The Known Unknown

...re out and about. The answer was, universally, no. As for life here at the urban homestead, we get avocados and eggs from our yard but we get most of our food from our local Vons via their pickup service. You do your order with an app and head to their parking lot when the order is filled and they load the groceries into your car. It’s not perfect but it works. I made one trip to a local lumber yard to get some wood for some bookshelves I’m making...

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Random Covid Thoughts

...world, the DSA-LA has a Zoom meeting this Saturday I’m noticing that this “urban homestead” lifestyle thing sure is handy right now. Wish I had some citrus growing but I’m grateful for the eggs and avocados. Lastly, I used a sprayer to paint Kelly’s shed interior yesterday. I didn’t pull up the hood on my painting jumpsuit all the way. When I came into the house and looked in the mirror I had gone prematurely gray. Counting my blessings that this...

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Saturday Tweets: Mountain Lions, Chunky Gravel and Living in a Dumpster

...a @NatGeo — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 5, 2015 Back to the land on an Urban Homestead http://t.co/ES3mJJEmjP http://t.co/QyQILBx3oK — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 5, 2015 Toronto tunnel dug by 2 men as 'man cave', police say http://t.co/2PugkySbw7 — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 5, 2015 What living in a dumpster for a year taught this professor about the things we don't need http://t.co/sBGKL35TD2 — Root Simple (@rootsimple)...

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How To Capture a Bee Swarm With Kirk Anderson

...To capture a swarm you: Spray the swarm with a mixture of white sugar and water–this keeps them busy cleaning themselves while you . . . Knock them in a nuc box (a cardboard box that holds five frames–get one at your local beekeeping supply shop). Take the nuc box home and let them settle in for a few weeks. Then you can transfer the frames to a permanent hive box. That’s just about it. Bees tend not to be aggressive when they swarm (they have no...

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Fruit Tree Maintenance Calendars

...est issues on fruit trees. The University of California has a very helpful page of fruit tree maintenance calendars for us backyard orchard enthusiasts. The calendars cover everything from when to water, fertilize, paint the trunks and many other tasks. You can also find them in one big handy set of charts in UC’s book The Home Orchard. The permaculturalist in me likes our low-maintenance pomegranate and prickly pear cactus. But I also like my app...

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