Saturday, February 22, 2014

DIY Toddler bed


Mr. built this for Jr.'s crib mattress. It is quite cozy, and significantly cheaper than an ikea toddler bed. 
I have plans to paint it, but it looks nice natural, too!


EDIT (Mr.): Full credit should be given to K. Christopherson for the plans (which I modified as necessary - Jr.'s not quite ready to be up on legs, he still slithers out of bed now and then).  Plans are here.

The best quick fix for '80s recessed fluorescent lighting



Thursday, February 6, 2014

Peace, Love, and Oikoculture

I like to prepare food.  I like to eat food.  However, I'm doggone bad at even attempting to produce food.

This should change with the new house.  Our intent is raised bed planters with appropriate vegetables, and the house offers a variety of shade-sun mixtures, so I think we can figure out good places for different plants.  We're not set up for graywater, which is sad to me, but that doesn't mean I can't still use dishwater on the compost, etc.  Stewardship of creation is important, and financially rewarding, too.

So I was excited to see these guys http://automicrofarm.com/ (whom I found from a MMM post comment thread - typically much better than most blog comment threads, which are often toxic sludge).

Their website seems to be drowning in hits right now, so I couldn't get to their blog, but the premise seems to be an automatically-manged hydroponically-fed permaculture station for your backyard.

Now, everybody out there who has read the Foundation trilogy knows that hydroponics aren't the answer when the galaxy's infrastructure is crumbling, but hey, it's morning in America, so let's see how we can swing this thing.  I'm eager to see if they can pull it off, and if they ever need a thermal guy...

(Also, I just made up Oikoculture as a term of art for household cultivation - seems to be a well-suited term to this sort of thing.  It exists on a Spanish-language website where I am not at all convinced they are talking about the same thing, and one English-language cultural-linguistic discussion.  Just to make sure I properly attribute.)