A Cure for Plantar Faciitis?

...ning and one by fencing. I’d cured my PF last time by going barefoot. That time, it worked quickly. When it didn’t work quickly this time around, I gave up and decided to seek the advice of medical professionals, including a sports medicine specialist. I didn’t trust my own experience. This was a mistake. The standard medical advice for PF is rest, immobilizing the foot, constant arch support (I was never barefoot unless in the shower or pool), or...

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How to Remove Bees from a Wall

...ime to calm down. I use burlap in my smoker because it smolders for a long time. Demolition When I do these jobs I tell the homeowner that I’m going to open up their wall, make a mess and I’m not going to repair the damage. If you hire a bee removal service they should put the wall back. I don’t promise repairs. I also don’t do work from ladders. Once the bees had been smoked, John set about peeling off the paneling from the porch wall. You have t...

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Cold brewed tisanes, teas and coffee: Your summertime best friends

...is book, The New Wildcrafted Cuisine. He uses whatever is in season at the time, an eclectic mix that may include wild mints, elderflowers, conifers like white fir and pine, herbs like black sage and berries of all sorts. Sometimes he adds less-wild ingredients, like lemons or honey. He leaves all these things swirling around in the jug at table, so that the sight of the infusion is almost as arresting as the taste. Pascal’s beautiful infusions sh...

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Front Yard Update: Welcome to Crazy Town

...lching soon as the wildflowers and other spring annuals finish up. At that time I might have to make some decisions about the sunflowers. It will be interesting to see what the slope looks like without the sunflowers hogging all the attention. There are also summer and fall bloomers hidden in there, who will hopefully come to the foreground later this year. Overall, I’m happy enough to wait and see how this system stabilizes over time. It’s not pe...

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Going to Seed

...plant of any type goes to seed. They taste like radishes, pretty much, sometimes they’re sweeter, sometimes they’re spicier. Radish pods are both a bonus crop and a fine consolation prize, because even if your radish roots end up puny or woody or otherwise disappointing, you can always eat the pods. They’re best fresh, picked a handful at a time as a snack or to put in a salad, but you can lactoferment or pickle them, too, using pretty much any pi...

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