blogging about her outré homesteading uniform idea. In the meantime, how do you approach the way you dress?...

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Urban Chicken Enthusiasts Unite!

Homegrown Neighbor

August 22, 2009

Animals, Chickens

4 Comments

...hicken keepers. And we often meet people who would like to know more about urban poultry. So I’ve decided to create a group of L.A. urban chicken enthusiasts. I used meetup.com to create the L.A. Urban Chicken Enthusiasts group. I like Meetup because the point is to organize face to face meetings. Our group will get together every month or so, eat eggs dishes and talk about raising chickens, local food and sustainability. The L.A. Urban Chicken En...

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Dry Climate Vegetables

Mr. Homegrown

April 17, 2014

Gardening, rainwater harvesting, Vegetable Gardening, Water and Power

20 Comments

...om it’s also host to an incredible array of pollinators. Squash This rogue squash is a real surprise. It popped up in a new raised bed and is already almost five feet long. I’m not going to let this one grow because I don’t have the space to take a chance with a, most likely, bitter squash. Mustard I threw a bunch of expired mustard seeds from a friend’s pantry around the yard in the fall. This was a bit foolish. Mustard has popped up everywhere....

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