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Row Cover as an Insect Barrier
It ain't pretty but it works.As one would expect, cabbage leaf worms love cabbage and nearly every other member of the brassica species. Which is why I've become a real fan of row cover material as...
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Steve Solomon's Soil and Health e-Library
I'm really enjoying the incredible variety of obscure old books being scanned and put up on the interwebs. Of interest to readers of this blog will be the archive of free e-books maintained by...
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Plants: When to Hold Them, When to Fold Them
One of the most difficult lessons to learn about gardens is that they are not permanent. As Heraclitus says, "all things are flowing."The best gardeners I know don't suffer the attachments to plants...
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Chicken Nipple Waterering Systems
A question came in this week from a reader who has tried our deep bedding suggestion but is having trouble keeping the chicken waterer clean as a result. Chickens are certainly expert at fouling...
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Pomegranate Factoids
Our pomegranate tree this morning.Since we've had a few pomegrante questions coming in in the past week (it's the tail end of harvest time) I thought I'd provide a link to more information on growing...
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Saturday Linkages: Fueling Up
Only in IndiaDIYSix ways to reuse plastic mesh bags: http://collectedquotidian.com/2012/10/21/six-ways-to-reuse-plastic-mesh-produce-bags/ …How I Work: I'm Mark Frauenfelder, Editor-In-Chief of MAKE...
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Picture Sundays: A Chicken Coop Made From a Trampoline
From the Homesteading/Survivalism Facebook page, a chicken coop made from a trampoline. Here's a little more on the project.This coop appears to be a DIY variation on the Joel Salatinmovable poultry...
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The Best Raw Flax Cracker Recipe
I have to admit to not being a huge fan of the raw food movement. Now I think we should all eat some raw food, but many nutrients are accessible only through cooking. That being said, I like a few...
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Chairs, are they killing us?
Even American cats sit in chairs.The knee injuries I've accumulated running, hiking and fencing have a lot to do with basic flexibility problems. Mrs. Root Simple likens my inflexibility to that of a...
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Happy Halloween!
Halloween greetings from all the denizens of the Root Simple compound, living and dead. (I believe this lovely old photo that I found haunting my hard drive is from the book Haunted Air a collection...
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Book Review: The Blood of the Earth: An Essay on Magic and Peak Oil
Phoebe says that despite her midnight coat and lambent eyes, she has nothing whatsoever to do with magic. Or peak oil. And for the record, she also scorns Halloween.What do magic and peak oil have to...
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Garden and Ego Destroyed by Skunks
At the risk of turning Root Simple into a skunk complaint blog, please witness the devastation to both my ego and my small patch of rapini. Luckily, I was able to get a picture of the perpetrator:Skunk...
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What Preparedness Lessons Did You Learn From Hurricane Sandy?
We're interested in hearing from our east coast readers about how they rode out Hurricane Sandy. How did the storm impact you? How did your preparations work out? Is there anything you would do...
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Saturday Linkages: The Calm After the Storm
Got a storm damaged tree? See Trees Are Good for advice.DIYBuild-It-Solar Blog: A Unique DIY Solar Pool Heating Collector Using PV......
View ArticleVideo Sunday: Victorian Hipsters
Two Thomas Edison films that prove the existence of fixed gear bike riding hipsters in the late Victorian era.
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Root Simple Redesign
We're getting ready to make some big improvements to our website. Roman Jaster, the designer of our book Making It (seen at the console in the picture above taking some last minute refinements from...
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Vote Yes on 37!
I don't normally discuss politics on this blog. I feel that the topics we discuss under the banner of homesteading--such as gardening, alternative energy, alternative transpiration, home ec, health and...
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All Politics Are Local
I thought it appropriate on election day to repeat one of my favorite equations for happiness--a stoic flowchart that comes via Mark Fraenfelder of BoingBoing. At the end of the day, about half of...
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Root Simple's Greatest Hits: A Rocket Stove Made With a Five Gallon Metal Bucket
While we're working on the new look of Root Simple we thought we'd review our most popular posts in terms of hits. And just a note that during our redesign we have to shut down commenting. In the...
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Root Simple's Greatest Hits: A Brick Rocket Stove
While we're working on the new look of Root Simple we thought we'd review our most popular posts in terms of hits. And just a note that during our redesign we have to shut down commenting. In the...
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