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Chicken Coop Made from Repurposed Materials

We needed a chicken coop for our new batch of chickens. Parts and materials can be surprisingly expensive for a project of this size. Instead we went to our neighborhood non-profit salvage company called The ReBuilding Center (rebuildingcenter.org) and found this discarded TV cabinet for just a few dollars. We flipped it upside down, put […]

Our GreenHouse is Really Coming Along

Many have been asking about our most recent building project. I promised Aimee, as a birthday present, that I would design and build her a greenhouse this year.  Well, the structure is almost done and soon we will be moving to outfit the growing systems inside. Here are a couple of photos to show you […]

Weed-Eater of the Soul

I was working in my yard this weekend. I gave up my gas mower some time ago. Did you know that a gas lawn mower puts out like four times as much pollution as a car? Yikes! My weed-eater though… I have not been able to give it up. I can’t explain it. Maybe it […]

Hope and Food

Have we lost the way of hope? When I say “we”, I mean we “modern, affluent, developed, able, self-actualized” folk. When I say “way”, I mean a real, rooted, dirt under the fingernails, not merely ethereal or the sort of stuff simply for a Sunday-School discussion.

When a rain barrel is more than a rain barrel

Two years ago, during one of our first forays into urban homesteading, my Father’s Day present from Aimee was permission to install our first rain-barrel. It was a romantic thought to me. “Let’s not waste the water-from-heaven gift (even though we receive it some 300 plus days a year), let’s harvest it.”

Neighbors, “Armageddon” and Trap-doors

Truth be told (and this is embarrassing), I am much better at talking about “neighborhood” then I am at simply being a neighbor. I have a hard time getting to know the middle-aged single recluse next door. I have to ask Aimee to remind me the name of Donna’s husband across the street. I struggle […]