Materials: Empty Carton, Funnel, Scissors, dry beans No shed updates this week. Jean's parents will be visiting us soon. They'll be here for a few weeks so I wanted to leave enough for them to do to keep them out of trouble while Jean and I are at work. Instead of a shed update, here's the first article of I what I hope will be a fairly regular series I'm calling apartment homesteading. Subjects may include horticulture, food preservation, alcohol fermentation, animal husbandry, materials re-purposing, function stacking and whatever else we can come up with. All these activities will be extremely small scale, typically low overhead and low maintenance. A sprout is a germinated seed that has grown for 3-10 days. You might also call it a seedling.  Sprouts are tasty and healthy additions to salads, sandwiches and all kinds of cooked dishes. Some common sprouts are mung bean and alfalfa. If you do a google search for " health benefits of sprouts ," there...

So, I finally tricked someone who doesn't have the same last name as me into coming out and working on the shed. Cassandra is a good friend of ours who shares an interest in natural building. She's such a good a friend and so interested in natural building that she spent all day Saturday with us doing hard labor. The Mixer The help was very welcome especially with the wall being around six feet tall now. As the wall gets higher, the logistics of mud delivery becomes more of an issue. When the wall is low you can be pretty efficient with one or two people performing a couple of roles. The Mixer The mixer mixes the earth, straw and water into a stiff but workable mixture (Cob). It's a little tricky. Too wet and the blocks slump when you take the forms off. Too dry and the blocks are crumbly. Ideally, you want your finished product to have a sheen to it like worn leather and a deep earthy bouquet. After several tons of practice I've developed a very scientific fo...

So we had an ultra romantic Valentines Day this year consisting of getting up at 5:30am, running around Austin most of the morning, going to Chuy's for brunch and then collapsing by early afternoon*. Jean completed her third half marathon (13.1 miles) and her second with our friend Leslie. 6:48 AM @ Mile -0.1 - Due to volume of runners Jean and Leslie start about block from the starting line. 7:14 AM @ Mile 0.2 - Congress Street Bridge 7:34 AM @ Mile 5.9 - In front of Meredith's apartment: In the time it took me to cut over three blocks and go to Whataburger this guy had already run almost six miles. Wowzer! 8:12 AM @ Mile 5.9 - Jean and Leslie have much improved in their mugging for the camera ability since the last half marathon. 8:42 AM @ Mile 8 - Under the Mopac Bridge Meredith joined me for the Jean and Leslie cheer squad. Her trusty steed is a little fold up scooter called an Urbi that she got on loan using her Jedi mind tricks. 9:44 AM @...

Checked off the 10th course yesterday and made a good start on the llth today. That brings the wall height to around five feet. The reach is beginning to get difficult. We're making do with step ladders for now but the time for scaffolding will be here soon. Adobe T-Brick Building: A Composition Beginning of the bottle window Starting on the 11th course Good thing I'm working with some tall ladies Second row of the bottle wall  

I guess we've put on enough daylight hours since the winter solstice that my parents' chickens have starting laying again. They're not messing around either. There are five hens and one day my Mom found seven eggs. I was making an omelet last week from some eggs they gave us and the first one I broke open had this really pale yellow yolk. I'd heard that in the winter time, with the absence of fresh greens, that this kind of yolk is common. Some chefs even have special winter recipes for these kind of eggs. Cracking the next three eggs revealed the bright orange, beta carotene rich yolks I had become accustomed to from our free range hens. Someone was definitely not eating her spinach.   Talked to my Mom and turns out that the mystery fourth egg probably came from grocery store. The parents had to take desperate measures when the hens went on an egg laying hiatus in December.