Coffee Grounds in the Garden

...ng coffee grounds in the garden: Coffee grounds should be composted before used as a soil amendment but can be used fresh as a mulch. Fresh grounds are phytotoxic, so keep them away from direct contact with roots. Coffee grounds will not necessarily make your soil more acidic. Don’t use coffee grounds where you are starting seeds. Despite rumors, coffee grounds do not repel pests. Let coffee grounds cool before adding to compost bin so you don’t k...

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Root Simple’s New CritterCam

...a for the application I intend. Thanks Max!] My plan is to use it for some urban, backyard citizen science. Specifically I want to figure out a few things: What mammals are visiting the backyard? What paths do they take through the yard? What kinds of birds are visiting the bird bath? Have my skunk proofing efforts worked? What’s the most active time in the night for mammalian activity? How many cats are visiting and what time do they come through...

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Grab and Go

...eight backpacking tent. This ain’t about paranoia – while our grab and go bags contain modern tools, we appreciate the ancient, and almost lost art of travel by foot. Remember kids, back in the days before SUVs people used to walk long distances without the benefit of convenience stores and fast food joints. Stay tuned for a detailed explanation of each of the Ten Essential Systems and some adaptations for urban situations....

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DIY Outdoor Shower

...vered collector box containing a manifold of copper pipes that feed into a used water heater. Hot water contained in the copper pipes in the collector box rises up into the water heater that is kept above the level of the collector. Hot water rises just like hot air and the cold water from the tank sinks back into the collector thus forming a circulation loop–this phenomenon is known as thermosiphoning. Some plumbing skills, are necessary, but it’...

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Chicken Guantanamo

...scratch down every plant they find edible behaving, as the Petaluma Urban Homesteaders put it, “like a pack of delinquent teenagers”. Our chicken housing consists of three zones. Zone one is the hen house–that aluminum structure on the right in the photo above. It contains a roost for the chickens to sleep on at night and a nesting box for the hens to lay their eggs in. Zone two is a secure run covered in 1/2 inch hardware cloth–the area left of...

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