The Sundiner–A Groovy 1960s Era Solar Cooker

February 28, 2013

Appropriate Technology, Solar, Water and Power

...r section of the cabinet, where heat slowly builds up to a maximum of about 450 degrees—plenty to cook with. Directly below the apex of the mirrors is an oven enclosure. Plastic foam insulation and a pair of glass plates prevent excessive heat loss. The solar energy grill works in this simple way: point the mirrors toward the sun for a few minutes until the right temperature is reached (built-in heat indicator dial) and pop a tray of food into the...

Read…

Garden Design: Quantity vs. Quality

Mr. Homegrown

January 11, 2013

Design, Garden Design, Gardening

5 Comments

...ity rather than quality made the best pots. I’ve noticed, from the years I used to be in the art world, that he most talented creative folks I’ve met crank out lots of material. So how do we apply the quantity over quality principle to laying out a garden–especially since you often get only one chance a year to get it right? Above you see some of Kelly’s ideas for the parkway garden we planted in the fall. I think it is at this first point in the...

Read…

Boozing Bees

Mr. Homegrown

January 20, 2020

Animals, Bees

1 Comment

...tians organize a prize-fight. . . I have never heard of strong drink being used in feeding bees, except in one instance. I remember reading in L’Apiculteur years ago, of an old time beekeeper having fed his bees with bread dipt in honey which had been mixt with a proportion of wine, to cure them of diarrhea early in the spring . . . The beekeeper whose colonies are robbed by other bees, whiskey or no whiskey, can lay the blame on himself, and hims...

Read…

012 Damnation, Good Books and Listener Questions

Mr. Homegrown

August 13, 2014

Podcasts

6 Comments

...’s massive Three Gorges dam. I didn’t mention it during the podcast, but I used to work at the Center for Land Use Interpretation. The CLUI did a show on towns submerged by dam building projects called Immersed Remains. What we are Reading Kelly is reading The Nature Principle: Human Restoration and the End of Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. Erik is reading Psychomagic by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Listener Questions We answer Gloria’s questio...

Read…

Ikea Karlstad Couch Hack

Mr. Homegrown

March 23, 2015

Design

9 Comments

...pf noted, I would have been better off just getting a sheet of plywood and making the arms from scratch, which is what I ended up doing. To make the new plywood arms I put the project in Sketchup to figure out the dimensions. I’m a big believer in Sketchup. It has helped plan a lot of projects and prevented waste. It took just a few minutes to figure out the arm dimensions. I don’t have a table saw, so I used my circular saw and some guides to cut...

Read…