My husband is an electrical engineer with a hobby interest in working with cement and stone. He has made me several things with cement, including a beautiful workbench for my greenhouse and the still in-progress cement border for my swimming pool. His most recent cement work has been making the cement floor for my new […]
Gardening Properly with Property Lines
Borders and property lines. Everyone has them if you have any kind of garden space. These demarcations present unique problems, with both a physical and social implications. You can save yourself trouble and heartache by being aware of a few things. (click on any photo to enlarge) 1. Property lines mean a mingling of plants. […]
Are Your Backyard Chicken Eggs Organic?
The meaning of the word organic is a bit slippery in popular culture. It is a spin-off of the more exact definitions from biology and chemistry, but sometimes vague and even contradictory. In the scientific realm, something is called organic if it has carbon atoms in it or if it has to do with life processes. From this point of […]
Learning How to Use a Sauerkraut Crock plus Other Winter Harvest and Storage Suggestions
I had managed to harvest 8 cabbages and a few pumpkins from my garden before a hard freeze hit. By “harvest,” I mean I piled them in the garage and hoped the freeze wouldn’t be low enough or long enough to damage more than a few layers of green. When the cold temperatures continued, I […]
33 Quick Tips for New Chicken Owners
You know how your kitchen looks like all those photos of kitchens in magazines? Keep that in mind when looking at photos of people’s chickens and chicken coops. A lot is idealized in “chicken media.” Don’t get me wrong, I like my chickens more than I thought I would, but in order to really enjoy […]