Kate Petersen on January 30th, 2009

Go to Google Maps. Look up 8 Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh, PA, united states Click street view… then turn to your left, and be ready to see awesomeness! Street With A View introduces fiction, both subtle and spectacular, into the doppelganger world of Google Street View. On May 3rd 2008, artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley [...]

Continue reading about Street with a View: Performance Art on Google

Kate Petersen on January 16th, 2009

(Click on image for larger version.) The Alabama Theatre is one of two surviving grand movie palaces in downtown Birmingham. (The other is the 1914 Lyric Theatre, built as a vaudeville house and located across the street from the Alabama.) Built in 1927 by Paramount Pictures in a fantasy Spanish/Moorish/Arabesque/Baroque/Art Deco eclectic style, the Alabama [...]

Continue reading about Alabama Theatre

Kate Petersen on August 31st, 2008

Like almost everyone else in the southeastern US, I am staying glued to weather updates today. I won’t say much about Hurricane Gustav, because, really, what is there to say except… well, there isn’t anything to say. Just light a candle for New Orleans and hope the people I know there are safely on their [...]

Continue reading about How much solar energy can you generate at your location?

Kate Petersen on August 29th, 2008

In honor of your lunch yesterday, I hereby bestow upon you this award:

Continue reading about Hey, Biscuit…

biscuit on August 10th, 2008

I‘m going to be painting one of the bedrooms (a lovely pale sage green) in preparation for the arrival of my free rattan bed. I’ll be popping in and out, of course, because I’m so nosy, but the painting (and a turkey stew) are my main focii today. And preparing for my first day of [...]

Continue reading about Discuss amongst yourselves

biscuit on July 26th, 2008

… on a 100+ degree afternoon, with watermelon: On rare and endangered foods, and vanishing food traditions: Anyway, back to the cynicism of which I have in abundance. I am not one to believe capitalism is a cure to all that ails us: that we can, say, buy our way out of global warming by [...]

Continue reading about A Worthy Read …

biscuit on July 16th, 2008

… wannabe farmer who has reached the decision (one that might change yet again as I continue gathering information) that smallish cities and urban areas are more likely than rural areas to survive the coming ___________ , I urge you to read this: If managing in a catastrophe were just about growing your own food, [...]

Continue reading about As a former …

biscuit on July 13th, 2008

Note: Stocking Up 101 will return next weekend. And, boy oh boy, is there ever a wealth of information on passive solar heaters. In my less busy days, I bought the plans for this: Mother’s Heat Grabber. Unfortunately, though, I never got around to making it, in part because my neighbors had made me so [...]

Continue reading about Sunday Solar Fiesta: Passive Solar Heater Links Galore

biscuit on July 13th, 2008

Note: Stocking Up 101 will return next weekend. Blame the mowing! I love my solar oven. I’ve had it since 2003 and have cooked countless meals in it. True, it’s a bit glitchy — I planned to use it today to to roast a nice buffalo chuck roast, but storms moved in last night and [...]

Continue reading about Sunday Solar Fiesta: Solar Ovens

Kate Petersen on July 9th, 2008

The Urban Homestead: your guide to self-sufficient living in the heart of the cityby Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen$11.53 from Amazon I can’t recall where I first saw mention of this book, but the subtitle convinced me to check it out. Then I saw that they included a chapter on stealth backyard chickens, so how [...]

Continue reading about Book Review: The Urban Homestead