Hollywood always gets gardens wrong (I’m talking to you, Maze Runner)

September 25, 2014

...growing on the trellis? Cloth ivy fronds, my friends. Cloth ivy. The sort used to festoon wedding tables, or is sometimes found creeping dustily along the molding in B&Bs. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to offer a pack of hungry teenage boys a bowl of cooked ivy, much less fake ivy. Now, of course, the intended audience, teenage girls, are NOT looking at the ivy as the hot boy leads discuss their survival problems in the garden. They...

Read…

Who Killed the Non-Electric Toaster?

Mr. Homegrown

December 15, 2014

Bread, Domesticus, Food

34 Comments

...ind an alternative and remembered seeing non-electric toasters that people used to use back in the 1920s when our house was built. These types of toasters have not died out entirely. Most non-electric toaster designs look like the one above. Some Googling also led us to an innovative looking non-electric toaster called the DeltaToast. Counter-intuitively, all of these simple stove top toasters coast about twice as much as electric toaster, at leas...

Read…

Our Keyhole Vegetable Bed: What Worked and What Didn’t Work

Mr. Homegrown

April 17, 2013

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

10 Comments

...t back in October. Note the compost repository in the center of the bed. I used straw wattle (available where professional irrigation supplies are sold) to form the sides of the keyhole. A month later in November a few seedlings were popping up. I had to robustify the skunk barrier (made out of bird netting) after repeated skunk raids. What worked: The compost decomposed nicely and seemed to attract insect life. Stuff grew. What didn’t work: I did...

Read…

Picture Sundays: Doberman Chariots

Mr. Homegrown

March 31, 2013

Picture Sundays

6 Comments

...of transportation. Our late dog was a Doberman and I remembered a book we used to have about the breed that showed some unusual events that used to be held in South Africa in the 1970s: harness racing with Dobermans and kid jockeys! Remembering just how powerful and fast our Doberman was, I imagine these races were quite a thrill for the kids in those carts. Try this in the US and, no doubt, child protective services would shut down the fun in no...

Read…

Arduino Homesteading Projects

Mr. Homegrown

March 6, 2013

How-to

7 Comments

...ms for Arduinos–useful for non-programmers such as myself. In the class we used the $24 Leonardo model of the Arduino, which is commonly used for prototyping. Once you figure out what inputs and outputs you need for your project you can get a cheaper Arduino with fewer features for use in, let’s say, your automatic chicken coop door opener. I thought I’d compile a list of Arduino based project related to the “low-tech, home-tech” subjects covered...

Read…