Loquat Season

...of these trees live in public spaces, the parkway and people’s front yards making them prime candidates for urban foraging i.e. free food. The tree itself has a vaguely tropical appearance with waxy leaves that look like the sort of plastic foliage that used to grace dentist office lobbies back in the 1960s. In short it’s a real tree that looks fake with fruit that nobody seems to care about. The loquat tree invites considerable derision from east...

Read…

Saturday Tweets: Root Simple’s Miscellanies

...cutting some grooves. My friends at @rootsimple might enjoy. #jig #router #making pic.twitter.com/bHqtYRjx2l — federico tobon (@wolfCatWorkshop) August 23, 2017 An Experimental Trickle Down Solar Water Heating System: https://t.co/MipsQ2Buj7 — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 26, 2017 Saying goodbye to a garden: https://t.co/UhQ74Mgeqt — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 26, 2017 America's Sorriest Bus Stop: Pittsburgh vs. Medford https://t.co/...

Read…

The Tiny House

...the fact that these structures were meant to be hauled down a highway and used for camping. Trailers often have a transient and less than homey vibe. Between the extremes of conventional housing and trailers there is an interesting, and revolutionary alternative. In 1997 Jay Shafer took it upon himself to try an experiment in radical simplicity and create the smallest possible living space he could. Measuring just 100 square feet, his tiny house...

Read…

Maggots!

...e and creating room for additional materials. This aeration, combined with making sure to keep the pile moist produced a hot pile that kept the pests away and produced a high quality compost in a relatively short period of time – a few months. You can find instructions on how to build this type of compost system with used pallets on this web site. Other composting systems include the lazy person’s single plastic bin, which you can make out of a ga...

Read…

The Sound of One Hand Snapping

.... The spring bangs one end into the other, thereby driving the nail. We’ve used it for years, and driven hundreds of nails with it, hanging molding, fixing windows, making furniture, and countless other tasks. It’s possible, in fact, to drive nails with this thing without using a hammer and it’s especially useful in tight spaces where there is not enough room to swing a hammer. If SurviveLA ever sells out, it will be to whore ourselves out to the...

Read…